Parent/Teacher conference #1

I don’t really share this hear to brag or share too much information, it’s just I don’t have many places to record things that I want to remember. So here I go.

Trey & I met with Thomas’ teacher this morning to get his report card and find out how he is doing in kindergarten. Turns out, he’s doing okay. He knows more than he is supposed to know (which frankly, I don’t think is all that hard (considering what they think he should know by now)…sadly.) His handwriting is improving; as is the effort he is giving to making more detailed drawings and staying in the line when coloring. Those things all relate to his fine motor skills, which still are a bit of a work in progress – but he is doing so much better. He is making an obvious effort to improve in these areas and it’s so cute to see him trying so hard to do these things right. He gets so impressed with himself when he does (and I do too!).

As for his reading, he is doing exceptionally well. Of the 22 students in her class, she decided to test three of them using a 1st grade assessment test (the DRA test) to gauge their reading level. Thomas was one of those three. She started him out at Level 8 (which apparently is the level of a mid-year 1st grader) and he scored a 97%. She then tested him at Level 10 and he scored a 99% (he missed one word…I think that was the one where he said “white” instead of “with” or something like that). The only problem with testing is that it bored him. He asked his teacher when she asked him to read the second book if he could go have his center time if he read it. She decided not to test him further after he finished that one (she said she will revisit it at a later date). But even so, he did better on the second (harder) book than the first. The only issue with his reading is that is sometimes just reading the words and he’s not comprehending what he is reading. We are going to keep working with him on the reading, but also throw in the element of reading comprehension (at home).

His main area of needed improvement is his lack of focus. This is absolutely no surprise to us; and unfortunately it may have been worsened recently by a new medication he is taking to deal with his allergies and mild asthma (his teacher let us know that it seemed to get a little worse after he started the med…and then it got REALLY bad when he had to use his albuterol inhaler daily for almost a week. That medicine makes him SO hyper.). The teacher said that we’ll just continue to monitor it (and try to help him improve!).

Let me preface my next statement by saying I frequently get annoyed when I hear a parent say, “My child is not being challenged at school!” But I think a bit of Thomas’ problems with lack of focus are that the work is easy for him (at this point) and he’d rather play than “waste his time” (from his perspective) doing something he finds so trivial. I mean, for example, in the first nine weeks, they have been working to “learn” how to recognize all of the letters and numbers. I’m pretty sure Thomas had this all figured out by the time he was 18 months old – he learned them in the bathtub! The teacher said they are working on writing the numbers 11-20 right now. Thomas can write his numbers to 100 (at least) now. Anyway, I know he’s not the only child who is repeating a lot of these things right now, and I also know that it’s good for him in some ways to “learn” it again.

But I do hope that as he moves into things that he is learning for the first time, he will have an easier time focusing (because he will want to gain the new knowledge). Only time will tell.

Anyway, the teacher said she’d be more concerned if he lacked focus AND had a hard time doing the actual work. But she said, “he is very bright” (her words, not mine) and he CAN do the work…he would just rather do something else. It’s basically the same stuff his 4s teacher told us last year.

Mrs. C also said Thomas is a sweet and kind child who has many friends in his class. She said he plays with many different children (which is good) and doesn’t just always stick around the same ones. And apparently he really loves to spend time with the sand table center.

All in all, it was a good conference and a great report card. I think he got the top mark (it’s not an A) in everything except for the one about staying focused (that one got a “needs improvement”). I’m eager to see how he’ll do over the next nine weeks.