Parent Teacher Conferences

Look at that...... A post that doesn't involve throw up. Of course we aren't really disease free. We have been steadily passing pink eye throughout the family. I'm on my third go around. Hazel is on number two. We actually cleared out the Target pharmacy's entire supply of antibiotic eyedrops. But at least there isn't any smelly clean up!

Yesterday the big two got out early for parent teacher conferences. It was pretty exciting. Now that the weather is warmer we have been biking to and from school. So yesterday we had everybody except Hazel, who was still at school until 3:15 per usual, on bikes and Simon in the trailer. Our conferences were yesterday from 1:30-2:30 so we just hung out on the playground until it was time to go in. Willa read the book she had just won in the Book Week Raffle. Jude and Jon played rugby on the grass and Simon ran around giggling hysterically that he was free, FREE to run around giggling hysterically.

The conferences were good too. Willa's was first. We dropped the big two off in the school library where they were offering 'childcare'. The ' ' because you had to be old enough to entertain yourself in the library to get signed in. So, yes, Simon was banned. That made the whole paying attention to the teacher during the conference thing interesting to say the least.

We traded off. I paid attention to the teacher in Willa's classrom and chased Simon in and out of Jude's. Jon did the reverse. You might be wondering why we were both there, and in fact we sometimes wonder that ourselves. But we tell ourselves that at least during the recap of the meeting by the parent who was theoretically paying attention, the Simon watching parent has the odd memory of the teacher's comment to boost the telling as compared to me just doing it all myself and then telling Jon later. Plus everyone else seems to be feel that both parents should be there, so we would be failing in the perfect parenting department if we succumbed to the fact that we have no support network and no one but ourselves to watch any of kids ever, even for a parent teacher conference. We can't do less than people who have in-laws and parents and friends living within 200 miles! So we only half pay attention instead. Good thing our kids are above average eh? And everyone thinks Simon is very cute.

Anyway, back to Willa. She is doing well academically, especially on her own and in small groups. However, it is apparently hard for her to focus when in big groups. She wants to interact with her classmates too much. She finally fell apart in class last Friday and told her teacher that she didn't feel like she belonged in the class. Miss R. was very surprised because Willa seemed to just slot right in. She was very glad to be told and is going to work on helping Willa with the social stuff a little more now. We knew as soon as she met Eva in France that the next move was going to be very hard. You just don't meet soulmates like that everywhere you go, but Willa pretty much expects it now and watching the kids in her class that have known each other for years relating to each other is very hard for her.

Miss R. also really works in 2nd grade with getting the kids to learn to take responsibility for their own learning and Willa is struggling a bit with the extra freedom esp compared to the real strictness of her classroom in France which she craves. Lots of stuff to work on, but at least we all know more about what goes on in both places, home and school. And Miss R. knows that we may not be staying after June. On that note, it turns out that if we stay in Princeton Regional Schools but end up out of the Littlebrook catchment area, we can petition to have the kids stay at Littlebrook for continuity. Miss R. thinks that with Willa's history of frequent school changes the district would be very likely to let her stay at Littlebrook. I hadn't realized what a weight trying to stay in Littlebrook was until the pressure was lifted. So if we stay, the kids won't change schools. Ahhhhhhh.

Now for Jude. Let's see. His reading teacher (he gets pulled out a couple of times a week for reading with the literacy specialist) is reading the Nate the Great series with him. He really likes it and his work with Mrs. L. is having a big effect on his ability to read and see the joy in reading rather than just doing it because Willa does. He is picking up books now and actually finishing them with understanding and is eager to try longer books and perservere with them now that he knows about characters and plots and such like. Mrs. L. wants to work to get his handwriting to better match his reading and writing (thought process part of writing) ability. That all sounds good to us. His kindergarten teacher, Mrs O'D. is mostly working with him on social stuff since everything else is pretty much in hand. She really understands him and handles his tantrums really well. He has only had one or two in the new year so far so that is very good.

Digression: Can you tell that I wasn't paying as much attention in Jude's conference? I could tell you in much better detail what Simon was doing. He really liked the kitchen corner, and the lunch wagon in the hall.

I forgot to tell Mrs O'D. that we might be moving. Ah well. I guess she'll find out from Miss R. I hope that isn't a terrible parental faux pas. Too late now...

The best part of Jude's conference was his books. Every few weeks Mrs. O'D. has the kids write little books. They draw pictures above the one or two lines they write and they are about 4-5 pages long. Jude's 1st and 5th were pretty normal (finally something kindergartenlike jokes Mrs O'D.), but 2-4 were, "The Story of the Wii #1," " The Story of the Wii #2" and "The Story of the Wii #3" They were hilarious. As Jon said, "In our house Dav Pilkey has a lot to answer for." Certainly we are all now sure, as if we didn't already know, where Jude's loyalties lie.

So all in all it was a nice ego boost to know that the kids are doing pretty well, both easily above grade level, and that where they need extra help, people are working with them. Now if only we knew we would be as well placed in Sept.

And finally so we don't leave anyone completely out: Hazel is riding her bike to and from school everyday as well. She very proudly parks it at school with the grown up bikes where it looks incredibly dinky. She has started talking more comprehensibly at school as well. Her teacher is very happy with her progress. And I promise I will figure out pictures soon!