Parent Teacher Conferences

Last Wednesday, the Dad and I had the joy of sitting through two parent teacher conferences.  I personally believe I should never be surprises during these meetings.  One, I do homework with our kids every week, so from that alone, I see their progress, strengths and struggles.  And two, I check in with their teachers from time to time.  Also, I expect the teachers to let me know if there's a struggle, long before I see it on a report card.  

First up was Maggie.  It was hard to decide whether or not to start her so young in an "academically rigorous" program.  (They call it that because of the Spanish.) So- I worry about her.  Every time I ask Maggie about school, she shakes her head and says, "Oh Mom, it's so hard.  Just so hard."  However, when it comes time for homework, she flies through it. I was curious going into the meeting.  The only thing I'd heard from the teacher was that she was very chatty in class, but I suspect I'll hear that about Maggie for the rest of her life, because she is chatty.  Very chatty.  Turns out we had no worries, she's doing just fine despite being the youngest English speaking kid in her year.  As the teacher put it, her "artistic sensibilities" help her tremendously whether it's picking up a song, memorizing rhymes or creating an elaborate pattern.    

Then came La Nina aka Little Miss Intensity. The hard part of La Nina's school work now is she must meet the 1st grade standards in English and Spanish.  So, if the standard says kids must identify all their shapes, and your kid misses a shape in Spanish, they miss the standard, regardless whether or not they can identify the shape in English.  The amazing part to me is La Nina does fine in either language.  Apparently, she sometimes forgets her 70's when counting to 100 by 5's, but please...she's 6, counting to 100 by five in two languages.  If she forgets 70's occasionally in her non-native language, I'm proud she got all the other numbers in, 'cuz I couldn't tell you how to say 95 in Spanish to save my life. 

  

The Dad and I ended conference day feeling very fortunate to have two such good kids and we can only hope that all our conference days go so well.