Parent-Teacher Conferences (or, A Chance to Brag)

It's the end of the third term (insert trite but true comment about how time flies), and today we had parent-teacher conferences.  (Except they call them "SEP" (Student-Educator-Parent) conferences, here.  I don't remember ever going to with my mom to parent-teacher conferences when I was in elementary school, so I didn't know if I was supposed to take Zee with me.  Once the whole "SEP" thing was explained, it became self-explanatory.)

Zee is loving school (especially recess, he claims), and his teacher is loving him.  (He is a charmer, especially with adults.  Not unlike his mother at this age.)  He excels in two of the three "R's":  reading (already at a late first grade level) and 'rithmatic.  (Does it ever disturb you that two of the three "R's" don't even start with "R"?)

Writing is his big downfall.  Anything fine motor, actually.  Apparently the school's occupational therapist was helping another kid in Zee's class, and noticed his pencil grip.  She thinks that his hand muscles aren't completely developed yet, and that's why his handwriting is so poor, his coloring indifferent at best, and his cutting is not great.  Zee's teacher found some cool "rocket pencils" that help and correct his grip, and so he uses those.  We're going to work on strengthening his hand muscles (and making his handwriting legible) at home, too.  (And don't think I won't latch onto the whole "it's a physical problem" thing to make myself feel better about his lack of progress in this area, because I WILL.)

Zee has been noticed by the other kindergarten teachers as good at befriending kids who are a little different--physically or mentally.  This makes me so happy--happy that he has friends, happy that he wants to help.  And he seems to be understanding that the teacher is in charge of the classroom, and that he doesn't need to boss his classmates around.  (Something I was a little worried about, because--well, again he is not unlike his mother at this age.  And I struggled with that.)

Apparently, Gee's teacher holds SEPs, too, but for the two since Gee has been in school, she hasn't been able to.  This wasn't a concern for last January's, because Gee had been a student for all of two weeks.  But I've been quite concerned about the lack of information about Gee's school experience.  I know he loves the bus, because he makes that perfectly clear every school day.  But on his actual school experience, I get no information.  Every month they send home a calendar telling us what the centers will be each week, but even if I use that little information, Gee is completely uncommunicative about his day.  After all, he's three.  I have no idea what is going on, and I'm just not okay with that.  Did I mention he's only three? ("Did you read about a bear today?"  "Ummmm...yeah!"  "Did you play with rice today at school?"  "Ummmm...yeah!"  "Did you trap a vicious alligator today?  "Ummm...yeah!")

I've been stewing over this for about three weeks, and decided to wait until the SEPs to bring it up. Except then Mrs. M sent home a letter that she wouldn't be holding SEPs, but if we needed to talk to her, we could email or set up a separate time.  She also sent home some forms about the last term--what days Gee saw the physical therapist, what skills they had worked on, etc.  These forms were only somewhat helpful, because I didn't have a clue what all the highlighting and checkmarks meant.  (Does he have mastery of that skill?  Still working on it?  Turns out that I guess exactly opposite to the actual meaning, which is good, I guess.  Otherwise it meant that my child is a whole lot more behind that I thought!)

So I emailed Mrs. M, asking for more information, and setting forth some of my concerns.  She wrote me right back, and deciphered the papers for me, apologizing because she usually does that during SEPs for new parents.  She told me that Gee is settling in wonderfully--he participates well, follows the routine, and expresses himself with words (rather than screaming).  She explained that she has too many students to write out a weekly report, but that she would be happy to write a little note in a notebook if we wanted to sent one with Gee everyday.  (Which was a suggestion I included in my email:  Thank you to Jenafer, Paula, and Bradley for suggesting it to me!)

Awesome!  And we finally heard from the physical therapist on Friday.  I was most thrilled to be told he is walking everywhere, and barely using his crutches.  In fact, he'll walk with his arms up high while carrying his crutches, not letting them touch the ground.  Soon, they would like us not to send the crutches to school at all, and see how that goes.  (YAY!  Gee and I both cordially hate the crutches--they slow him down to a snail's pace, and he is much much faster on his own.)

So...all is well on the school front.  I have to say I'm completely unconvinced that there are too many students to write up a little weekly progress report, even to just circle the appropriate response on a form.  (Simple stuff:  Participated all the time, most of the time, some of the time; played outside, inside, with alligators; general behavior:  good, bad, plotting to overthrow the school and/or nation.)  If I understand this properly, there are approximately 7-8 students in each class.  There are four classes, and each class is held for 2.5 hours two days a week.  And she has two classroom technicians in the class at all times.  So, yeah, not so convinced on that front.  But it doesn't matter, because we've worked it out to my satisfaction.  (And I'm the only who matters, right?)

(And yes, I did end every paragraph with a parentheses.  Just because.)