WARNING!!! This post contains lots of talk about how wonderful my smart, kind, generous (you get, I'm going to do a great deal of "bragging" and will sound like every other mother who thinks her kids are, "the best") kids are - read at your own risk!
I've had three school conferences in the past week - two for Lauren and one for Ryan. I'll start with Lauren because her conferences were first. First up, speech school with Ms. Beth. Having never met Ms. Beth before and not thinking so highly of Lauren's previous teacher, I wasn't sure what to expect, but 5 minutes into the conference, I could tell this Ms. Beth lady was nothing like the previous teacher. Ms. Beth was young and excited to teach. She had all sorts of positive things to say about Lauren . . . how she was helpful, liked to participate in class, and was always ready to answer questions. But the best news of all . . . Lauren has now tested at 50% (vs the 5% she was at last year) on her intelligible sounds (this is fancy way of saying that she is now producing 50% of her sounds correct - not bad!). She is still behind compared to the average child her age, but is making great progress. Once she tests at or above 75%, she is no longer eligible for speech (I know this sounds bad to say, but I hope she stays below that threshold for one more year because I am finally starting to see significant progress and think one more year focused just on speech would be good for her - we'll see what happens). Two days after her speech school conference, I had her preschool conference, and let's just say some of the things I heard were quite surprising (and not in a bad way thankfully). Her teacher (Teacher Michelle) knew Lauren from back in the day when we would drop Ryan off for preschool, and because of this, she knew what Lauren could be like . . . feisty, loud, just to name a few. Well, it turns out Lauren is none of those things in class. In fact, she is almost the complete opposite. Teacher Michelle used words such as, "leader", "outgoing", "very social", "smart", and "helpful" to describe Lauren. Um, excuse me? My main concern with Lauren going into school was that she was going to be that shy little girl who stayed to herself and didn't know how to make friends (this was based on the fact that when we went places, she always seemed to be the more reserved one, always looking to Ryan to lead the way) - clearly that is not the case. In fact, Teacher Michelle went on to say that a typical start to the day would go something like this . . . Lauren walks in and her buddy Myles smiles because Lauren is finally at school. The two of them chat (they are apparently best buds), then Lauren decides what she wants to do. Once Lauren chooses what area she is going to play in, the rest of the class casually makes their way in her direction - she is apparently the "Queen Bee" (Teacher Michelle's words, not mine). She plays with everyone, knows the names of everyone in her class (apparently kids don't usually master this until December sometime), participates in all activities, and helps the teachers manipulate other kids into doing the "right things." Example: when the classroom is messy, the teachers will put all in the kids on the circle rug and say, "Gosh, the room is messy, is there anyone who could help clean it up?" And then, just like they knew she would, Lauren raises her hand to volunteer. Once her hand goes up, Myles is next, and before you know it, all the hands are in the air eagerly wanting to help. Who knew she was capable of such mind manipulation! Anyway, I have to admit I was one proud mama when I walked out of her classroom. To hear such wonderful things being said about our little "troublemaker" is such an eye opening experience. Maybe it's time we started cutting the kid some slack. After all, we can't expect perfection all the time - clearly she uses the "good stuff" at school and keeps the "other stuff" for us at home!
And now onto Ryan . . . just as I was with Lauren, I was also surprised by Ryan's conference, and not in a good way. Just kidding! Ryan's was pretty much what I expected. He follows directions, does well in his subjects, and overall seems to enjoy school. There was one sheet his teacher showed me where the kids had to give themselves a "rating" based on how they think they do with different things, ie: self-control, listening to teacher, uses time wisely, etc. And Ryan being the kid he is, was more than fair, and maybe even a little hard on himself according to the teacher. He gave himself "good" or "always" marks in all areas but three. In two of the areas; "works well with groups" and "completes assignments without having to be reminded", he gave himself an "ok." The teacher didn't agree, and couldn't think of a time that she ever saw any issues in either of the areas, but because the kids graded themselves, Ryan was "tough" on himself. And then, he got real "tough" on himself. The one other area where he didn't give himself a "good" rating was, "I am able to admit to things I do and say." Which, as the teacher pointed out, was kind of ironic because but giving himself a rating of "working on it", he was admitting to the fact that he isn't able to admit to things he says when in fact he was - typical Ryan. The kid is harder on himself than anyone else ever could be. This works good for now because he always wants to complete things "the right way", but I hope at some point he cuts himself some lack and relaxes a bit (the last sentence is maybe something I could learn from as well). Overall, it was another good conference season and assuming everything goes as planned, I won't have another one-on-one meeting with teachers until next year!
And on a completely different note, I had to write about what Lauren did today after lunch. I was in the back changing Ellie's poopy diaper and when I went out into the kitchen, I thought I heard the dishwasher running (which was odd because I didn't start it). And sure enough, when I took a look at it, it was in deed running. Not having an explanation for it, I looked curiously at Lauren and asked if she started it - her answer, "yes." Not really believing her, I opened the dishwasher, looked inside the closed "soap area", and saw that not only did she start the dishwasher, but she also put one gel packet in the right area and closed the lid before she started it. After shutting the door, I saw that she had set it to "light wash" versus "normal wash", but other than that, the kid had it all right! When I asked why she started it, she said, "it's full and I want to help you Mom" - what a sweetheart!
