Parent/Teacher conference

Yesterday was our parent teacher conference. I told myself not to be disappointed if the teacher didn't immediately tell me what a GENIUS my child was. I know my kid, and I had a pretty good idea of what we would be hearing and I was pretty much correct. I have said before, Logan is very strong in Math (or numbers). Letters have been a little bit of a struggle for him, although he has come sooooo far. Just a little background. Logan has been counting to 20 since he was 2, counting to 100 since he was 4 and has been working on writing his numbers since this summer. He recently used the sidewalk chalk to write his numbers 0-100 on our driveway. Basically, he has his numbers down, so I was not at all shocked to find out that this is a strength for him. When she showed me his "testing" score of 9 out of 11, I simply stated, "Let me guess, he got his 6 and 9 mixed up." YUP...again not a shocker.

Moving on to his letters...this was SHOCKING 13/26 he could identify....this is crazy to me, because he knows all his letters although he does get his "u" and "v" confused here and there. Next shocker sounding out his letters 4/26. The only reason this was shocking is that he is constantly sounding out letters. When we read, he will say the letters and each sound the letter makes. I won't say he knows what each letter sound is, because that would be lying. He has an extremely hard time with vowel...such as, he knows the short a such as alligator or apple but when it comes to ape (the long a) he gets confused. Yesterday, we had a discussion over the word "cake" and "queen". Why isn't "Cake" spelled "CaCe" or KaKe and why does Queen start with a Q when it very clearly make the "ca" sound. I am not equipped to handle the questions, because I don't know the answer..it's just how it is! UGhhh...ask your teacher! Anyway, while I know he struggles with it, I know for a fact that he knows more than 4 letter sounds AND I know for a fact that he knows all 26 letters. I don't want to be "that" parent, but I told his teacher I was a little shocked by these results. She smiles and says, well - that's good, because these were the results from the test he took in the first week of school. AHHHHH! They used these results to place the kids into levels. The kids that score in the green mean that they are on the "normal" spectrum. Logan was in the green for math. Then their is the yellow, which they call the "tier 1" and then the red zone called "tier 2". Logan was in the red for letters and reading skills. So he leaves with a 2 other students for specialized help for 30 minutes a day with the other kids in the "red zone." ***I'll state my issues with this in a minute*** I asked if he had recently been tested, and she whips out another paper...
Letter recognition: 26/26
letter sound recognition:18/26
number recognition: 11/11
These results were taken from last week.
She explains that Logan is an extrememly fast learner...I'm thinking, OR ***maybe he already knew some of this stuff and was a little overwhelmed with the whole...starting school, being surrounded by kids. I don't want to baby him, but seriously, for a kid that has stayed at home his whole life and then went to a MDO (Mother's Day Out) program for 2 days a week, then went back home for 3 months is probably going to be a little bit more overwhelmed by the institution of school than kids who have been in day care and preschool their whole lives. But hey, what do I know. Also, I feel like I should have been told immediately that my kid was in a "red zone" or was "at risk". I feel like that is pretty important information that a parent should know. While I do read to him every night, I feel like I could have done much more to help him.

Moving on to behavior. On a scale of 1-5 one being the best. She said she went back and forth on 1 and 2. She gave him a 2. She said he is very respectful, that he listens and follows directions very well, but she gave him a 2 just to show that he could always improve. She said he does need a few reminders as far as talking. For the most part he does great but every once in a while she will have to remind him not to talk. As far as following directions he does really great as long as she only gives him 2 or 3 steps to follow. For example, "Okay, it's time to clean up our stations. Put away your supplies. Put your work in your back pack and get out your math folder." He does great (that would be three steps...1- put up supplies. 2-put your work in your back pack. 3- get out your math folder.) But if she asks for 4 or 5 steps he has a little trouble. Example, "Okay, it's time to clean up our stations. Put away your supplies. Put your work in your back pack and get out your math folder. Turn to page 8 and get out a pencil." She said one of his greatest strengths is that he really WANTS to do well, on the opposite side of that his biggest weakness is asking for help. She said it's like he is scared to ask for help or to let her know that he doesn't know something. When he doesn't know the answer to something he gets really upset. She said he is one of the sweetest kids and that if another student gets in trouble he gets sad...awww my kid has empathy!

Social skills...She said the first 3 weeks of school, she could tell he was really overwhelmed. He kind of stayed to himself, he barely talked to anyone (hmmmm....could this have had any impact on his early testing???) But he has really come out of his shell. His two favorite playmates are Peter and Nolan, but he engages easily with all the kids. Great!

She said, again...he picks things up very quickly. Once he figures something out, he soars. I asked about the "tier 2" placement and where we go from there. She said that they don't want to move him out too quickly, so he will stay there until November then move him to "tier 1". Tier 1 he will stay in the classroom and get extra help in a group of four with her during the review time of their day. This is where the "tier 2" kids leave the class room and no new material is learned...that way no one gets any further behind. She said they will notify us when they move him to tier 1 and again when he moves to the "green" level. I asked, "according to this latest test, where would he score?" She said he was already in the green level. hmmm...Look, I worked as a teaching assistant for 3 years, I know that some kids need extra help and I think its great to test the kids to make sure that they are retaining the information and that they dont fall behind, but I'm having a hard time with the fact that my kid (who is testing in the "green" level, is being held at a "red" level status because of how he tested during his first week of school. I don't really see why he needs to stay in the red zone for another month. I totally get moving him up slowly...going to first the yellow and then the green. But why can't he move to the yellow now and if he is doing "green" level work a month from now, then you can move him up. I feel like if you leave him...or any kid...too long where he isn't being pushed, he is just going to get bored.

Finally, let me just say that at the end, she talked to us about working with him on his fine motor skills. He has had some trouble holding his pencil. I frown at this, because I haven't noticed this AT ALL at home. I know I hold my pens and pencils a little differently so I ask her to show me the technique she uses so I can work on it at home...sure enough she rests the pencil on her middle finger - I rest mine on my ring finger. I mention this to her and she says...oh that's no problem, but he holds his in a fist. Hmmm...I'm stumped again. Then the kicker, "Is Logan by any chance left handed?" UMMMMM, Yeah! "Yes. Yes he is." She says, "Oh. Mystery solved." I smile, all the while thinking...ummm, he's about to start the 7th week of school and you're just now figuring out he's left handed. No wonder he's holding his pencil wrong...you keep putting it in the wrong damn hand! Maybe YOU should be in the red zone! Geez! Last night, Logan and I worked on math and letters. We worked on writing and understanding sounds. Seriously, he can construct his own sentences. He knows how to recognize and spell these words...I, like, am, to, see, cat. I told him to write a sentence and he chose "I like to sleep." He knew the, "I like to..." so when he got to sleep, he started sounding it out, he figured out S - L - E - P....pretty good. I told him that it was awesome, but that sleep has two e's....this is how the whole short vowel, long vowel discussion started. He said, "oh, it's kind of like see...it has an s and two e's."
"That's right, just like see."
Anyway, that's about it for the conference. I am a little disheartened by it, but there isn't really anything I can do except keep working with him at home. I told JR he needs to get more involved as well. It's not enough to just come home and say Hey, how was school? He needs to read to Logan too, it can't be just me that does it. But I learned something important too. It isn't enough to just read to him...I have to let him try to read, practice makes perfect, so he needs to try to sound out the words and put it together. I am going to schedule another conference with her in another 6 weeks to see what his progress is like at that time! I guess, the only thing I can do is wait and see!