Report Card

I had my first official parent-teacher conference last week. I'll admit I was excited about the idea of sitting down with Andy's teacher to discuss, naturally, how perfect, smart and wonderful he is. The report was about what I expected, he does a lot of things at school that he doesn't do at home, like help with chores and that type of stuff. In general, he's probably a little above average in his letters and sounds, but much more clearly above average in his numbers and even has some basic math skills down.

He is a good kid at school and plays nicely with the other children in his class. We talked briefly about this one little boy that seems to scare Andy a bit (the dreaded Aiden, who will most likely be his best friend next month). She's aware that the other kid is a little overzealous, but says Andy is generally quite good about telling another kid to leave him alone if he's bothered (I wish I could say the same for myself). I got a copy of the report -- a six page, small-type tome with check marks beside all the various factors indicating his mastery.

Some areas for him to work on are writing and coloring, using objects to explore (i.e. tools, shovels, binoculars, that type of stuff) and using charts. I asked what kinds of charts nearly four-year-olds are expected to do (Powerpoint? Excel?), but basically that means kids about that age want to start recording milestones and other stuff in chart form. It's funny, since the meeting, I have been making a point to offer him more opportunities to draw and use tools for examining stuff. He is definitely making strides in his ability to color and even write his name. I have also noticed him asking me to make a chart for this or that so tonight we're going to make a "no-crybaby" chart to record the times that he doesn't cry and whine about certain things. If only the chart would truly make the crybaby behavior stop.

In the meantime, I'm home with Meg who has a sort throat, diarrhea and a fever. Bjorn took her to the doctor this morning and the good news is she doesn't have an ear infection. No word yet on if the sore throat is strep.

P.S. It's gotten cold here, so cold it even produced light flurries today. You know what that means? That's right! Cute babies in hats!