it's that time of the year...

We had our conferences this week--and I did get a few surprises--both really good, and one not so great. I will start with Marcus. His conference blew me out of the water! He is doing way beyond any expectation! His reading level (we use the Fontas & Pinell Chart) and he was a K at the end of school last year, but he is now a level "O"! That is a huge jump! He is doing well in everything, and starting to come out of his shell. He has also made some good "BFF's". In math, his teacher is going to start sending home enrichment pages for him to do instead of the regular homework, since the regular work is too easy for him.

Jonathan is also doing pretty well. The only not so good part is that he isn't showing comprehension at his reading level. He is actually 2 levels below Marc, which wouldn't be an issue, except he has always been way ahead of Marc in reading--he is still ahead of his grade level. I am wondering if his expressive speech issue is the reason. He does fine with straight story comprehension, but has difficulty "reading between the lines"--but I am wondering if it isn't so much that he isn't getting the comprehension, or if he just can't find the words he needs to answer those questions. In every other area, though, he is excelling. His teacher is also going to send home the math enrichment sheets for him to do (he did that last year as well).

All told, we are very proud of both boys, just a little concerned about Jon.

 

Sounds great for your boys. I'm sure you'll be able to figure things out with Jon.

We had one concern with Timothy. Timothy is still a really rushed at coloring and won't do it neatly. She thought he was having trouble with fine motor. I sat down with him at home and he colored a quite nice picture with me. Then he told me he rushes at school because he gets to play with Playdough at school if he gets done early at the centers. He has motivation to rush, not to color nicely.

The rest of the conference was that the kids are pretty much ahead on everything.

Marissa

 

Marissa, I found one technique that works really well for kids who rush through without trying, I would make them to the task over. Then they loose the incentive to rush through because they know they will have to take the time to re do the work. It usually only takes one time, and works like a charm

 

Yeah, I know. I took in to the teacher the nicely colored picture that he did for and showed her that, yes, he can do it neatly. I told her what he told me about him rushing to get to the playdough, but she really didn't seem to care. Her attitude was that he was working fine motors skills whether he colored or did playdough and that was her goal. They have a list of skills to know by the end of the year, and coloring neatly isn't on the list so I don't think it's a priority like letter sounds and counting.

I showed Timothy my stash of playdough and told him that any day he brings home beautiful, neat coloring he can have as much playdough time at home as he wants. That has made some improvement.

Marissa

 

All three of my girls are doing really well. The teachers had very good things to say about them.

Caitlyn's teacher was impressed with how she uses things that we have seen and places we have been in her class work.

Hayley's teacher is the one that surprised us. She is thinking about sending Hayley for gifted testing.

I don't think that Hayley is more intelligent than the other two. I think it is just the difference in the teachers.

 

Connor & Maddie's conferences aren't until the week of Thanksgiving. I'm very concerned with Connor's behavior and the teacher doesn't seem to be as much. He gets stop signs at least 2 days a week and this week he has had 3 total- one on Monday and two today. I did put on the sheet for his teacher that I would like to discuss his behavior, because Connor knows how to act the right way and can do it.

 

We still have about 2 weeks until conferences, but everytime I speak with Isabel's teacher she remarks about how bright she is, the things she notices her enjoying and what a great role model she is for the rest of the class. Bel has been out sick all this week (my kids have the flu) and she has sent notes home saying she is missed. Bel has missed going to school too, she just loves learning.

 

Nadia's was a couple weeks ago, and she's doing just great. The work is really easy for her, so the teacher just put her in an accelerated reading program, and she gets to read those books during rest time. The problem is, those books are still too easy -- but I imagine they'll figure it out and have her on harder stuff soon.

I think her comprehension is good -- she tells me minute details about every book she reads, but that's often because she reads and re-reads them a million times. When she starts taking the AR tests, we'll see better how she's really comprehending.

No other complaints. The way she thinks cracks us up -- on a couple of follow-the-directions dictation papers, the instructions were to draw something behind another object. Well, both times she turned the paper over and drew on the back. :ibiggrin:

Anyhow. No concerns about Nadia. Kevan, well, he's a different story -- not relevant to this forum, but I posted about in Educational Issues.

 

Sharon it sounds like Marcus and Jonathan are doing great! I am sure they will figure out what is going on with Jonathan. I think you may be right with concerns regarding expressive speech and not necessarily not knowing the answer, just not knowing how to say it.

Our conferences for both boys are next Tuesday will have to give an update after that.

 

My oldest is in K and I just had a conference with his teacher earlier this week.

She only had good things to say, except that he 'really likes to share, so he'll sometimes speak out of turn'. That is something we work on at home too. He is like the announcer. He has to tell everybody everything.

He is doing really well with his reading. He just started level 2, and he only has to be on level 3 by the end of the year. He's still working on recognition of some numbers, but otherwise he's doing great.

I was so happy. Every little thing, is the first for him, so its exciting.

 

We had good conferences. I have no idea where they are in relation to their grade level, but they seem to be processing fine. Phonics have really kicked in and they spent a good amount of time sounding out words. They aren't really reading yet, although they are getting close.

As for math, Aaron's teacher had a funny story. The first month of school was spent assessing all the kids' math level. Count to 100. Recognize more, less, greater than, less than. Count backwards from 10-1. Aaron counted to 100. Then when asked to count backwards, he started at 100. 100. 90. 99.98...80. 89.88....70. 79.78. The teacher let him do that pattern all the way to 1.

Jacob is in the thick of a threesome that act up occassionally. But the teachers have separated the 3 boys, and all seem to be doing better. Aaron is his typical shy self, but he really comes out of his shell when playing games against his teacher and classmates. He particularly loves the Memory game.

All in all, they are doing well.

 

Allie and Ash are having problems in reading. They are in 2nd grade. They should be reading AND undertstanding 40 words per minute, they are only doing 20. They also talk too much. On the other hand they are doing great in everything else, play well with others and have no social issues as far as being in the same class. They have many different interests and friends. They are improving in their reading which is what I am trying to focus on.

 

We have parent-teacher confs every two weeks. My boys are doing terribly in school. My oldest son did so badly we pulled him and he is now homeschooled. I sure hope we don't have to do that with these two as well! Our twins are slightly deaf trying to do school in a foreign language, one has ADHD (like the oldest, but it's not recognized here, there's no help in school and no medicine available), one is just a normal disorganized first grader. Here they have a lot of homework and responsibility from the first day of school. I get seriously demoralized by constantly hearing criticism of my kids, they're not the best students but they're decent kids. Once in a while it'd be nice to hear that they contribute something positive to their classes.

 

We had conferences last week on the girls birthdays. Both teachers said the girls are doing great. Katrinas said she does excellent in writing and is doing well in pretty much everything else but she is shy in class and doesn't like to raise her hand and answer questions. But other than that is doing very well. Kiras teacher said she's doing very well also. Her only concern for her is her speech. Kira hasn't had any top front teeth in over 6mths and doesn't look like she's going to be getting them anytime soon. Since she doesn't have the teeth there she keeps putting her tongue there and it's messing up her speech so the teacher asked if she could refer her to speech therapy now that she's 7 (I guess she couldn't suggest it until then). I am very proud of my girls for how well they are doing.

 

If your childrens teachers only ever have negative things to say about them, I would definitely have a more in depth discussion with them and get more details. I dont know where you live, but I know here, in VA, they have to use constructive criticism, or at least follow something negative, with a positive comment. In my situation, my son talks too much, and talks out of turn. So, rather than the teacher saying, "Your son talks out of turn a lot" or something very direct, she put it nicely by saying, "He really likes to share, and we are glad that he does, because he really brings up some good topics/ideas, but sometimes he shares without raising his hand. ."

I think you should talk to the teachers and see if they can give you positive feedback as well.
JMO.

 

We had our conference a few weeks ago & the boys are doing great. They are in an advanced class & Jason is doing great & Justin is holding his own. This is the second year for Jason & only the first for Justin at the advanced level. Justin still has a few kinks to work out.

 

Allison is right on track to where she should be. Doing well in math, reading and spelling. She is the extremly social one so we were concerned that she was too social in class but the teacher said she is great.

Zoe is doing really well. She is at a 2nd grade level in math and a 4th grade reading level. The teacher said we will be contacted later in the year about possibly moving her into the High Achievement classes. They want her to try some harder spelling words and give her an alternate list from the rest of the class but she would not try them this week. So we will give it a whirl next week and see if she wants to give it a shot.

They are both doing great.

 

Our conferences are next week, so I will have to come back to this thread.

 

Our conferences are also next week, so I'll come back and let you know how they went. However yesterday report cards came home. Cassies was good, she is pretty much at grade level, working towards proficiency in every thing she was assessed on. Holly, well I don't know what she is going to be doing the rest of the year, because she is exceeding standards for proficiency in just about every thing they assessed. I will have to talk to her teacher about this.

I did get a follow up from the guidance counselor who Holly see's once a week. We had a really bad day a month or so ago, and I set up these meetings to help Holly understand how and why she is feeling what she feels. She isn't very good at expressing herself, and often can't tell you what is wrong with her, she just cries, I think not even understanding why she is crying herself. The counselor, said Holly is doing well with her visits, and is less sad, and more able to express herself. She is going to keep up the weekly meetings through Dec, and reasses, maybe moving the meetings to every other week.

 

I'll let you know, but our conferences are in about 1/2 and hour. Her report card came home last week and it looked really good and I've heard no issues brought up. I do maintain pretty good contact with her teacher, so hopefully I shouldn't hear anything shocking.

 

Well I just got home from conferences and everything is great! :banana:

Maddie's was first and her teacher says she is a total joy to have in class. For her reading she is reading/ comprehending at the level of end of year 1st grade/ beginning of 2nd grade. We have to work on spacing words out (she tends to make one big word) and everything else is really good.

Connor's was second and I was a bit worried but his teacher said he is doing great. He is a normal 6 year old boy. His reading is good and he knows all of the sight words. Connor does need to work on counting by 2's and 5's and then with pennies, nickles and dimes. Overall she said his behavior is getting better because he is getting used to being in school. She also gave him an incentive to make better choices with his behavior and so far so good.

 

I had Morgan & Brooke's conferences today too. Both are doing great! This year, we are using a 1-4 scale for grading. They got all 3+'s and 4's on their report card. Both are excelling in pretty much all areas. it's funny though, that both teachers said that both children need to slow down when they read. That was the only complaint for both children though. It must be a twin thing. Both are on track to maybe test into the gifted program towards the end of the year (teacher said it is a really rigorous set of tests and such, and don't want them to have to go through it, if it isn't necessary). They want to see how they take off after the 1st of the year, when independence and such are kicked up a notch. The both focus very well, and do their work great. They both needed a little prompting at the beginning of the year, but have since been really good without needing reminders. That's really it though. Nothing I didn't expect really.