school conferences

We had parent-teacher conferences with both the children's teachers two weeks ago - an opportunity to learn how and what they're working on, get updates from their teachers about their behavior, check on their progress to state standards, ask questions, etc.

Liesl's conference last year was very easy - she had all the qualities necessary to become a successful student in kindergarten, and she indeed had a wonderful year. This year's conference was also mostly good - she's doing well and meeting standards and has many friends. But her teacher this year has a very intense focus on small details, and an enthusiasm for minutiae (in terms of reading comprehension and writing skills) that I can't quite understand, and so the conference was a little strange for us. I felt like she spent a lot of time telling us about these very small ways in which Liesl wasn't quite doing everything that the teacher was expecting in a given situation (most of which seemed perfectly normal to us), and we couldn't figure out if we were supposed to care (we didn't). Anyway, she's great, school is fine for her. She's reading all the time, including somewhat lengthy chapter books, and we assume the details will come. The funniest part of the conference was that she's apparently too chatty with her friend Ryder - they talk and talk all the time, and may need to be separated. That reminded me very strongly of my own childhood, especially in junior high school, when I was constantly being moved away from people because I was too talkative in class.

Sebastian's conference last year was sort of a disaster -- his teacher reported that he had a lot of trouble listening, focusing, carrying through on tasks, and staying seated; his writing was lagging in both penmanship and quality, and his math was abominable. (He apparently learned nothing in second grade math.) It was not a good day and we were worried. But then he had a really great year. He loved his teacher and made an effort for her; she was flexible and patient and creative in helping him develop his classroom skills; we focused more at home on completing homework ahead of time, and doing it well. By the end of year, things were much better in all ways.

This year's conference was, happily, just great. His teacher didn't have any of the same concerns with classroom behavior or focus, he's caught up with math and is now in the "challenge" math group, his writing sample displays an advanced vocabulary and an understanding of narrative structure. She said it was really outstanding, even in its first draft. Steve and I were so happy leaving the classroom -  relieved that Sebastian is maybe living up to his potential, that his hours of reading are finally showing in his reading comprehension and writing; and so happy that some of our focus and discipline at home is paying off. He's worked really hard and I'm glad that there are tangible results to be proud of.