First Ever Parent Teacher Conference

WARNING! This post contains significant and uncharacteristic parental bragging. What can I say though? My kid is awesome!

About a month ago, Jason and I had the pleasure of attending Amelia's first Parent-Teacher conference and I can only hope that all of them from here on out go as well as this one. I was surprisingly nervous, but also very curious to hear how my little lady is doing in her first school setting.

Perhaps the most interesting observation her teacher made (over and over again) is that Amelia has advanced fine motor skills for her age. This is really not a surprise since the same observation was made by her Parents As Teachers educator since around 18 months. However, apparently at school, it is Amelia's cutting skills in particular that has impressed her teacher. At one point, she pulled out a sheet that had various lines drawn (straight, zigzag, curvy, etc.) that the kids were supposed to following while cutting with the scissors. I am pretty sure Amelia's cutting work sample was better than what I could have done. Freakishly good, the teacher compared her to a 5-6 year old. She also mentioned that Amelia likes to cut strings of yarn during choice time and make art with them by gluing them on paper.

This, of course, is especially humorous given her recent run in with the scissors.

The teacher also mentioned that Amelia has no problems transitioning from home to school (in fact, not a single tear has been shed) and gets along well with the other children. She shares, take turns, and seeks help from the teacher if she assistance resolving a problem. She listens to the stories, participates in discussions, sings the songs, and engages other kids in play at recess. According to the teacher, she chooses to play with the dollhouse during choice time, as well as cooking in the kitchen, dressing up, and playing with the sensory table (in addition to the yarn cutting, apparently).

Her teacher was pleased with Amelia's knowledge of her shapes, colors, letters, and numbers. She is able to sort by two different characteristics. She guesses that Amelia will be reading by next year given what she already knows and how quickly she is picking up letter sounds (and she even had a plan on how to help her accomplish this!). Also, by the time she enters kindergarten, she predicts Amelia will be skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. She complimented her language and said it is more comparable to the 5 year olds in the class than the 3 year olds (hard to believe considering I was at one time worried about her speech development). At one point during the conference, she mentioned that she could tell that Amelia is from "good genes" and asked if Jason was a doctor. She even complimented Amelia's advanced way of holding the pencil--apparently some kindergardeners haven't even perfected a grip that impressive. Interestingly, though, I have NEVER shown her how to hold the pencil a certain way.

She doesn't have any academic concerns about Amelia starting kindergarten so young (she will just BARELY be 5). Of course, we will be revisiting this before we make the decision whether to send her at age 5 or not.

On her written comments, the teacher referred to Amelia as a "very bright little girl with a vast knowledge of vocabulary words". She also called her a "fun child!".

Not surprisingly, Jason and I were pretty impressed with her teacher as well. She was so knowledgeable about every topic we discussed. Our 15 minute conference turned into a 45 minute discussion. I was impressed to learn that her teacher has her Master's degree plus 30. I don't know a whole lot about pre-school teachers, but I find it hard to believe that that is common. We were happy that she was eager to discuss her thoughts on Amelia's future and gave us some great input about her (possible) future elementary school if we were to stay in this area.

I can hardly wait to see what she has to say at Amelia's spring conference! This was definitely a proud parent moment (if you can't already tell!).