Parent Teacher Conferences

Today we had our first parent-teacher conferences for both Avery and Griffin. I felt fairly confident that Avery behaves at school and is pretty on target for her age. On the other hand, I was not at all sure how Griffin behaves in a structured environment or if he is "age appropriate." (I've learned that being a boy and being a second child both impact this - and I only have Avery to compare to...) Both children did an individual assessment with their teachers with age-appropriate testing.

For Avery, they tested things like knowing colors, shapes, sizes; ability to stack blocks in a tower, match pictures of like-items, and how high they could count. Avery was able to count to 14 before confusing her numbers and could repeat making a pattern of up to 4 (like repeat a pattern of 4 beads over and over.) She is fairly proficient in doing puzzles. She could only recognize about 1/2 of the letters in the alphabet - which surprised me - but I think she actually knows more of them than that. She holds a pen/marker/crayon correctly and is working hard at staying in the lines. Her biggest "arts and craft" challenge has been using scissors correctly! We are currently working on that at home! Her teachers said she was very observant and could instantly recognize who was missing from school that day. They said she stays in dress up clothes most of the day at school - they have even purchased a few more pairs of fairy wings because Avery wears them so much! They are impressed by her vivid imagination and creativity and said that she plays very well with the other kids.

For Griffin, they tested gross motor (hopping, climbing stairs, running, etc) and fine motor (puzzles, crayons, beads, etc.). He has no problem with the gross motor (go figure!) and seems to be ahead of the game with fine motor. He is very meticulous with his drawing - he could draw a circle and a straight line when asked - and is very particular with crafts - not messy, uses the right amount of glue, and wants everything in a particular place. They said that even though Griffin cannot say the names of all the colors and shapes, he will hand you the "orange triangle" or "blue block" when asked so apparently he knows what they are. To my surprise, both of his teachers said that Griffin sits perfectly still for circle time and that he has a long attention span when involved in an activity! (I thought school was going to be really hard for him since he is so active and rarely slows down...) But apparently, he sits and does what he's supposed to without needing much encouragement to do so. They also said that he is very social and that he actually helps other kids (ie: points out where a puzzle piece goes) without taking over. He seems to have a thing for baby dolls now too - they said he will carry 1-2 around and sing to them, cuddle them, and be really nurturing!

I dropped Avery and Griffin off at Kim's this morning so that she could watch them while I met with their teachers and then I stayed and watched her 2 while she went to Katelyn's conference. We decided to order pizza afterwards and just make a morning out of it! The girls had fun playing together and I got some good time in with Griffin.