Parents-teacher conference again

That time of the year again. The quarterly PTC. I was grousing to the man about having to do a round trip of 1.5 hours to spend a total of 20 minutes with Kiddo's teachers, but in retrospect, I'm extremely pleased with the 2 discussions I had.

Kiddo is creeping up to 5 and a half. I'm not hugely concerned about the various subjects, but am interested in whether her behavior is consistent at home and school. After all, to my mind, any problems will cause behavioral mismatches between home and school. In any case, I was reassured by the teacher that she is just as chatty and frustrating to pin down at school as I feel at home. Heh.

The most amazing thing about the PTC though, was how the teachers were sooooo good at presenting further educational plans. I admit, I think my kid is a great one for language (I know, I know, proud mom!!). Her reading ability is at least 12, although when we were in the airport once, she ran out of books and read Bill Bryson's 'Down Under'. Having said that, I have no idea if she understood it. Anyway, the teachers agreed with me that she reads well, but instead of leaving it at that, they told me what additional tasks they were setting for her to improve her assimilation of what she reads. Horizontal learning, they call it.

So, for her homeroom teacher Ms.M, instead of reading her daily book and my signing off, she has to go to school and tell the teacher the story line and characters. Admittedly, 'This is snow, snow is white, snow is cold, I like snow' is not remotely challenging, but they made it slightly more detailed and she refused to do the verbal summary (GRRRR!! Come on Brat!! You witter on and on about whatever princess book you're reading at that point but refuse to tell the teacher about a 10 page book??). Well, the Kiddo does not like to do anything that she might not be 'perfect' at. So Ms.M decided to emphasize effort rather than perfection. Also, Kiddo's writing is appalling. Truly pathetic (I blame Daddy, his is no better. Just smaller...). So Ms.M is going to help her by assigning work on multiple lines instead of on a blank sheet of paper.

Her English teacher, the other Ms.M also agreed that she had no concerns about her reading. Also emphasized understanding. So from her, Kiddo is now being asked to write summaries of books she is assigned. Also, she is being asked to write little compositions that are longer than just 'I went to the beach'. Ms.M challenged her by asking her to include the who, what, when, why's (Light bulb moment! THAT's why she was chanting it non stop last week...). She will also ask for special permission for Kiddo to move away from the kindy section in the library to the grade school section.

Ultimately, I'm delighted with the school. The teachers appear to really know the kids and are tailoring the course work to fit them. Even in kindy. I really hope we stay for a significant part of Kiddo's education. I doubt we'd easily find such a good fit for her... Go ACS!!