Parent-Teacher conferences

We've had parent-teacher conferences for both the kiddos in the past weeks. Both got great reports. Monday we met with Duchess's teachers. They said she is a great kid, behaves well in class, gets along well with the other children, takes turns, shares, etc. She did well on her "academic" testing- identifying letters, numbers, shapes, letter sounds, etc. She had some trouble with rhyming words because she wants to use words that have the same beginning sounds instead of ending sounds. We also discussed her speech. She has an extensive vocabulary and has no problems with receptive or expressive language, but she does have some trouble forming some of the letter sounds- in particular blends. "Chr" sounds more like "k" so Christmas = kissmas, "or" sounds like "er" so horse sounds like herse, "th" sounds like"f" so think sounds like fink. So I went ahead and called the school system to see about getting her evaluated by a speech therapist. I think she'll pick it up quickly, but that it would help to have someone who knows more about speech teach her how to form those sounds. She really enjoys school so we are happy about that. As far as I am concerned, the most important part of preschool is socialization and she seems to have that down.


Last night we met with Bubba's teacher. She also gave a great report. She said he is "very smart" and doing well. He got straight As on his report card again. She said she is going to start giving him more independent work, like a research-type project so that he can work at his own pace. He is in the "target group" for Targeted Instruction (TI) which means he is working on advanced work with other first graders who are at a similar level. His ability to keep calm when frustrated has improved and she really has not seen any difficulties lately. When he gets frustrated, she gave him the freedom to stop what he is doing, go get a drink of water, take a minute and then try again. I was so glad to hear that. We've been working on increasing his self-coping skills at home as well. We usually see the frustration peek either when he is not "perfect" in his view or when he is tired. There were two things to work on. One is making a greater distinction in capital and lower case letters- he makes them the same height often. The other is letting other kids have a chance to answer questions and recognizing that he won't always get to share his thoughts with the class. She loves that he is so enthusiastic though.

So overall, great reports we felt. We are happy that they are doing well academically, but more pleased that they are good kids who display good character.

In other news, Huck pulled himself to a stand! He is crawling all over, pushes himself from his tummy to a sitting position, pulls up onto his knees and once up to his feet. He LOVES to stand and grins from ear to ear when you help him do so.

I got a promotion at work. I am now a Senior Child Life Specialist. It is a newly created position that I had to apply for. They leadership team is not really sure what the job all will entail, but I will remain mostly clinical.

We are headed to MomMom's for Thanksgiving next week. I'm taking all 3 kiddos on my own because the Hubby needs to work and is going to the Dolphins- Cowboys game on Thanksgiving. All my brothers, sister-in-law and my nephews will be there as well so lots of family fun!