Spring Parent Teacher Conference

Today Pete and I met with both boys' teachers for their spring parent-teacher conferences. Again, as with the fall conference, both their teachers had nothing but positive things to say about them. Mrs. Castelle, Kristjan's teacher, even told us that we're a model family (wow!! we're obviously not perfect by any means, but it is nice to hear this, especially since I've been having a tough time these last few weeks with trying to be Super Mom and feeling like a failure at times). Both are at standard level, but we were told of a few areas where each need to try to improve on:

Clifford: He needs to slow down and pay attention when it comes to math. Mrs. Webster was slightly confused because he'll understand the concepts in class, but then miss a lot on his tests. We told her he likes to rush through things just to be done, which is what she figured. Clifford also needs to work on not tattling and minding his own business (this is a HUGE problem with all the kids in class, which is typical at this age). We've been stressing this at home with him, but now we'll increase the reminders. And lastly, lately Clifford hasn't been too good on reading. He can read; he's right where he needs to be. We just need to increase the number of days he reads at home (minimum for for class standard is 3-4 days a week).

Kristjan: The main focus at the meeting was his speech. We met with the speech therapist. Kristjan will be tested later next month to see if he qualifies for extra help (he has to meet a certain score before she can prove to the state that he needs the extra help). We discussed how to help Kristjan out with his speech and how to properly explain to him how to make certain letter sounds. We also spoke with Mrs. Beaman. She's the teacher's assistant as well as works one-on-one daily with Kristjan with extra help on learning words/letters/sounds etc. Whatever learning program is being used in the school, this is the first year they've implemented it, and she said Kristjan is the perfect example of how well this program works and she is pleased with his improvements. So basically we just need to help him with his speech and with learning sight words.