First parent-teacher conferences

Thursday night Jeff and I went to our first parent-teacher conferences. I was (still am) getting over a yucky cold so I wasn't in peak form but Grandpa Stu and Grandma Joanie held down the fort at home, making dinner and taking care of the three little guys so we could go. The conferences were only scheduled for 15 minutes each, back-to-back, but we got there a little early for Beckett's and got about 25 minutes with his teachers, and then got to Theo's teacher at the end of her scheduled night, so we had about 40 minutes with her. We totally lucked out, getting the teachers in such a relaxed and easy setting.

Theo's teacher, Ms Donna, told us about all the things they are doing in his classroom to encourage learning through exploration and play, and about their observations of Theo in their environment. They see Theo as watchful, somewhat timid with his peers, and yet very clear about what he wants to do. Theo spends a lot of each day drawing and dictating or writing descriptions or narrations of his drawings. He has definite preferences about the writing implements, the size and type of paper he uses, and the amount of time he needs to complete his pictures to his satisfaction. Ms Donna conferred with us about how much of the songs and the group time he is absorbing. I have heard him singing many of the classroom songs, and retelling stories they read, and trying out the games and skills they're practicing together. I'm still puzzled that his teachers can't always figure out what he's doing when he pauses to think before he does something. They seem to think he may not be understanding what's going on, or is confused about what to do next. Our experience of Theo is that he is quite certain what he wants to do, but he's thinking through the steps and doesn't care what he looks like while he's figuring it out. But what's reassuring is that his teachers clearly love and appreciate him, and they unquestionably support what he wants to do while encouraging him to move out of his comfort zone to try new things. Theo tells us about the little girls in his class that he likes spending time with, and he has a couple buddies with whom he likes to draw and write. We were able to confer about some of his favorites, to compare notes about who he talks about at home and who he spends time with at school.

Beckett's teachers have a somewhat different classroom, with a 13-4 boy-girl ratio and a crew of rough-and-tumble boys. His teachers are more of a disciplinarian crew, at least partly because they kind of have to be. But it seems to me they love Beckett just as much as Theo's teachers love Theo. They report that Beckett is "a boy"--that he has his boy buddies that he wrestles and plays rough and runs around with outside. They say he is very attentive at story time and has "on point" questions about the story and what unknown words mean. At school, Beckett is a good friend, is very good-natured, and is helpful to his friends. He has one buddy at school, Ny'Asia, who can be very talkative, especially at meals, and they have gotten in trouble at meal times more than once when they have been getting each other laughing so hard that they fall off their chairs or knock over their food. We have been noticing at home that it seems like Beck speaks with an accent sometimes, especially when he says phrases that are not familiar to us, like the other day when we asked the boys to put on their shoes so we could leave, and Beckett did it, and Theo hadn't yet, and so Beckett said, "Theo, are you waiting for an invitation?" The accent was kind of hard to place, at least for me, but we thought maybe it was a Southern accent, which doesn't make sense because the boys don't know anyone with a Southern accent. Then we went to the parent-teacher conference and realized it's the way his African-American teacher speaks! I think Beck picks up on the differences in language and likes to try out different voices and ways of speaking. So if you wonder why Beckett is speaking with an apparent drawn-out accent, that is why. I learned some more about the way the "accent" developed here.