School Conferences...

Those days off of school I braced myself for- they were the result of school conferences. I seem to remember going to school, and then conferences in the evenings. I don't remember getting days off for conferences, but maybe I'm wrong. It just seemed that when I was a student the goal was to be in school as much as possible. Now it seems to be okay to have the kids not there for teachers meetings, grading, conferences, inservice, and holidays. I LOVE teachers, and have the utmost respect for them. It's not a digg on them. But common sense says that if you want kids to learn they need to be in a classroom with a teacher.

So that has alot to do with nothing really. Both CN and P have great teachers. Really good teachers are one of the biggest blessings in a parents life. CN has this unique problem - she likes to read at the determent of her other work. She rushes through her assignment so she can pull out a book and read. This also has changed since I was in school. We had free reading time, and otherwise you didn't pull out a book to read. If you finished math early, there was an extra worksheet to do. If you finished science early, homework was your fate. You didn't rush to get done, it only meant more work. So we have given the teacher permission to take reading away at school. It also seems odd to have to 'give permission' to the teacher to take action when there is a problem. It also seems odd to take away reading. However, she has to focus on using her school time wisely - because next year it will really matter. Jr. High is like that. We are needing to focus on math facts in a major way over the next month. So times test have made their way into our daily routine. We had times test in school too- and I remember hating them. That hasn't changed much.

P is doing well also, all things considered. Her eye issue has resulted in delayed reading. She is being treated for Convergence Insufficiency. Unfortunately she has developed a bad taste for reading. Which is soooo sad for us. R and I are huge readers, CN obviously is a reader. What will P do instead of reading around here. Besides, I have books I've saved since I was a girl for her to read. She is in a focused reading group, and we focusing on it at home. She also has been referred for a speech evaluation. Her great teacher noticed a issue with 's' and 'th' sounds. When she brought it up, you could tell she was bracing herself for an argument from us. I started to laugh. Of course she needs speech therapy. We've already done Occupational therapy, and vision therapy. We want her therapy to well rounded after all. So we were more than happy to have FREE therapy. That is a new experience for us - and were more than happy to accept.

So overall - good things to hear, always something to work on. And at least we have great teachers who are on our side and willing to work with us.