My husband and I had a conference with my son's teacher tonight. We got an invitation to conference yesterday and the conference was after school. It was only two weeks into the school year and conference days don't happen until a third of the year has passed. So something must be up. Was it my son's Adderall not working well enough? Was he not working or being disruptive in school? I didn't know what it was, but I approached the conference with a bit of trepidation at seven o'clock tonight.
The conference came at a bit of an unexpected time in another way as my son's class has been on a field trip today. Ty[ically, this annual field trip would be a multi-day, overnight event at a camp an hour away. Due to COVID-19, the class is doing the field trip in two day trips. We have to drive my son to the location and pick him up both days as opposed to the class going as a group. It must have been a long day for his teachers so having a conference tonight must have meant trouble.
We hurried through dinner and met downstairs at my computer to make the meeting. When we first got on, she told us about how well my son had adjusted to the class already. He was working hard and playing hard. He took redirection well and was always interested in lessons when he was invited to attend.
This is typical of conferences: starting out with the good because there's always good to report, and then getting to the part that's not so good. Only there wasn't any bad. It turned out it was a two-week, new school year conference she was doing with all the parents. She had nothing but good things to say about my son. Perhaps it was a honeymoon period, she commented, but she doesn't get the sense he's anything other than ready to be in school and happy to be a member of her class.
She told me something I didn't know: that for the last two years, any time she had been the teacher to escort my son to the car at pickup, he'd been telling her he wanted to be in her class. He's told me as much before but in different ways. I knew he was looking forward to being an Upper Elementary student. We talked about how he seemed to mature some over the end of the year last year during distanced learning—how he got better at working independently without the need for direction.
I told his teacher I thought she was a part of his transformation as well. He seems to really take to her style and enjoys working with her. Overall, it was possibly the best unexpected parent-teacher conference I've ever been on. I'm so happy my son is enjoying school and is being both a happy and productive member of the class.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Our nephew, Kyle, stopped in today on his way to Florida where he lives. He's been stuck at home in New Jersey since before he remotely graduated from college in the spring. He's finally going back to his own place after living with his parents for months. He brought with him a huge box of American Girl items for my daughter, sent by his sister, Coco. My daughter is so excited to have so many new things to play with. She now has more shoes for her American Girl doll than she does herself. I think I counted fourteen different types of shoes, including ice skates.
The Big Boy Update: My son loves his new class and teachers. When he got in the car today as I picked him up from his day at camp he said to me, "Miss Michelle and Miss Allison are the best teachers." He loves being in their class. He's waited to be in there for two years and now that he's there, he's most definitely not disappointed.
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