Parent Teacher Conferences

It's been a while! I have a lot to catch up on, but I just wanted to write briefly about the boys' parent teacher conferences. A little back story…. so Gabe has always seemed to be a little behind. Ever since the day he was born, it was "This is what he needs to catch up on…" from day one in the NICU. And then in preschool it was his speech, and then in kindergarten his reading, and so on and so on. It's always seemed like things have been a little bit harder for him and he's always had to work a little extra than everyone else to just keep with the pace. So, going into his parent-teacher conference, I was expecting kind of the usual "Gabe is such a sweet kid. *smile* But here's a few things you need to work on with him…." (And then the list of things he's behind on…) So I get into his teacher's classroom, and I have to say, Gabe LOVES his teacher. He has loved her since day one. He just kept saying "My teacher is SO NICE!" after the first day of school. And let me tell you - that kid wasn't lying. She is amazing. I actually cried during our parent teacher conference. (It was kind of an emotional moment I guess… lol… but she cried too!!! I swear! It was like an episode of Oprah.) But so this is what happens…
I go in there and she's like, "Do you have any questions for me to start off…?" and I am like, "Well, I know he's behind in reading so…. what can we do to help him… etc. etc…" and she kind of gave me this look like she wasn't sure what to say. Then she's like, "Well let me show you his scores…" and then she probably thought I was the bad reader because I looked at them and was like, "Wait… you're saying he ISN'T behind?" And she just looked at me like I was this crazy lady and went on to say, "Gabe is my class leader. He is a marvelous child. He is the child that I try to keep up with throughout the day because he is just ON IT all the time. I can't even keep up with him sometimes. He is excelling in every area. HE. IS. AMAZING." And I just sat there like, in shock. I said to her, "Well, this is like night and day to his first grade and even second grade parent teacher conference. He has always been trying to catch up. ever since he was born, he was behind and I feel like for years we've just been trying to get caught up." And she looks me in the eye and goes, "He's caught up." Like, as in, "Your child is amazing and I'm sitting here telling you he's one of my best students and you're not believing me?" haha No, but she was super sweet and not at all judgmental. I think she may have just thought I was a little crazy. But i even was like, "Yeah, yeah, you're saying he has amazing behavior and i get that, but are we talking about his actual academics here?" And then she showed me his scores in math, reading, etc. and they were actually all nearly perfect! She said his reading must have just taken off during the Summer because at the end of second grade when he was tested, he was reading 45 words per minute and at the beginning of this Fall he was reading at 96 wpm, which is the benchmark for Winter of this year! And not just that, but his comprehension was even above average! I was just so floored. It was like, the best experience with a parent teacher conference I have ever had. It lasted an hour. I am not lying. Luckily I was the last one of the evening so no one was waiting. But she probably felt like she needed to spend that long to convince me that my son was actually doing WELL in school! haha

Anyways! And little Caleb… He is also doing well (academically) haha, no his teacher is really nice too, but the one negative thing I heard all night was that Caleb can be a little bit…. um… loud. Which, I already knew, so that was no surprise. She said that sometimes he has a hard time not, "Jumping the gun," and he's always in a hurry to move onto something else, be the life of the party, get the focus onto him and off the boring school work type of thing! haha I can totally see that. But she didn't seem too offended by it. So I think we're good.

Well that is my little blog for now. I will try to do more later when it is not midnight! ;)