Ephemerence Enigmatica A fleeting look at the puzzle that is my life

Talking about our children is often difficult. Do people think we are one of those “competimommies” if we say things our children do? I don’t want to be thought of that way, because, truly, every child is different, and every child has strengths (and weaknesses) that are all their own.

That being said, last night was Parent-Teacher interview night at my children’s school.  It was a wonderful experience, talking with their teachers.  Let’s start with Stewie.

Stewie is my younger boy.  Just a few months over 2, he’s one of the younger ones in his class.  (Of the 15 children, I think there are 2 or possibly 3 that are younger then he is).  He’s easily one of the tallest (of the 15 children, there might be 2 or possibly 3 that are taller then he is).  His teacher GUSHED about him!  Loves him.  Talked about how he tells stores, easily shares, loves to talk.  He is comfortable talking to adults, and tends to talk to them more then to the other children.  (The reason, of course, is quite simple – adults talk back!)

She mentioned that his favourite places in the classroom are the doll centre, the play dough table and the construction toys.  He does the art now (which he wasn’t doing at the beginning of the year), and, in her words, is a joy to have in the class.  She then said to us that whatever we are doing as parents to keep doing it, as we’re doing a wonderful job.

She did say some other things, and both my husband & I got the same thing out of them – he’s just too smart & too advanced for the class.  Of course, it’s a wonderful opportunity for him to socialize with his peers (which, to be sure, was the one thing she thought he needed work on – he seems to prefer the adults to the kids in the class).  We’ve thought for a while that he was different, and it was interesting to hear it from another adult who knows him well.

Then there was Linus.  He’s in junior kindergarten, and so he actually got a report card.  It was really great – almost everything was rated “well established” (3 on the 1-3 scale).  They talked about how pleasant he was, how he chose a good selection of activities in the day and how he works well on his own.  He chooses activities based on his own interests, not on who was there, which was a worry for us (his closest friend is in the class with him, and we worry that he’s the only child that he plays with, or that he follows him around).  It was nice to hear that he’s somewhat independent.

He’s showing interest in reading, and will probably start with readers soon.  She thinks that he’ll certainly be reading at least a little bit well before first grade, which is great.  She told us that she loves having him in the class, and that his smile brightens her day.

As we were driving home, I commented to The Taxman that we have 16 more years of these nights, in which we come home to our children, after having talked to their teachers.  It’s a bit daunting, but also kind of exciting.  I am sure that there will be issues, but I hope that all of those parent-teacher nights are as pleasant and heartwarming as this one was.

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*kvell – a Yiddish word, meaning, essentially, to gush over