Teacher/parent conference

Last Thursday we had Raf's first teacher/parent conference. The boys stayed with Shannon (also kindly taking charge of the delivery of our new washing machine). I wasn't nervous until we arrived, and then I realized that I was indeed a little anxious about what we might learn!

Raf's teacher is really lovely, and my impression is that she's very firm while also being kind and nurturing with the children. She let us know straight away that Raf is doing very well - that she loves having him in class, and that he's sweet and fun. We already knew this, but one issue is that Raf is a 'follower', and of course he can follow the wrong behaviors. Mrs. Marshall let us now that he's very easy to get back on track. Raf's impetus is to be a rule-follower, to be good, and to please. On the other hand, he has a lovely silly side, and it's as though he has two little birdies on each shoulder, trying to talk him in to whatever he shouldn't be doing... ! It seems that the entire group can be silly, so there's lots of laughter and giggling - so a wonderful environment for Raf to be in.

He's doing very well with letter recognition and sounds as well as equations. He's less comfortable with counting in the teens and that can impact his confidence. At home he is constantly sounding out things, and right now he's lying next to me in bed working on a phonics game on the iPad. He just read to me an entire little story as part of it. He's really seeming to love learning.

Each day he comes home and tells me who the star of the day is (yesterday it was Rafi), what the question of the day is, and what he did in choice time. He's a little more murky on what he did in terms of reading, writing, and maths!  Today he was the 'messenger' at school, which meant that he was responsible for working on lost and found and taking messages to the office. He's very proud of himself.

During the conference, I noticed this on the wall... whereas other students dreamt of learning to write, have fun, be president - Raf had other lofty goals... to learn to stack chairs neatly.

He's doing so, so well. I hope his interest in learning to read and write continues!