parent/teacher conference - mason

i dropped the kids off at home with daddy, he met us at the art show after work, and went up to the school for mason's parent/teacher conference. i love getting there a little early to take a look at all of the work in the halls. 

i love that he drew our paper snowflakes we have hanging in our windows.

"you should love people that don't love you"

no surprise, mason's teacher (and student teacher) love him. they said that the letter i wrote him for his star student week is the same exact boy they see in the classroom - always nice to hear. what was a surprise, but should not have been, is that he has an extreme aptitude for math! his test score was the 99th percentile and his teacher said, "this is the highest i have ever seen." (i didn't post my pride to facebook, but i can brag here, right?) he is always asking about math scenarios and checking with me to see if he figured it out correctly, but i never really thought too much about it. we all talk about math and other facts all of the time. they are going to pull him and a few other kids to a small group during math lessons for a little more advanced activities.

his reading is nothing to sneeze at either (96th percentile).

i am most proud to hear about how he treats his teachers and others with respect and love. it was a pleasure to share all of this with matt when i got home. love.

parent/teacher conference for madelyn

tonight i was able to meet with madelyn's homeroom teacher. madelyn wanted to make sure that i saw her "haunted house." this one was the only one without a name on the front (i think it is under the house), but madelyn confirmed it was hers when i got home. i had a feeling it was hers because everyone is smiling.

there was another gem in the hallway while i waited for my appointment - madelyn's "all about me." while the whole thing was cute, i loved that she described her hair color as "gold."

the report with madelyn's teacher was great. we discussed the concern matt and i have, but she did not see any signs of our concerns. her teacher said that she wishes she had a whole class of madelyns. madelyn is a good student, a good friend and a generally sweet girl. she is above level on her standardize testing, so nothing too much to worry about performance-wise. not that we are all too surprised.

as i was leaving, madelyn's teacher brought up her student council speech. i thought i had already posted about it, but since i couldn't find it i guess i didn't. she spent over two hours writing, typing and rehearsing her speech. but she lost the election. i guess most of her class ran and the winners received 3 votes to her 2. she was thrilled that a neighbor had voted for her and that it was so close. here is her super sweet speech:

"i want to be on student council because i like helping others. i was character champion for the past 3 years. i am a sweet little girl. i love school. i have an interest in leadership. i love helping in the community and far away. i packed school supplies and easter baskets for families who couldn't afford them. i also packed rice meals for mexico and haiti.

that is why i, madelyn xxxxx, am the best person to get your vote for student council today."

we just love this girl. love.

parent/teacher conference

i was able to go to mason's first parent/teacher conference tonight! i was pretty excited because i had no idea what sort of student he would be in the classroom (a leader, wild, quiet, etc.). not surprisingly, the report was nothing but good! mason has the same teacher madelyn had for kindergarten and we love her. she said that mason is always on task, that he follows directions and participates (even when he is bored by the task) and is a good friend. 

she also said that he is a "reader" and that she noticed this early and asked him to be patient with the letter sounds they do as a group until she could get everything sorted out into skill groups. he is much happier now. 

we are so excited to see how mason grows this year. he is really thrilled to be in school. love.

parent/teacher conference date night

when we have grandparents visiting (aka "free babysitting") we try to go out alone as much as possible. it timed out perfectly that we had madelyn's parent/teacher conference while grandma was visiting so we could go together (a very, very rare occurrence). we scheduled the conference early in the evening so that we could also go out to dinner - a double treat.

madelyn's conference was a really positive report. she is reading above grade and her teacher is quite pleased with her work and progress. her teacher also told us that she plans on selecting madelyn as a "character champion" before the end of the year, which will make madelyn very happy. while we were waiting our turn, we enjoyed reading all of the kids' '100 years' descriptions in the hallway. i think they might have come up with aging ideas as a group because there was lots of repetition.

after the conference, matt and i briefly visited the book fair. madelyn had visited during the school day and brought us home a 'wish list'. we were laughing seeing what she had selected for herself and her brothers - so thoughtful. we left without anything though.

next stop was sushi! we haven't had sushi out in a very, very long time (i make some veggie sushi at home from time to time) and i was in the mood. we had some vegan and some traditional rolls. it was so yummy! we really enjoyed our time out. thank you, grandma. love.

parent-teacher conference

we were all going to go to the parent-teacher conference at madelyn's school tonight before church but dinner wasn't happening fast enough so i went by myself and matt stayed home to get the kids ready for church. 

here is one of madelyn's projects in the hall outside the classroom.  it is a robot.

the meeting went very well with her teacher.  she started the meeting by saying that madelyn is a joy to have in the classroom, is very caring and considerate towards the other kids and always tries her best. madelyn is above level in reading, really good at comprehension and spelling (at the top of the scale according to the standards).  she does need to work on punctuation and practice writing in general.  her teacher gave us several resources.  we didn't talk about math.  i am not worried that she is not excelling at all based on the homework she is asked to do so i didn't have any questions and i guess there have not been any standardized tests yet to review so it wasn't discussed.

i am going to try not to go crazy with asking her to practice things and hope that the grandmas can do the same when they visit (hint, hint - grin).  she is doing wonderfully and loves school.  i want it to stay that way.  we will practice and i am going to give her a journal to write in after she finishes her homework so that she gets a little extra practice.  even her teacher said that the day is so long that she isn't going to want to do a lot at home and that is fine.  we talked about the chapter book madelyn is reading and her teacher suggested that i have madelyn illustrate what is happening at the end of each chapter.  that sounds like something madelyn would really enjoy so we are going to try that too.

it is nice to hear such wonderful things.  we are so proud of her efforts.  love.