Parent Teacher Conferences

This week Nick and I experienced a “first”: Parent Teacher Conferences. Of course we experienced this first times three, which made the morning extra fun! The boys’ teachers were nice enough to hold back the sign-up form for times until I could sign up first, so that we could get 3 spots in a row. I thought that was so thoughtful of them!

Tuesday morning we dropped the kids off in a different room at the preschool and we sat down with their teachers to chat. They showed us some fun projects the boys had worked on this year already (self-portraits, practicing writing their name, practicing cutting with scissors, etc). One of the things they showed us (and we got to bring home – the rest stayed in their folder at school) was a story they had written about worms. Sadly this was the day Ty had missed when he was sick, but I thought I’d show you Jackson and Chase’s stories!

They thought it was funny how wordy Chase got with his story considering he was reluctant to even start the project. They said once he got going though more and more just came out.

We enjoyed hearing that the boys don’t just play with each other, but have branched out and played with other kids in their class. They mentioned that it’s almost like the boys like to check-in with each other throughout the morning though. They’ll all go out on the playground together and then scatter and then a little while later they see them all together again for a couple of minutes and then they scatter again. Nick and I were so glad to hear the boys are making some friends though!

Speaking of friends, there’s a certain little girl in the class the boys (Jackson especially) have gravitated towards. Last Thursday they bugged me constantly for nearly 3 hours to e-mail her mom (first they said “text”) and see if the girl could come over to play. Turns out she’s just as attached to the boys (especially Jackson)! The teachers said that she asks them each morning to point out which one is Jackson and then she sits by him. They said it blew her little mind when Ty was out sick and she walked in to see only two of the boys there! Hearing little stories like that made the conferences so fun, and enlightening!

In addition to the little projects the teachers showed us, they also gave us a form about each of the boys’ and their developments. I photographed (and circled) a few of my favorite sections for you.

For real?! Jackson was playing with baby dolls? LOVE IT!

Chase has always been such a fan of story time.

Haha! Oh yes, Ty and his microphone. The teachers said all three of them actually do that together sometimes, and I think Chase’s form mentioned the microphone specifically as well.

Now this last one really surprised Nick and me. At home, we feel like Ty has a hard time getting his thoughts out. He’s not exactly stuttering, but he will often repeat a single word 7 or 8 times before he gets the rest of the sentence out. The teachers were shocked when we told them that and they said they’d never noticed him doing it in the classroom! They wrote it down so that they could watch for it now, but I’m quite sure if he was doing it there they would have noticed by now. I’ve been trying to figure out why he would do this at home but not at school and all I can think is that at school when he talks he “has the floor”, but at home he feels like he has to rush to say his piece before one of his brothers interrupts him. Sound plausible?

And one last story that I have to share… Our boys have taught their class the Doxology. Ha! Apparently before the class blesses their snack, the boys say “We have to sing the Doxology too!” and the whole class agrees. Cracked us up to hear that boys have taught 8 other kids that song! I’ll try to get the boys singing that on video and share it here, along with the background of why they even know that song at such a young age.