Parent-Teacher Conference

Here are Anna and Alexander at play. These are the stairs leading from our kitchen area to the family room and they love to play on the bottom of the stairs when we're on the lower level. They, most often Alexander, loves to sit sideways on one of the steps facing the wall and play "Choo Choo" (train). I'm still not sure how he's playing Choo Choo in this way. Whenever one sits in front of or behind each other they like to say they're playing "Choo Choo," as they line up like train cars. Obviously, they like to pretend like they're resting on the stairs, also. (And, no, the Bart Simpson, Marge and Mr. Burns toys — along with the Eric Cartman doll you might notice on the floor — are not the children's! They belong to the big child in the family, Mikel, and usually are in the office. ... I guess we'll soon need to hide these before the children realize that they're not exactly kid-oriented.)

Today we had our parent-teacher conference at Anna's school. One set of parents watched our kids outside on the playground while Mikel and I were inside. Then we swapped and watched their kids when they went inside.

No big surprises, as the school is pretty good about keeping you informed. There have been no other behavior problems with Anna other than that one day a couple weeks ago. She has not only been a good girl at school but I understand her attention span is improving. The Montessori program is all about freedom within boundaries. Anna's boundaries are just a bit more narrow right now, as she earned herself a special place to sit and do her work. Normally the children can move around the room from station to station. Teachers say this has helped her focus tremendously in the two weeks that she's been at it in this manner. They attribute her needs with her overall work habits to her very young age. She turned 3 just days before school started. You have to be 3 to attend, so that means she's one of the youngest in the school. Despite her young age, the teachers said she's academically advanced and what she knows far exceeds others her age. The teacher even asked us what methods we've used because she'd like to try them! That was nice, but we haven't done anything special. Just talking a lot throughout the day and reading (though I don't consider the amount we read to be very much). I really think it's more about Anna herself and her zest for learning.

Of course, there are some things we can help her with academically, such as meaningful counting (counting the number of pens on the desk, for example) and focusing on sequencing (such as: here's a pumpkin, and you cut it to make a jack-o-lantern; emphasizing that there is a beginning, middle and end, whether it's with a story or some other project).

They said that sometimes it's difficult to understand her because she's thinking so fast and can't get all the words out as fast as her brain want to, so they encourage her to slow down a bit. To help with socialization and playing with others (as opposed to parallel play where you play beside others) we could put her in situations in which she and friends are working together toward the same goal, such as in baking and decorating cookies so they can later gobble them up.

They also said she drinks A LOT, which I've noticed also. They said she's even consumed some water in containers that is meant for playing and learning how to pour, which I'm sure is full of germs! Mikel suggested that maybe it's because she's so used to the constant liquid (milk, juice, water) supply that I make available to them. Maybe I should try to limit all their drinks at home to see if this makes a difference.