"School" Reports

Twice a year the daycare we send the girls to does Parent/Teacher conferences.  They are usually not incredibly insightful but I leave thinking my kids are all in all pretty normal.  This week we had the conferences, only due to a busy schedule I opted to do it over the phone - which basically had me laughing at work, and was a really nice reprieve from my normal day.  This time, the teachers made me feel like they truly knew each of the girls...and because I was so entertained, I am going to share their assessment here.

ISLA:

• Very independent
• High level of interest in structured activities - is one of the first to engage herself in the teacher-led activities
• Has advanced gross motor skills - girl can climb anything so this wasn't a surprise
• Strong imitation skills, both verbal and physical (clapping or gestures), which i guess is good when you're learning to speak
• She's socially appropriate - this one had me laughing.  basically they were saying she's not aggressive unless someone makes her really mad
• Which led to her development feedback that she needs to work on verbal skills for when she's angry, like most 18 month old kids, and she needs to learn how to share and take turns better

SAWYER:

• Also independent
• Very imaginative, loves to play pretend, and is very content playing on her own
• Very intelligent - always the first to know answers on flashcards like upper/lower case letters and numbers and shouts them out in class, but seems to get bored really quickly as she doesn't like to show her smarts on individual basis.  She pretends she doesn't know the answer when asked one on one, or is just too bored to engage - this made me laugh as she does this to us when I try to teach her writing or reading.  If you don't catch her at the right time, there's no use.
• Bossy - again, this had me laughing as we refer to Sawyer as our "CEO" sometimes.  Her teacher said she has a lot of friends and is always directing and organizing things for them to do, but sometimes is very bossy and just generally likes to control situations.  She said her friends don't really push back at all, and so they're trying to get them to not always just follow what Sawyer says and be more independent themselves.  What's funny is I see this at home - Sawyer is so commanding and sometimes just convincing you really don't think to tell her no, or argue with her.  Her teacher and I agreed - it can be both good and bad...I wonder if our little girl will be quite a good leader some day.

I think the teachers really hit on each of the personalities quite well and like I said, some of these quirks really had me giggling at work.  Now I'm actually looking forward to the fall meetings.