Gavin Rocks! 2nd Trimester Conferences

I walked into the school yesterday with a tear in my eye because I knew Gavin was going to get a 4 on at least one category in reading.

4 = exceeding grade level expectations

Sitting next to an isolette, hearing a machine breathe for your tiny baby, hearing words like brain bleeds and kidney damage, you just don't know what the future is going to hold. Always the overachiever, but I knew sitting there that I would be thrilled with average for this child.

And now, that tiny baby has grown into a kid that is exceeding expectations, as one of the youngest kids in his grade level. He is amazing!!

He works hard, the teacher tells me. He is a great kid. He really, really tries. He is good to others. These are the best things a mother could hear.

We've slipped a little in a couple areas - mostly in being a little too chatty. It's rarely something he instigates, but he has a hard time ignoring kids if they are talking around him or trying to engage him when he should be paying attention to the teacher. He is also not quite taking responsibility for his own actions, he likes to blame it on everyone else when he gets in trouble (hmmm.....sounds familiar!).

He's a rock star at reading. We're having a bit of a struggle in math right now, which is a flip flop from where he was at a couple years ago. The two main areas are telling time (on a clock with hands - who needs to do that anymore anyway?) and counting coins (hello, debit cards?). Also, placement value.

She said that these are more abstract concepts, and more developmental in nature. The fact that he is young makes perfect sense to her that these are the areas he struggles in. She said he also needs a little extra help when working on a new concept, that she'll sit with him and go through it a few extra times to help him get it. And while he seems to generally understand the concepts, he's not consistently applying it. She said that he clearly gets frustrated, but continues to work hard. But, not surprising, he says math is his least favorite subject.

I hate stuff that doesn't come easy for me too, but this is something we will just practice more on at home.

I discussed his behavior issues at home, and she was shocked because she doesn't see any indication of that at school. She did say that I'm not the first parent with a Jekyll/Hyde personality kid. I really think he is trying so hard at school, and especially if he is finding math frustrating, he is just done by the end of the day.

I'm going to print out some work sheets and work on these things. I think with a little extra practice it will come naturally. They make such an emphasis of having to read every night - so he's doing great there, but they aren't doing math exercises every night. I just need to work with him on it, on our own. Build his confidence, decrease his frustration level, and hopefully make it easier on him.