Saturday, March 31, 2012

Learning & Growing

Yesterday morning I had my parent/teacher conference with one of Luke's teachers, Mrs. Givens.  I was really looking forward to this meeting because I have been very curious about where Luke is academically and socially. I don't have much to base his progress on since he's our first child although I know he's super smart in my eyes.

The conference went great (I didn't expect anything else).  Mrs. Givens explained that they evaluate the kids in a different room and ask them to play some "games" to evaluate their progress.  The first task was to draw a picture of themselves and write their name.  Luke's picture of himself doesn't resemble much other than some green squiggly lines but he was able to write his name although he's still having difficulty with the K.  We then talked about how Luke doesn't enjoy what the teachers call table time.  That's basically art projects--painting, drawing, coloring, etc.  She said that it wasn't anything to be concerned about because his "job" right now is just to play.  I told her that he didn't much like that stuff at home either.  The one thing he does enjoy though is Play-doh.  I'm hoping some of my artistic genes will come out eventually.

We then went on to discuss the other evaluation points.  They included sharing, standing up for his rights, listening, taking care of himself, pride in accomplishments, playing well with others and sharing, communication skills, following directions, knowing numbers, letters, colors and shapes, distinguishing different sizes, patterns, and using scissors.  He is doing great in all those areas with a couple of exceptions.  Mrs. Givens said that Luke will sometimes hesitate in standing up for himself depending on the child he is interacting with almost as if he's deciding whether it's worth it or not.  I do not see that as a bad hesitation but am impressed that he can determine the value of the confrontation so to speak.  The other thing that Luke hasn't gotten the hang of yet is using scissors.  I have not worked with him at home using scissors yet and since he doesn't much like table time he isn't getting much practice at school either.  Again this is nothing to be concerned about just something to work on as his teacher said.

One of the high points of the conference was when we talked about Luke understanding patterns and being able to repeat them.  Luke has been incredibly linear from the minute he started playing with toys.  It came as no surprise to me that Luke is very good at understanding patterns and can repeat them with no problem.  I explained how he has always lined up his cars, dinosaurs and other toys.  Mrs. Givens said that not all children at this age understand these concepts and she was impressed with how well Luke did with them.  Way to go Luke!!!  Mrs. Givens even commented how funny it was to watch Luke eat because he likes to line up his crackers and then put the cheese on them.  I have to say he came by that honestly because I used to do that all the time although I promise I did not teach him how to do that.  He truly did figure that out on his own (amazing how genes work).

One other item to note abouting learning--Luke is doing super well with letters.  He is constantly asking what letter a word starts with as well as what words start with a certain letter.  He is also spelling out words he can see or randomly saying things like, "Apple starts with A."  It's so fun to see him learning and understanding letters.  It's the first step to reading and I'm so excited for him to be able to read soon.

I am very happy to report that Luke has recently gone through or is still going through a growth spurt.  It seems like he has been 32 pounds forever.  We weighed Luke this week and found out he has gained a few pounds and now weighs 34.5 pounds!!!  Troy also measured Luke today and he is about 39 1/2 inches tall.  Luke has been eating a lot more to go along with this spurt.  This includes some new vegetables and in general less complaining about what I have been fixing.  Hooray!

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