Parent/Teacher Conference January 28, 2009

Today was our first parent/teacher conference at Jack’s preschool. Though I have to admit I was a bit nervous – I know Jack isn’t perfect – it was actually fine. 

Jack recognizes his basic shapes, and “talks about octagons”. He’s learning his geometric shapes. He recognizes numbers 0 – 9 (though he actually recognizes more than that). Jack counts from 1 – 20 without help (and to 30 sometimes, but past that he needs help). (Oh, and he counts to 30 because that’s how many seconds it takes to put on a temporary tattoo.)

“Jack understands the concept of quantity. He shows his understanding when he does the spindle boxes on his own. He does 0 – 5 just fine and needs minimal help with 6 – 9.” (Whenever Jack sees any pile of more than 2 things, he says “Five”.) 

Jack’s pencil control, picture matching, and pattern matching are all “age appropriate”. (While we were there, Jack made a large, wobbly J on a piece of paper.) 

“His speech is advanced for his age and converses with complete sentences. He may need encouragement to use his words with friends when they are in his personal space. Jack often finds it difficult to use his words and tends to cry in those situations.”

(Jack can be a drama queen. We’re working on dealing better with other kids – that is, using his words with them. Though part of the problem is that he has words, but the other kids don’t necessarily.)

Jack does well listening, but he gets distracted, and talks to his friends during circle time. “It takes him time to listen when he is  unable to control his feelings, such as crying aloud for a long time.”

(See the drama queen reference.)

Jack apparently has been getting better at focusing on his work. He does need work following directions, and needs “second reminders”.

Jack’s interacting skills are better. He had a “difficult time talking with his friends” but now he’s “learning to use his words or come to a teacher for help.” (And not in a tattletale way.)

Jack also uses the toilet at school, and the teacher says we can send him in undies with a cover to see if he’s better about using the toilet there. (Tonight, he actually got into the bath, then told Grandma Sandy that he could poop in the toilet, and he did – for the first time in months!)

His gross and fine motor skills are age-appropriate.

“Jack is a very intelligent young boy and is interested in the materials we offer in class. He is one of the children I come to for help when it comes to letters, numbers, shapes, sounds, etc. Jack is eager to help out at circle and snack time because it shows how responsible he can be in school and around his friends.” 

Max asked about Jack’s going to the “big class.” Jack has been saying that he’s been in the “big class” a couple of times. One of his friends is moving to the older class soon, and her parents weren’t given a lot of notice. When Max asked, the teacher said, “Can’t he stay awhile, as a role model?”

Now, Max thinks she said it because she doesn’t think he’s ready to be in the big class, but didn’t want to tell us that. 

I think that she told us that because Jack is doing well where he is, and he really does help out in the class. She said he helps the other kids with their letters. She also gave us a few pictures, which are always nice to get.

Weekly Update, Including Halloween Plans September 21, 2008

So, let’s see if we can actually manage a weekly update, now that Mommy has a new laptop.
This was Jack’s second full week of actual pre-school. He started Montessori in July, but they do a modified program over the summer. Actual pre-school started on September 3, while we were in Pittsburgh, PA. Jack is now in a classroom of 7 kids. We had Back to School night on Wednesday to see how the program really works. His teacher is sweet. Jack seems to like school, although when we ask him what he did, he always says “I cried” because he cries when Max drops him off in the morning. He gets about a 2 hour nap/quiet time, which isn’t quite enough, but better than nothing. Jack does have friends at school. In fact, one day after school, he and Max met up with some of Jack’s friends in the grocery store. Jack talks about it whenever we pass the Raley’s: “I saw Luis and Joolana in that grocery store.” (Juliana, that is.)
He also asked me, “What that grocery store by pizza place and pet store?”. I told him, “Trader Joe’s”. The fact that he can articulate so clearly what he means continues to amaze me. And then, of course, it frustrates me when he points to a table full of toys and says, “Want that.”
Jack got some new toys in Pittsburgh, and Grandpa Clyde sent him a new toy on Friday. We are now the proud owners of Transforming Wall*e and Interactive Wall*e. Jack is very proud. The first thing he did (once Mommy got our new Wall*e out of the packaging) was to get his “little Wall*e” and introduce him to “big Wall*e”. Jack then tried to put their hands together so they could play “Ring aroun’ Rosie”.
Jack is also into Super Why and Thomas and His Friends. Daddy has ordered Jack’s Super Why costume for Halloween. How did we arrive at Super Why?
Monday
Mommy: Jack, remember how we talked about Halloween, and how you get to go to people’s houses and ask for candy?
Jack: TO-day???
Mommy: No, not today, but soon. Well, what do you want to dress up as? Super Why, Wall*e, or do you want to be a cow again?
Jack: Ladybug.
Mommy: OK. Super Why, Wall*e, Cow, or Ladybug?
Jack: I wanna be Princess P. (One of Super Why’s friends.)
Mommy to Daddy: I think he’s a little young to dress in drag.
Daddy: Yeah.
Mommy: OK Jack, do you want to be Super Why, Wall*e, a cow, or a ladybug?
Jack: Ladybug.
Each night, we asked Jack what he wanted to be for Halloween.
Tuesday it was a ladybug.
On Wednesday, Jack informed us that he was going to be Super Why, Mommy was going to be Princess P, and Daddy was going to be Pig. Daddy wasn’t happy with this plan.
Thursday, it was Super Why again. And Mommy was going to be Princess P. (Daddy wasn’t in the room at the time.)
Friday, it was Super Why, with no mention of the other characters.
So, Jack will be Super Why for Halloween.

This morning, Jack tried to put Daddy in time out. Jack hit Daddy a few times by accident, and wasn’t respecting Daddy’s personal space. Daddy swatted him on the hand, and Jack said, “You do not hit me. I put you in time out.” Daddy’s response: “Nice try, but NO.”

He’s precocious, this boy of ours!

September Web Site Update September 6, 2008

As usual, Jack is surpassing the milestones of other kids his age. This September, Jack will be 32 months old. (Soon, we can stop keeping track of months. Woo hoo!) In terms of milestones, he’s at about a  4 year level in his language, cognitive, social, and emotional milestones. He’s about average in his physical milestones. For example, he can throw a ball, but can’t catch it. He can’t draw letters, but he can draw lines and other shapes. He can alternate feet going up and down stairs (who knew that was a milestone?), but he can’t pedal a tricycle. 

For the record, Jack is just about 30 pounds and is 35 inches tall. 

Jack started Montessori preschool in July, just after July 4th, actually. We’d love to show you some pictures from Jack’s first fireworks display, but the camera is gone. It was either stolen from my car, or a gremlin has taken it from the house. I’m very distressed about this. In the end, Jack really did like his first fireworks. Once they were done, he said, “Wan’ it again. Jus’ one more time.”

Jack is learning a lot in school. He can put on his own shirt, shorts, and shoes. He can wash his hands, and indeed hates having dirty hands. His vocabulary continues to grow, with words like “reservoir”, “Neosporin”, “happenstance”, and “dame la mano”.  Jack speaks in complete sentences, with pronouns, although they’re not always grammatically correct. He remains ahead of the curve, verbiage-wise. He asks for many of his books by name, and has practically memorized B is for Bulldozer. He has some pretty impressive words from that book too – he knows the names of many big trucks, including the excavator. Furthermore, Jack enjoys hearing “Once ‘pon a time”s, especially the one where “Pooh Bear gets stuck in Rabbit’s house”. 

Jack has many friends at school, and he’s continuing to make more as the summer ends and “real” school begins. 

Jack saw his second in-theater movie, Wall*e and LOVED it. He now has four Wall*e books, a Wall*e lunchbox (thanks Nana), and a transforming Wall*e and the Reject Bots (thanks Grandma and Grandpa).

Jack really started to love drawing back in May, and will now scribble on anything he can find. He has crayons, markers, pens, and pencils everywhere. He’s pretty good at drawing ovals and circles. He also loves drawing with his sidewalk chalk. Jack doesn’t write letters, but apparently his cousin, our nephew, Orion does. We got the chance to visit with Orion and his brother Cyrus at the end of July. Pictures forthcoming, we promise.

Jack has gotten to the stage where he tells everyone what to do – where to sit, what to draw, what to read, and so on. It’s very cute, in a small dictator kind of way. He’s also into pretend play. He loves his play food, and will share it with anyone. He has a great imagination too. He’s pretended that a basket with cloth napkins is a bucket and shovels. He’ll throw a birthday party for any of his stuffed animal friends. 

Jack knows his colors, and recognizes most capital letters. He understands things that are the same and things that are different. He enjoys pointing out similarities between himself and Mommy and Daddy, for example. Jack can count to 20 (though he sometimes skips 16) and can recognize most numbers from 1 through 11. 

Jack loves playing outside, and since we had our front and back yards re-sodded, he spends lots of time out there. 

One task Jack hasn’t mastered is toilet training. He was very into it at the beginning of June, and we thought our gDiaper days were numbered, but, upon starting preschool, Jack became very anti-toilet. We need to be more consistent about it here at home, and encourage him to use the toilet more often. 

We just got back from Pennsylvania, where we visited with Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Clyde, GG (Great-Grandma Trimble), Aunt Pam, Aunt Molly, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Lolo, and cousins Bryan, Joe, and Marie. We went to the zoo for the first time, and played at Pleasant Kingdom. Again, pictures will come soon.