Parent/Teacher Conference

A few weeks ago, the preschool teachers asked us to each sign up for a meeting with the teachers to discuss our child's year. I was a little apprehensive, as this would be my first P/T conference ever. I chose a day in which Phil would be home, as I couldn't bring Jeremy with me. It was on a Tuesday after class, and the minute I sat down with her teacher -- who is by far the sweetest and nicest woman ever -- the first thing she says is that Phil and I better start saving for the wedding between her and the little boy in the class.

The teachers had each put together a portfolio of every child's progress for the year, and she thoughtfully went through each page, explaining what Riley did or was doing. One example she gave is that at the beginning of the year, each child was asked to identify upper and lowercase letters, and Riley was the only one in the class who was able to complete that task. She was also the only one who could identify numbers 0-9. During the year, they re-evaluate the students to see how they've progressed. With Riley, she already knew her letters and numbers, so they asked her to mark down how many Xs per number, to see if she actually understood what the numbers meant. So Ms. Betty (her teacher) said that Riley was working on Number 9 and got distracted. She looked at the teacher, looked at her paper, then counted the Xs. She realized she did one too many and smiled.

Ms. Betty said Riley will have no problem with kindergarten in the fall -- she asked if I wanted to keep Riley behind so they could enjoy her another year. It's what every parent wants to hear, that their child does well. She mentioned that Riley talks about her brother all the time and how much she loves playing with him. And then we talked about Riley's love for hockey.

Turns out Ms. Betty's family is big into hockey. The conference happened to fall when the NHL playoffs were going on, so it was of great discussion every time Riley would come to class, to see if the Blackhawks won. After the conference ended, Ms. Betty and I continued our hockey talk, and I confided that I was named after a Blackhawk, as was Jeremy. She was thrilled and couldn't wait to tell her husband. And she got a kick out of the fact that we call the Red Wings the "Yuckies."

Overall, it was wonderful to hear how well Riley did during her last year of preschool. And I'm happy to say that her portfolio is a prized possession. Ms. Betty is a great teacher, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Jeremy is blessed with her for a teacher in two years.