February 10, 2009 Great Conferences!

Tonight I had conferences for Nicholas and Gabrielle. I was a proud mama.

Gabrielle is "mastering" all of the skills expected of her and I have been told that she is going have no trouble at all transitioning into Kindergarten. She helps her fellow students and is not afraid to try anything. The "not afraid to try anything" is a change from the beginning of the year and show me that she is maturing. It also affirms to me that we made the right decision in sending her to Young 5's this year rather than jumping straight into Kindergarten.

On a sad note, her teacher indicated that right now it looks like funding may be lost to support a Young 5's program in the future. We had planned on sending Allison to this program in 2 years. If I had known the program might not exist we would have made a different decision and sent her to 3 year old preschool this year. We'll have to see how this plays out.

Nicholas is also doing very well. He is particularly excelling in both math and reading and his teacher asked my permission to put him in a GIFTED program for these two subjects. They have about 6 kids in the first grade that they would like to spend in this program. The program involves being pulled out of class 2 days a week for math and 2 days a week for reading. He will be enrolled in both programs. (where some of the students will only be pulled out for one or the other). I was very proud of him, but also glad to hear that the teachers and school are sensitive to the needs of each child and realize when some of the kids need to be a little more challenged. It is important to me that he stay challenged because I believe his study habits are forming now and if everything comes too easily right now, I am afraid he will not have formed the study habits he needs when things start to get more difficult.

I love both of their teachers and had an excellent time hearing that both of our children are doing well.