Parent-Teacher Meeting

Today was the quarterly meeting with Lucas's teacher.  He is doing fantastic.  He is making all sorts of progress in all the areas we targeted in his Individual Education Plan (IEP). 

I discussed with the teacher my concerns over Lucas not knowing the alphabet yet.  I just can't get him interested or focused on the stinkin' letters.  In fact I tried to sit with him while he colored a page in a preschool workbook (color all the squares blue, color all the circles yellow etc) and instead of coloring he only focused on dismantling and reassembling all the pens.

Anyway . . . the teacher reassured me that he was right in the middle of the heap as far as the alphabet and numbers goes and that I had no reason to worry.  She told me to not pressure him, and that he will learn it all in kindergarten.  All they care about in kindergarten is that the kids can recognize their name in writing and can count to ten when they arrive on the first day for kindergarten.

I was SHOCKED.  I had heard that the kids had to know all the letters AND the sounds that those letters made.  NOPE.  Apparently not.  That is what they will know on the last day of kindergarten.  And the helper lady in the class whose middle child is currently in kindergarten reiterated what the teacher had told me.  SO.  Pressure is OFF.  Whew.  We will just keep learning at a nice comfortable pace and not feel pressured to "be ready" for the big bad kindergarten. 

The teacher went on to tell me that some kids arrive for kindergarten already knowing all the letters/sounds/numbers/trigonometry/organic chemistry 426 - and some have had no exposure to them at all.  So the teachers all see kindergarten as the big equalizer because some kids are reviewing and others are learning for the first time but by the end of it all they are at about the same level!!! Not such good news for the "special super duper smart" kids but great news for all of the "middle of the pack" kids! 

Hey don't knock the middle of the pack.  I was the middle of the pack and found it to be very comfortable.  Still do. 

Let those over achievers have all the pressure to keep being the smartest and the bestest (haha)!!  We middle of the pack people will cheer those over achievers on while sipping our sangria and yelling at the dog to stop humping the arm of our recliner.