Parent Teacher Conference

Two weeks ago, Nathan's teacher sent me a note and said that she was trying to get a jump start on some of the conferences and wanted to know if we would be willing to come in early. I had a feeling that the conference would not be all roses, and it turns out I was correct.

I haven't posted about the conference yet even though it was 10 days ago because I have felt like a failure as a parent and a little ashamed. I know that I probably don't work with Nathan enough, but I also know that it is so hard working full-time and coming home make dinner, help Nathan with school work, pay attention to the other two kids and control the constant chaos that we live with during the week.

His teacher told us that he is still very social and always willing to help out the other students at the expense of doing his own work. He cares about the other kids feelings and always participates in class. Him and his current table-mate must talk all the time, because she said that she is constantly telling those two to be quiet. He still needs to work on his handwriting, letter recognition and pronunciation of letters. Then she showed us the results of the test he took at the beginning of the year and again at the halfway point. His score, while above average at the beginning of the year, has not changed and is now below average. He still has problems once in a while writing his numbers backwards. She suggested that he go to Reading Enrichment where he can get some one-on-one time working on the letters and see if that helps him. We whole-heartily gave our approval and questioned if there was anything else that we could be doing. She said that they will continue to watch him and if further help is needed, she will let us know.

I went out with a few of my friends on Friday night and they asked me how Nathan has been doing in school. I admitted that I was a little embarrassed to tell them and went on to tell him what we just learned. All three of them have/had at least one kid (all boys) go thru the same thing. That made me feel a lot better.