Tuesday, November 17, 2009

so proud.

On Monday Rick and I experienced our very first parent/teacher conference with James. And I gotta say, it was pretty nice. I didn't know what to expect because we had heard so many different stories from different parents from different preschools. Some, it's a quick conversation and some are super in-depth. Ours was pretty in-depth and I loved every second of it.
I loved seeing the look on his teacher's face when she described how sweet he is and how much of a good student he is. Honestly, we kind of knew he was doing pretty well, but we didn't know for sure. I'll backtrack a bit too..his teacher is one of my favorite people in this whole wide world. She's someone who is making such a big impact on our firstborn son who is still very little and has so many more years of his education left. It's a big deal and I got a little teary-eyed when I sat there to listen about how much she enjoyed teaching James.
She had notes and examples, diagrams and everything. Wow. She had James grab his journal (I didn't even know he had a journal) from the basket in the classroom and James knew which one was by identifying his by color and the letters that spelled out his name on the front. She was explaining how he doesn't quite stick to drawing shapes and noted that he loves drawing zig-zag patterns that form a ball of..well..zig-zag chaos. He loves drawing that at home and I think that's one of his stress relievers because when we asked him what it was he said, "it's a eerrrrr vrroooommm aaack" which then he also called "a crash".
He's very good socially and has a great vocabulary, but hasn't yet played with people in the way of "okay, I'm going to stir this soup and feed it to you..." (speaking in detail while playing) so he's a bit simple with playing with others but she was very happy with how well he treats his classmates and how he engages in an activity and has such a long attention span. She said that that is where he excels the most and it's hard to find in kids his age.
He's really drawn to art (painting mostly) and if asked to write his first name he'll draw five little shapes all lined up!! She is incredibly impressed with that (as am I!!) He also loves drawing "talking hot dogs". Seriously, he drew a talking hotdog in his journal! LOL His teacher loves his imagination. That's one of my favorite things about him to.
James is also doing well with showing his emotions. This is really cool to hear because we've been seeing him get better even at home, since he's started school. If he gets upset he tells the teacher and she's happy about that. He'll get his sadness out and then he moves on quickly. Very laid back. He's had a few rare days where he'll say, "I wanna go home" and they'll remind him that his time there is over in a little while and "hey let's keep playing with..." and he'll just say, "oh okay!!" very cheerfully and he gets over it.
He's also excelling at math and can count to 25!!! I knew he could count to 20, but I had no idea that he went beyond that. We'll count together and go up to 30 but I didn't think he was listening. LOL It goes to show you, they listen to every single thing you say.
The teacher actually said that James is the type of student that makes her truly enjoy her job. How sweet was that??

We're so so proud of James.
Oh and before I forget to mention again, his class is meeting the Mayor of Lakewood tomorrow morning and he's coming to read them a story. The photos of James and his class will soon be featured on a website for Mayor and there was some talk about a photo of this event being used for holiday cards. So, I gave James a nice little haircut (without clippers of course..he's pretty scared of those buzzing things). So tomorrow is a really busy day. Natalie also has physical therapy and as for me, I start my new seasonal job at Wally World tomorrow. It's only the orientation but I'm sure my head will be spinning with information by the end of the day.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow! What a great post! I can see why you're so proud of James. That is so awesome that his class will get to meet the Mayor. You have to share the website when the pictures are up.

Confessions From A Work-At-Home Mom said...

I found your blog through a friend of a friend's blog... That initial friend (still following?) also has a child with CHD, and I think that's how I ended up here. PHEW!

What beautiful children you have! I'll be keeping your daughter in my prayers.

~Elizabeth
http://confessionsfromaworkingmom.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the job! Wally World at Christmas? You're braver than me. Glad James is developing so well, that's gotta be a real thrill for you & Ricky.