Parent Teacher Conferences

We had our first parent-teacher conference tonight at Cole's preschool. I was so excited for it! Faith (Matt's cousin's daughter who is 13) came up to watch the boys so Matt and I could go kid free. There is a First Quarter Conference Notes sheet that she used in helping to explain Cole's progress/status in the class. Here is some information from it.

She commented that he is good a puzzles (no surprise there) and alphabet recognition. His favorite areas in the room are blocks and vehicles. He follows directions independently. He plays cooperatively - which we were glad to hear that since last Fall he tended to play more independently than cooperatively. His self-help skills are independent. He knows his colors and most of his shapes (she said he struggled to point out a square). He can draw a recognizable picture (he drew her a rainbow) and he can match like objects (which she said he tends to match based on col0r). He listens to stories.

The areas that they are going to continue working on is cooperating with friends (working on using his words to resolve conflicts) and not mimicing his friends when they are being inappropriate (for example, if during storytime one of his friends yells out then Cole tends to do the samething). Cole definetly tends to be a follower so we weren't surprised to hear that he mimics others behaviors. Hopefully we can get him to stop copying the not so good behaviors.

She gave us a copy of the "Handwriting Without Tears" alphabet, which is the writing program that they use. I absolutely LOVE this writing program! Since starting full time in the beginning of August he has been writing more and more letters. He can write almost the entire alphabet which before he started he could only write his name. I am so impressed!

They also work on drawing portraits using a figure called Mat Man. He has gone from not being able to draw a picture of a person to being able to draw one. His person has arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, nose, mouth and sometimes ears. It is just amazing to see the growth that has occured in just under two months!