Parent/Teacher Conferences

It is Friday! The thing that is making me the happiest about today is the fact that we are almost through with this flu bug that infected my family. Aspen, Aiden, Ash and Dallas have all been sick this week. I keep waiting for Alexis to get it-should today or tomorrow if she follows the pattern. Luckily the next two weeks are fall break so we can all recoop.

We had parent/teacher conferences yesterday. Everyone had great things to say about out kids- Aspen is friendly and encourages his table to be quiet, Alexis is quiet in class and is getting straight A's, Aiden is a big helper and great in school and Ash is, well, I was was told Ash was a "free spirit". hmmm.. A free spirit? What exactly is a free spirit? His teacher told me he is completely respectful, kind and sweet but that if he doesn't feel like following directions he will do his own thing very calmly and quietly. For example, if the kids are supposed to be writing his numbers and he doesn't want to, he will just color. When called on it he is sad he got in trouble but will continue to color. Also, this week it was his turn to be the helper and review the calendar with the other children. He knew all his colors and shapes perfectly. Yet when the teacher called him to test him one on one, he said he didn't know any of the shapes. Again, very polite but simply said, "No, I don't know that one." Finally, when he was counting to 100 for her, he decided to stop at 59 (he CAN go all the way to 100). She asked him if he wanted to try to go on and he quietly said, "No thank you. I am finished." No amount of prodding could get him to go to 100. It is as if he just doesn't see the value in "performing". If he doesn't want to do it, then there IS no reason to do it. Taking a test or proving that he knows something is not reason enough for him to do something.

On the upside, that is a great skill to have when it comes to high school peer pressure. Hopefully he can use his natural personality for good.