first conference!

Mark and I went to Isaiah's first ever school conference this week.  I'm proud to say that he's doing GREAT!  Mrs. Knapp went over several things with us and was very positive about Isaiah and how much he's learned and grown since the beginning of the school year!  Here's a list of what we talked about (this is more for me to look back at in the spring and next year) but figured this is a good place to write it down!

* He is able to trace and write his name well except for the letter "s" however, he writes it in all capital letters.  She is hoping by the end of the school year he'll be able to completely write his first (maybe middle) and last name by himself without tracing it.

* He can recognize all capital letters except the V and most lower case letters except he missed v, y, q and I think one or two others.

* He could name the street, city and state portion of his address.  She encouraged us to help him learn the numbers in our address.  (the day of our conference I told him our full address and when I've asked him several times since he has said the full address including the numbers -- hopefully this will stick with him!)

* He does not know his phone number.  (No surprise, I've never EVER talked with him about our phone number)

* He has learned the rules of the classroom really well.  She stated that at the beginning of the school year she could easily tell that he was one of the younger kids in the classroom by his behavior (not listening as well, talking out of turn, learning about circle time, etc) but by now he is doing excellent. He is in a 4 and 5 year old classroom where you must be 4 by Sept 15 of the school year and Isaiah was 4 on Sept 11 so Isaiah and Caiden are the youngest in the class.  He does occasionally tune out and randomly comment to Caiden something completely off the subject - but this is totally normal and expected.

* Mrs. Knapp told us that Isaiah has a such a kind and loving spirit (which we knew :) and is always helping Caiden.  He likes to make sure Caiden has his folder turned in, his coat on, is sitting where he is supposed to. She says he is such a great friend to Caiden.  He also is very friendly and excited to play with the other kids in class.  (But Isaiah and Caiden are always right by each other)

* Back in the end of September they did a cutting exercise and Isaiah did well cutting 2 out of the 3 lines well.  She said she would like to see him continue working on his cutting, but since that activity he has really improved.  Part of his problem then (and now sometimes depending on his mood) is being patient and taking his time cutting.

* She was pleased with how far he could count, but when tested in class he counted upto 11.  Both Mark and I were surprised about this as he frequently counts much higher than this.  I'm sure he can count to 20.  Hopefully by the end of the year we can make it to 30!

* He can very easily count out different objects and when tested gave Mrs. Knapp the correct number of blocks when she asked him to.

* Mrs. Knapp said that he was a very smart boy and that academically he could easily go to kindergarten now and she's sure that socially he'd be ready by the fall!  This makes me happy, but we are almost certain that Isaiah will be attending another year of preschool and starting kindergarten just before he turns 6.  She thought this would be good for him too - his preschool offers a 5 afternoons class from 12:30-3 that I think we will check into in the spring.

I am so proud of him and how great he is doing!  His conference went really well and there were no surprises (except the counting maybe).  Great job Isaiah!