Parent / Child Night at School

One evening this past week we went to D’s Montessori school for what they call Parent/Child Night.  It is supposed to be a night for children to show their parents what they have been working on in school.  He is a third year primary student, which is equivalent to Kindergarten in other schools.  So he has now been in this classroom with the same teachers for two full years and is part way into the third.

We were a little ambivalent about going.  You see, we went the first two years and it did not go well.  The first two years we went (at 3 and 4 years old) his behavior was erratic and  hyperactive, he bounced around the room trying to get in the way of what his friends were doing and didn’t show us his work at all. It had been a long day for him and we could tell he was tired and acting out for our benefit.  His teachers said, “he doesn’t act like this at all in class”.  Of course, we don’t believe that at all because this is exactly how he acts with us most of the time.

Remarkably, this time he was a little more focused.  Here he is showing me his journal.  He has to trace letters in the journal, written there by his teacher, each page is a sentence or paragraph he has recited to the teacher and he draws a picture on the opposite page.  The pictures are beginning to have an attempt at form, rather than just scribbling.  He is not reading the words yet and is having difficulty with holding the pencil and his fine motor skills.  He did read us a small book (he had it memorized actually) but I was still amazed at that.  He is very creative at making up stories, but behind a little compared to other kids in the class on reading and writing.  We are going to get an evaluation so that we can get some extra reading help and help for his fine motor skills.

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