Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The World is Better in Color

I had my first official parent-teacher conference today. And got to review Sawyer's first official report card.

Man, kindergarten is tough. A lot tougher when we were little. They expect the kids to, like, know stuff! It's nuts! Didn't we just fingerpaint and make projects out of gumdrops and glue?

Anyway, Sawyer is doing well. I've noticed in the past week or so he's starting to remember some of the sight words they're learning, such as "like" and "see." He's showing, for the first time, some interest in sounding out words. I don't have an early reader. I was kind of surprised, considering how early he spoke and how much he loves books, but it just hasn't quite clicked yet.

Now I can see it happening. I really feel the wheels are starting to turn. It's pretty cool. I can't wait to hear him reading to his little sister and brother.

The report card is a progress report based on evaluations they've done over the past month or so. They test the kids on all kinds of things, like figuring out which is more, less or equal, writing as many numbers as they can in order, identifying uppercase and lowercase letters, and even how well they follow directions.

Sawyer is pretty much at grade level in most things and she had nothing but positive things to say.

At the end of our meeting, I showed his teacher a worksheet that went home with Sawyer today. I had some concerns about the message she was sending:

 
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Before I went to the conference I asked Sawyer why he chose the colors he did.

"Well, the blue is because he goes in the water, and then when he dries off, he goes in the grass so he's green. And of course his feet are yellow. I picked purple because I just liked it."

"Okay, so if you saw a penguin at the zoo, what color would it be?"

"Black and white, Mommy!"

Like, duh!

I explained Sawyer's reasoning to the teacher. She got it. I guess she didn't realize he actually thought about the colors he used and didn't just randomly grab the first crayon he saw. She did say she wouldn't send a note like that again.

Because, frankly, there are enough rules in school. I want my kids to live in a world where there could be pink, blue and green penguins.

That's part of the wonder of childhood. And that's something that can't be measured.

1 comment:

Janine said...

First of all, I am glad that Sawyer is doing so well. That is always great to hear!

Second, What is up with that teacher? How dumb to tell a kid to use the proper colors. Well dumb and BORING. Is this the same teacher that said color in the lines? Boo! So glad you said something.

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