Parent Teacher Conferences

On Tuesday I went to my first P.T.C. where I was the parent. After twice a year conferences for all my students for 6 1/2 years, it was fun to be on the other side of the table now.
The teacher began with prayer-I was trying to remember if I always began my conferences with prayer. I'm pretty sure I did. 9 years seems like a long time since I was in the classroom.
There were 4 areas that Lamb 3 was evaluated.
1. Spiritual/Social were together. Of course he did fine on Spiritual (Know who Jesus is; learn prayers; etc.) Neither Ram and were very popular in school. I was surprised to hear Lamb 3 is one of the most popular students. If he is late for school the other students ask about him. I'm sure it helps that he is one of the oldest ones in the class.
2. Communication-This is one area that we can work on-he needs a speech evaluation. One on one the teacher can understand him. When he speaks to the whole class no one can understand him. He said his full name including his middle name when the teacher asked him.
3. Wellness-The class has 10 students that are age 2 or 3. The teacher was very glad that they picked up going to the bathroom and washing hands so quickly. Lamb 3 knew this before he went to preschool. I sent extra clothes to preschool when he first started going. I was afraid he would have accidents because preschool was new. He never needed those clothes and accidents stopped at home after he began preschool too.
4. "Academics"- Lamb 3 knows everything they have been working on in preschool (counting, colors, shapes, etc.) with the exceptions of not knowing the color gray or the shape diamond. We talked about how much counting Lamb 3 has been doing at home-obviously they have really worked on counting in school. I just realized a few weeks ago that Lamb 3 did not know his shapes. As the youngest he got forgotten to read books and do puzzles and talk about the shapes. The teacher was surprised to hear this as he knew all the shapes when she asked him.
Because the class was 2 and 3 year olds the teacher did not work on cutting with a scissors or holding a pencil/following directions to write lines this year. She plans to pull the 3 students that are new 4 year olds like Lamb 3 aside and work on this in May so they are a little more prepared for 4 year old class next year. Lamb 3 can use a scissors so I'm not worried about that. He could use practice with a pencil though.
I mentioned that Lamb 3 loves the Frances books by Lillian Hoban. The teacher had never heard of them before. She encouraged Lamb 3 to bring them for show and tell day and she would read one to the class. I was surprised she hadn't heard of these classics. Lamb 3 took Bedtime for Frances to school today. Perhaps when the teacher sees them she will recognize them. I'm sure she'll read it in sections as they are a little long for preschoolers.
May will be busy but fun with school pictures, preschool singing in church, field trip to the zoo, and Lamb 3's turn to bring snacks to preschool.
Since this is my first one in preschool I realized how much academics that preschool work on-it's all not just social time. We did the same things with Lamb 1 and 2 at home, but to see it on paper it is a lot. I'm sure the 4 year old class will do even more than his class this year. We are so glad to have Lamb 3 at a Lutheran preschool, it has been very good for him.