Progress

The past week brought around progress reports and parent teacher conferences.
Alek was up first. Our first official parent-teacher conference. Though we had not received any bad reports or emails from his teacher and he seemed to come home everyday with greens on his charts, we were still nervous. In the back of our minds was last year. Alek had such a rough time from September to November we were worried. I never said anything ahead of time to the teacher, because I didn't want to ever label him before anything ever happened. I am glad I didn't.
The conference went really well. His teacher is fabulous and totally gets it. She showed us some of his work and what his strengths and weaknesses were. She said he was timid at first and not wanting to participate or speak out alot in class, which surprised me, but she said it didn't take long for him to open up.
We asked about behavior and his wiggles. She said, that yes he does wiggle and move, but he is not disruptive and is also focused and she doesnt expect kids to be still, especially active boys. She said she usually has him sit towards the back of the carpet when they do floor work so he is not bunched in and can move around. She said many kids need to wiggle and move to stay focused and that is ok. She said he is always focused and knows what is going on and is very involved. She said he also loves to be a helper. It was so great, I love that she gets it and gets him. He loves school and he loves her, he is excited to go everyday, he loves learning and he loves his homework.
We are so pleased and needless to say we were thrilled after this conference!

Next up was Maks. Maks' teacher is wonderful as well. She had Alek and she knows my kids well. She worked over the summer to slowly transition Maks to the older preschool room. She had expressed concern that he may struggle with the longer circle time and "education" type activities because he would be easily distracted. She also had said he never had much patience when it came time for arts and crafts activities. Never really liked coloring, which is totally true. He never wanted to color or draw. She had said we would watch and see how he would do.
Well he progress report was great. She said he is more focused. He is great in circle time, loves it, is extremely engaging and loves to participate and in fact gets sad when it is over. She said he is starting to color more and really enjoy art activities. She said the only thing was his frustration. He is a perfectionist. If it is not done the way he thinks it should be, he gets mad and throws it out. He is exactly this way at home, especially with his legos. He knows what he wants to do in his mind, but if he can't get it exactly that way, he gets very frustrated. But he is persistent and will start from scratch. He is also starting to make closer friends and he is tight with one girl in particular. So that was nice to hear.
She said all in all he is on target for his age and his group and he is doing well. I was very happy. It is nice to hear it from someone else!
His speech is slowly improving. We are getting yet another therapist, which to me is a big part of the issue. They keep changing on us. But I hear great things about the new one, so I am hopeful. He still struggles with T,F, S sounds, but he can do it, you just have to slow him down. If he is slow and repeating after you he can do it. We basically undestand 90% of what he says, so that is a big improvement.

It has been a great fall so far in terms of school, so we are thrilled.
We are looking forward to a fun family Thanksgiving that we will be hosting. The only downside is Alek now needs surgery. he will be having his third set of tubes placed and his adenoids out the day before Thanksgiving. The surgeon said he would be fine, probably just tired and maybe some pain, but we will be able to control it. There are also no eating restrictions. Hopefully this will help curb the infections, mouth breathing and restless sleep. I am sure we will see a big improvement.

Next up: Maks 3rd Family Day, November 20, 2009! Hard to believe 3 years ago we were spending Thanksgiving in Moscow.