Parent/Teacher Conferences

Hannah and Hailey had their parent/teacher conferences this week:

Hailey: Hailey's teacher said she is a sweet girl and right where she should be academically.  She said her coloring and fine/gross motor skills are exceptional.  She said that Hailey does have a little trouble expressing herself when she is upset (she tends to scream when someone does something instead of using her words) but she understands that Hailey is and has been speech-delayed and there are other kids who do the same thing who haven't even had speech issues.  Hailey also could use a little extra help in willingly sharing and willingly picking up and occasionally gets distracted or stubborn, which is strange because these are not things that she generally has issues with at home.  We will keep an eye on it though.  The teacher called her a "leader" and said that she is extremely creative, much more than most kids her age.  Apparently Hailey likes to use the pretend phone along with 2 other little girls (Emily and Audrey - her 2 "favorite" friends from preschool) and they have some pretty hilarious conversations.  Overally, she said Hailey is a smart and easy-going kid.  Oh and as a side note: her teacher thinks it is hilarious that Hailey corrects you with saying "preschool" whenever you call it "school" (which she does to me too because according to her, Hannah goes to school and since Hailey goes to a different building, it can't be the same thing).

Hannah: Hannah's conference was a little different this year because the 1st/2nd grade combo class chooses to have "student-led" conferences.  Hannah showed me some of the things they had been learning and then gave me a sheet where she marked how she thought she was doing with all the expectations by marking them with a "yes" "no" or "sometimes."  Expectations were things like: kind to friends, finishes work, follows directions, etc.  Hannah marked "yes" for everything except "finishes work on time" and "works neatly."  The teacher actually thought she was being too hard on herself and that she does everything on the list perfectly.  We then went over her report card (all As and S+s) and her NWEA test scores (73rd percentile for math and 96th percentile for reading).  Her Lexile numbers are 185-365.  We were supposed to come up with goals so we chose "finishing work on time" (sometimes she doesn't finish her morning work until the afternoon and although the teacher thinks this is no big deal, Hannah thinks it is) and "reading more non-fiction books" (as a way to branch out on her reading).  Hannah told me that her favorite friends are Avah and Aubrey along with a 2nd grader named Asia.

We are proud with how the kids are doing!

Riding Along

We haven't really had a chance to practice riding bikes much this summer because it has been insanely hot.  Seriously, the only thing to do outside was swim because anything else and you might melt.  Well fall has finally hit and along with all of Hailey's allergies dying off (woohoo!), we are blessed with nice cool weather.  Since it has been so nice recently, we started taking the kids on bike rides again.  You know how kids just suddenly "get" something?  I wondered when that might stop but apparently it continues through at least age 6 because this past spring we tried teaching Hannah to ride her bike and she could do it a bit but just wasn't quite catching it.  Fall has been like night and day.  Not only can she now ride without falling at all, she can even start herself and stop herself.  Talk about it just "clicking" one day!  Hailey has also been using the bike instead of her beloved trike recently so I took a video of them on our walk last night:

I also couldn't resist some cute picutes as they played on the playground: