Keegan's First Parent Teacher Conference

Keegan had his first parents teacher conference tonight. So after dinner we packed everyone up and drove back to Tutor Time to meet his teacher Sarah.

Sarah has only been Keegan's teacher for a few weeks; his last teacher left and got a new job. I liked Sarah pretty well right away. She introduced herself to me right off the bat and explained how long she had been with Tutor Time (she transferred from a different site)and that she had done infants and pre-K for the last 6 years and was excited to switch to toddler. Keegan seems to like her too, which is what I really care about. Still it was nice to have a teacher actually introduce themselves to you :-) Some of the girls there don't do that very well; although they are really good with the kids.

While Keegan dismantled the Toddler 1 room (absolutely thrilled to have the whole room by himself), we stood and talked with Sarah. She had a checklist of things that Keegan was doing well. He's somewhat ahead in gross motor skills as he can jump now and climb. He also is doing good in fine motor skills (like drawing) and self help skills (like eating with a spoon). He does great with staking blocks (he can stack up to 8 blocks now). She said Keegan was very good at following simple instructions and also was good at sitting still during story time.

The area that Sarah was really impressed with was his language skills. She said that she was absolutely amazed at how much he talks, how many words he knows, and how he is saying three to four word sentences already. I explained that we read a lot together so maybe that helps. She went on for a few minutes about how great this was and how smart he is and how happy we should be. I really didn't know what to say. So I thanked her and said it was good to know that he is so advanced for talking, I mentioned maybe he got all that talking tendency from me :-)

It is good to know that he is so far ahead in speaking ability. We kind of got a hint of that because of our co-workers and how amazed they are at the things we mention Keegan saying. Right now Keegan is picking up words at an amazing pace, I think I hear him say a couple new words each day. This weekend he walked up and pointed to my eyes and said "Mama, sparkly eyes?" He wanted to know why my eyelids sparkled; I tried explained the concept of eye shadow to him. I think he still thinks I am a bit strange for making my eyelids sparkle.

Sarah also said that he plays fine with kids his age and interacts well with adults. When he gets put with bigger kids though he tends to get overwhelmed and stay out of their way, preferring to play by himself. I asked her about this specifically because I have noticed that he does tend to find older kids overwhelming. They are too erratic and noisy for him; he tends to get a bit clingy or just very quiet and wide-eyed.

Overall Sarah says he is a laid-back, very pleasant kid to have around. She said it really was a joy to have him there. Of course, I am happy to hear it because he's my son and I would like to think that I somehow influenced him to behave well! Oh, and of course it's always nice for people to like your child :-)

Lyle and I were discussing how the teacher probably says this to every parent. Sarah is a very enthusiastic teacher and I bet she finds good things about all the children.

Still I do know we are paying them, so it is in their best interest to say nice things about the children. Part of me, of course, hopes that Keegan really is a joy to her and that he really is an exceptionally smart boy...that is to someone other than me. I will always think he is the most special little guy in the world because I am severely biased.

Anyway, it was interesting and nice to know that people like him. Of course, we already know that Keegan knows everyone at daycare and that they all like him. So hopefully he can keep that up well into his teens....