First Conference

I had my first parent/teacher conference on Friday. It was supposed to be a 15 minute conference but I held her captive for 45 minutes getting every detail I possibly could about my child. :)

She said Almi is popular and smart and happy! Wow. Does it get any better than that? She said she is the second smartest in the class but also the second youngest. She picks up concepts quickly for her age, with only 2-3 exposures. They have been working on letters A-F, numbers 1-6, circle, oval, triangle, rectangle, square, star and the colors pink, red, yellow, brown, blue, green. They also work on fine motor skills like coloring and cutting. She said overall her progress is excellent. I am so proud of her! One funny anecdote, they are learning the letters in their name and she said she put NAOMI in front of her and asked her to identify the letters. She said Almi said, "M-A-oval-M-I" How cute is that?! She said she plays alone but also with other children. She is no longer stealing kids' food or taking food out of the trashcan. She is really focused when they are learning new things, scrunching her face up and concentrating hard. She likes listening to stories and is very affectionate. Here is a quote her teacher said (you know during the conference I was frantically scribbling things down!) "Naomi is playful and funloving. She is happy. Every day she surprises me (with what she has learned). I'm so happy."

She had three concerns: The first one is biting. She said she gets frustrated when kids take her things (still working on sharing) and twice Ms. Edse caught her about to bite a child. This needs to be nipped in the bud and her teacher is working on it, thankfully, because she can get kicked out for biting! Another concern she had was she said it appears to her that one of Almi's legs is kind of bent in. Although she runs without falling, she said she noticed it when she runs. I hadn't noticed but I am going to look into that. Her other concern is speech! Just like her doctor, she said she is concerned about it-- and not in the learning a second language way. She said it appears to be more of an issue with articulation. Interesting. That's two professionals who have expressed concerns about that (her teacher and her pediatrician) so I am now certainly going to look into that. She said in her opinion two years old is too young for speech therapy and for the most part she is able to understand her because she is with her every day (me as well) but it is definitely something I should watch.

As I have mentioned before, her teacher is Ethiopian. We briefly touched on her adoption and I shared a bit of her history and spoke about all the orphaned children in Ethiopia and her teacher started crying! She is such a sweet person and clearly cares for my daughter. We are very blessed.