Parent/Teacher Conferences

I had my parent/teacher conferences yesterday with Jaden & Gabrielle's teachers and everything went great!

Jaden has been struggling a little more lately, now that the curriculum is getting increasingly more difficult. But he's holding his own and is still making great progress. He's reading at the appropriate level and has always excelled in math! He's made the most progress with his social skills. Last year (and the year before), he would only really join in and play with the other kids on the playground or during free time if invited, or if the other kids went out of their way to include him (classic Asperger's). But this year, he's seeking out others and initiating play! Jaden has always been super friendly and will greet everyone....but when it comes to play time, he likes to go off on his own, into his own world. So the fact that he's wanting to have that interaction with the other kids is huge! He's having a hard time being flexible with his routine again. Routine is big with kids in general, but especially for kids with AS. They have a certain expectation of how things should go, and if there's a conflict or change of plan, that can really throw them off track. Sometimes for just a few minutes, sometimes for the entire morning/afternoon. Jaden had gotten really good about being flexible and being able to deal with change in routine. But this year, he's struggling again and getting upset if he's missed something or not finished when the rest of the class is ready to move on. It's not like the teacher can make everyone back up and wait for Jaden or make sure Jaden has heard/read what they have (like I can do at home sometimes). His teacher and I think this is probably due to the fact that 1st grade is so much more challenging and Jaden is really maturing as a student. He's finding his nitch in the classroom and is becoming more independent - and with that comes struggle. We've got some ideas on how to work on this. But overall, he's doing well and I thank God that he's able to stay in the regular classroom. I attribute most of his success in school to his wonderful teachers & their patience/love for Jaden, but also to the fact that he's in a regular classroom 90% of his day and is able to learn by watching/interacting with his peers.

Gabrielle's conference was absolutely delightful! According to her pre-K teacher, Gabby is actually past the level of where a kindergartener should be at this point in the year! That's my girl! The other kids in her class are starting to associate letters with the letter sounds right about now - Gabby is actually putting letters together to form words! Every Monday, they write in their journal about their weekend. They draw a picture and are asked to try and write a sentence at the bottom, describing the picture. Most of the kids in her class write the first letter of each word in their sentence, which is great. But Gabrielle would actually write words that I could decipher and tell you what the sentence is supposed to say. Some examples - she wrote BRBE for Barbie and BCH for beach. Also, they haven't even started working on number recognition yet, but of course Gabrielle can recognize all of her numbers and can count clear to 100! They only need to count to 20 by the end of the year! ~lol~ Another comment I keep hearing from her teacher is how helpful she is. Once she's finished with her assignment, she always offers to help out others. And Gabrielle is super creative - her teacher says that she's always looking outside the box. They were studying shadows & using the projector to make shadow puppets. All the kids got to come up and make a different shadow for the class to guess. Gabby gets up there and actually brings props - she got a tissue box & some other things off her teacher's desk - she was trying to set the scene (the ground, trees, etc.)! I wonder where she gets that from?

I can't believe how blessed I am!!!