Reports, Reports

Today was a day of reports. In the morning, I took Liam for his three year old check-up where he was declared fit as a fiddle. He weighed in at 34 lbs and measured 37 inches. He was even able to do the vision chart with pictures which gave him the opportunity to show off his smarts. He identified called the moon a "crescent moon," the boldly lined circle a "tire," and the plus sign "the sign you see on church." So far so good with the vision.

Then, Evan came home with his first report card. For the first quarter, we have parent teacher conferences. The report card doesn't really tell you much of anything. The children are rated from 1 to 4 in three major areas of learning--math, reading, and motor skils. 4 is advanced, 3 is proficient, 2 is progressing toward proficiency, and 1 is needing improvement. Evan rated a 3 in every area, most of which were things he knew before he went to kindergarten. Event though the detailed explanations accompanying the report card told me that a 4 was impossible in nearly all areas, I was disappointed not to see any 4s. But, I know from my teacher friends that teachers have to be very careful about indicating that your child is smart.

There were three lines of text that noted his sweet nature, artistic skills, and frequent need for a teacher to stay on task. I'm not sure if the last thing is something I should be concerned with or not. His teacher has never mentioned that this need was excessive in chats with her, and she graded him as satisfactory in all areas of personal/social development. I guess I'll have to follow up on that if I want to truly understand what that comment meant.