Parent Teacher Conference

Earlier this morning I attended Ben's second (and final) parent-teacher conference of the year. His first parent-teacher conference back in November prompted me to send him to occupational therapy for a couple of months to improve his fine motor skills (until our insurance stopped covering it).

There were no surprises at this morning's meeting. His teachers agreed with me that his fine motor skills are improving in many areas -- cutting, doing puzzles, buttoning his clothing, he is even starting to do zippers by himself now -- but his pencil skills still suck. ("Suck" was not the precise term that they used but almost). They said he'll need a lot of practice over the summer to get his writing skills past the point of utter disgrace before he starts kindergarten (again, I'm paraphrasing). And I knew all of this already.

The good news is that all of their other feedback was very complimentary. They said he is extremely smart (no paraphrasing there -- "extremely smart") and retains every piece of information he's given. (They also said that he's the last kid you'd think would know all the answers because he sits in the back and looks like he's not paying attention!) They said he is very sweet and respectful of others, loves his friends, enjoys helping the teachers, and genuinely seems to enjoy being at school.

Now if only he could write his name without it being upside-down and backwards...