Makenna's Conference

We had Makenna's preschool conference this morning and I wanted to document her school progress here on the blog. The teacher was nice enough to meet with us early as the scheduled conference day is actually on my due date.

As everyone expected, Makenna got rave reviews :) She got the top grade in all 22 areas that they reviewed! The teacher was nothing but complimentary and told us that she is one of those kids that is just built for school! Mrs. Stinson was blown away by Makenna's academic abilities. When they did assessments she had no idea that Makenna could read as much as she did - the teacher holds up letter recognition cards (with no pictures) to see if the kids can identify all of their ABC's. Well each card has a word at the bottom (ie. like "nest" on the "N" card) and Makenna would read the word first and then the letter. For example, "Nest starts with N". The teacher was thoroughly impressed. Makenna obviously knew all of her colors and shapes and counted to 100. The one thing that was news to us is that the teacher said that she was also able to count to 100 by 10's! I had no clue! Josh started teaching her that concept one night and I told him that was way too hard for a 4 year old to comprehend! Little did I know! Mrs. Stinson had samples of her writing and cutting from the beginning of the school year and then recent examples and there were dramatic improvements. Mrs. Stinson said that Makenna is can write (also recognizes and spells) her last name in addition to her first name. She said they would be moving on to phone numbers and addresses soon and wasn't shocked when we told her Makenna already knows hers. Mrs. Stinson also said that Makenna is a very well-behaved child and nicely lets others know if they are doing something inappropriate and if necessary will let the teacher know. The only area she said that Makenna will need to work on is that she talks out of turn sometimes. Mrs. Stinson said that since she is so social and has "so many ideas in that head of hers" that it makes it hard for her to contain them all! :) No surprise to us!

The written report at the bottom of her sheet says "Makenna is a good contributor to our class with her ideas and comments. She plays well with others and seems to truly enjoy school. Continue all you do at home with her and encourage her interest in reading!" The teacher's quote when we first sat down was "She's doing really well for preschool. Actually she'd be doing really well in the 1st grade." There was no question from any teacher (we saw the others as we walked out) about kindergarten readiness - they all agreed that she is more than ready for kindergarten and will flourish in that environment. The overall consensus is that given her maturity, social skills and academic abilities that we would be doing Makenna a disservice by putting her in alternative kindergarten instead of regular kindergarten. This is a huge peace of mind for me since this is such a big decision and will have such an impact on her academic life.

On a cute side note, Maryn got her first preschool experience today :) As we were waiting for Josh to show up for conferences, Mrs. Stinson took Maryn in the classroom (while class was still in session) and let her sit on the carpet next to Makenna and finish up the class with Makenna's help! The brief moment I saw as I peaked in the window she was sitting there with her hands folded praying with the kids and then did the song "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" with them! She did very well and Makenna had fun showing her the ropes! As we were leaving though I talked to Mrs. Sodman (the lead 3 year old teacher that was watching Makenna and Maryn for us during our conference) and she told me she now understood why we were waiting to send Maryn to preschool. She said that she's academically ready, it's just a maturity thing (which Josh and I both agree with). It made me feel even more confident in our decision to hold her back one more year.

Makenna Jo - Your daddy and I are extremely proud of you! Not only do you continue to amaze us each and every day, you amaze everyone around you! Keep up the hard work!