Our 1st Parent-Teacher Conference

We received an email from Liam's preschool teacher, Mrs. Tenney, that it was time to sign up for parent-teacher conferences. For preschool?!  Okaaaaay. We weren't sure what to expect but were pretty interested to see what she would have to say.  Liam just adores Mrs. Tenney, who has done such an incredible job including him in all her class projects, holidays, and snacks, many of which normally include foods or ingredients that aren't safe for him.  I so appreciate the way she has worked with me to adapt her recipes or find ways to make them in a slightly different way so that he could join in.  VFPNS has been a wonderful place for him.

So off Dad and I went to our first parent-teacher conference, where we sat in teeny tiny chairs (Dad may as well have been trying to sit on a pin head!) and talked with Mrs. Tenney about how Liam is doing in school.  Among other things, she informed us that she can always depend on him to be her little "sheriff" at school.  Translation: he is an unrelenting tattletale!  He makes sure she always knows what everyone is up to, for better or (usually) for worse.  He also apparently has lots of energy at school, and I think she is looking forward to nicer weather so that they can get outside a little more often.  We let her know that because Liam spends so much time with Doreen's older niece and nephew, he has taken a real interest in "homework", and asks for his own while they are working on theirs. Mrs. Tenney now often puts a little worksheet in his backpack to bring home so he can join in the fun.

For as much as Liam has learned from being at Doreen's, we've been amazed at how much he is learning at preschool.  He studies a new letter and number each week, coming home with a foam letter magnet to hang on the front of our dishwasher and lots of little practice sheets of letters and numbers.  He loves to tell us all about the things he learns: how snowflakes are made, fun facts about groundhogs and dinosaurs, and all kinds of funny little songs.

Mrs. Tenney gave us a copy of Liam's progress report.  We did a double-take when we first saw this, only to realize "U" stands for "usually" and not "unsatisfactory"!  

I had to laugh at her comments under Speaking Skills... he is a notorious interrupter, full of questions and side stories, whenever you try to read him a book! He is working so, so hard on hopping... but just doesn't have it down quite yet.  It will come soon enough, buddy!  We're so proud of our big boy!

Speaking of which, look what I found on my shopping list the other day:

It was the first time I'd ever seen him write out his name, completely unassisted!  He has also taken a real interest in drawing, and his people are awfully cute: