Parent teacher conferences

So, the best way to have a good parent teacher conference is to have a good parent teacher relationship with communication that happens not only at the end of the six weeks but as issues arise and sometimes just to say, "hey, I wanted to tell you he's having a great week."  

This years parent teacher conference was so awesome.  I have to say, I may bribe, plead, beg, coerce these two to follow big brudder all the way through high school and beyond.  There were no surprisess. There was no principal waiting for me as I walked in.  It was un enventful.  Wow!  I didn't hear, " Joseph has told several people (when he was upset and feeling out of control), 'I'm going to tell on you to my mom and she's going to call the government.'  These kinds of threats make me uncomfortable."  Last years gold medal winner comment.  So much to say about that.  A. It's too late now to punish him because you waiting god knows how long to tell me. B. Remember how I told you at the very beginning the gap between emotional age and intellectual age.  That "threat" demonstrates that perfectly.  Stomping saying I'm going to tell ( 3 y.o. Emotionally ) my moms going to call the government (higher intellectual reasoning).  C.  That's just kind of awesome.  D. You're going to let an (at the time)  8 year old hurt your feelings?  Sheesh.  

Anyway, that didn't happen.  You know what did happen a little vindication.  One of the teachers said, "I'll be honest, when I saw his name in the roster, I was scared.  Last year every time I went down the hallway, he was having a major issue.  This year, the teachers stop and ask 'how's Big Brudder doing?'  I tell them great. Because he is."  

So, we had to live through a bad year to get to this awesome point.  Some I'm sure is maturity, being familiar with the school.  More than that though, I believe in my heart of hearts it is this years match.  It works. He has two strong, in control teachers.  He feels that an doesn't feel the need to control everything.  While they are strong and in control, they are not rigid in their thinking.  If they see something is not working, they try to find a solution that works for everyone. Not just Big Brudder, not just them, not just the other students everyone .  I am beyond greatfull for this year.  We needed this year to happen.  I needed this year to happen.  Is he perfect?  No!  Will every day be perfect? Nuh- uh.  But more often than not, it's working, so it's a win!

The NT wee one it turns out is super smart too.  His greatest challenge is that he hates handwriting.  It's hard for him and he doesn't like doing it. So, he does the bare minimum.  Gotta work on that. :-). He has lots of friends and talks in class but stops with reminders.  (Did I ever tell you I almost always had an 'N' in conduct because I "talked excessively."  I guess he comes by it honestly.  

Right now, I'm basking in the glow of my smarty pants kids who are just awesome!