The first words out of Miss Neiswender’s mouth were “I love Cole, he’s great.  He really makes me laugh!”    All in all he is doing really well.  Everything she talked about was not really a shock to us and at this point no major concerns.  All the technical stuff was right on the mark of where they all are.  He knew all 26 of the capital letters and 25 of the lower 28.  Mark was funny, he says, “there are 28 letters in the alphabet now?”  heehee…they are teaching them what they call “book a and book g”  he missed q, n, and the book g.  He knows 24 of the 26 sounds, missed G and W.  Knows 7 out of 8 wall words and knows (identifies and writes) all his number to 10. 

As far as the “report card” part…they were only marked in 18 areas and Cole was down the middle having 9+’s and 9 checks.  He will tell you if you ask what that means….”plus that I am doing really good and a check means I’m working on doing better”.   J   There are two other marks he could get a slash meaning beginning/minimal and a big ole black “X”…well, we would know what that is!

Social Development and work habits:
Works well independently - +

Follows classroom routines - +

Demonstrates self-control – check (easy to cry – will get silly and goof off)

Organizes/cares for personal property – check (tends to be forgetful with putting away his things/papers)

Interacts cooperatively with peers - +

Completes work neatly – check (we’ve been working on this at home to…rushes, scribbles to get done)

Remains on task, completes work in a timely manner – check (again, needs reminders – will tend to get silly with friends)

Pays attention in multiple settings – check (we notice this at home, however she feels it is just developmental and nothing she sees as a “medical” concern)

Follows school rules, well-mannered – check (again, quick to get his friends laughing, easy to cry)

Proper pencil and crayon grip - +

Uses scissors correctly - +

Listening/Speaking:

Listens attentively – check

Follows oral directions – check

Waits turn to speak – check

Reading:

Identifies uppercase letters in random order - +

Identifies lowercase letters in random order - +

Written Communication:

Prints name properly - +

Mathematics:

Identifies numeral in random order (0 thru 10 is all they were really tested on for now) - +

The comments I added were not his teachers exact words and nothing wasn’t anything she was worried about but they are things we are stressing to Cole that need to change a little bit.  Cole is doing well…but I would definitely say he “likes” school but that is about as far as I would push it.  He is learning to sound spell but he doesn’t want to do it, he wants to know the right way but I have noticed he is seeing things when we are out and asking what they spell or sometimes sounding it out himself.  I have noticed a bigger interest in letters/sounds etc. since he has started school.  I mean he already knew the letters but now I think he is seeing why he needs to know them.  He brought home his first guided reading book. I’m still in a bit of shock that they are teaching kids to read so young! 

 I do not want it to seem like we focused on the negative because that is not true….Cole’s strengths are that he is very artistic, creative and has a great sense of humor.  We are working on continuing reading/writing skills, problem solving instead of getting so upset so quickly and his confidence.  Even his teacher said she hears him say “I can’t” a lot.  I’m still not convinced that a lot of that isn’t laziness.