This week parents signed up for a 30-minute observation of the classroom, then we each had a 30-minute conference with the teachers today.
OBSERVATION DAY
Luke didn't notice me enter the classroom. He was very busy for about 10 minutes working on some puzzles. When he finally saw me he got upset - either that I wasn't supposed to be there, or why wasn't I there to take him home. But I did have a chance to observe all of the wonderful activities the children were doing. They were working on dressing and undressing and toileting. And the teacher did a language skill development activity where they passed around objects learning the names. The children were all quiet and well-behaved - it was like squirmy, yet somehow organized chaos. Most of them worked as a group, with Luke and Anna (the two youngest) working independently. The funniest thing was when a child dropped a very loud metal bowl, the entire room lit up with sporadic "uh oh"s .
The teacher later emailed me: "That was an interesting reaction we got from him when he noticed you in the room! I have noticed that Luke is very attuned to order in the classroom, and even small changes can upset him. I think that's why here acted the way he did to your presence. He had a fine rest of the morning."
CONFERENCE
Steve and I met with both Luke's teachers today. We got a "report" on each area of skills that they work on in the classroom. We discussed Luke's language skills - they said his receptive language is good - he responds well to instructions. And he learns new words quickly - he will point to objects when they say the word. And I have noticed in just the 3 weeks that he has been there that his spoken vocabulary has probably doubled (the cutest thing he says VERY expressively is "no waaaaay"). One interesting thing they told us was not to put pressure on him to come up with a word - don't point to things and ask what they are. They said to continue telling him words and asking him to point to objects that we name, then he will spontaneously repeat words, then he'll eventually start coming up with the words on his own.
They also noticed that Luke is much more quiet in the mornings and prefers to work independently on manipulatives, puzzles, language baskets, and watering plans (he's not much of a morning person - just like his Mommy!!) But after nap, he really starts to talk and do more physical activities - washing dishes, mopping, etc. Once when I picked him up, his teacher was playing guitar for them, and Luke was dancing and really enjoying it.
I know, I go on and on. My mom made me a sign: "Blogito ergo sum. I bog, therefore I am." LOL. I promise new pictures soon - I have avoided the camera since Luke has had such a runny nose. But he's better and maybe this weekend will be nice for pics. :)
