Jack's Conference

I realised that for the second time this month I skipped a day of posting.Oops.

In my defense I taught until 5.15pm, then got home, grabbed the family and dashed to Jack's school for a parent/teacher conference, then met a couple at my house who might be buying some toys off Craigslist, then did homework, ate dinner, bathed and put boys to bed. At this point it was 9pm and I just collapsed on the couch and watched Homeland. I love that show and marvel each time how much of a great actress Claire Danes is.

Jack's conference was okay I suppose. He's great at all the things I was great at (science, art, social studies) but struggling with reading and writing. We talked about how they can help him and how we can help him. One of the issues we have is that he's sat with kids much older than him that finish their work quickly, so he rushes too (so he won't finish last) and he gets it wrong. She even made the statement that one of the kids in his group finds it way too easy. Marvelous. How about we move him then to a group of kids that don't finish it first and find it all easy-peasy lemon squeezy?  How about we build his confidence rather than making him feel like a dunce?

I keep questioning my decision not to red-shirt him (hold him back a year so he's one of the oldest) but it felt so right at the time and for heavens sake - kids start in school at age 4 in England! I read a really nice article written by a child psychologist recently that concluded that all the kids typically level out by 3rd grade and that red-shirted kids do not necessarily go on to excel. She also said (and this is the most important thing for me) that years 5 and 6 are crucial for learning and the best place for them to be during those formative years is in school. So what I have to do is stop comparing him to the older kids. I really do.