Parent/Teacher Conferences & the Adventures of Super Girl

First, the parent/teacher conferences. Ella's teacher, Miss C., was backed up on appointments last night. So when we walked in the room, she said, "Oh, you're here for Ella. This shouldn't take long at all!" Always nice to hear! The parent in conference before us was the father of a boy I KNOW is always in trouble. He was in there *forever*.

Anyhow, the conference. This year, Ella is being graded on a scale from 1 to 3, rather than last year's scale of "needs improvement," "satisfactory," and "outstanding." Basically a "1" means that she can't do a skill, a "2" means that the skill needs work, and a "3" means that she has mastered the skill. Ella got nearly all 3's. The areas she got 2's in were things like sharing, treating others with respect, and following classroom rules. Which.... Well, she's four. And I know a lot of adults that can use work on these particular skills too!

I left the conference feeling confused. Miss C. said she tends to start reading groups for the kids who are ready for pre-reading stuff after the holidays and mentioned that they'll start to learn sight words, etc. She said Ella would "probably" be in this reading group. I'm not sure why it's just "probably"? If she's mostly mastered all of the other skills, she clearly needs a new challenge. Whatever. I'll assume Ella will be in a reading group after the holidays, though she's already doing what I consider to be a fair amount of "pre-reading" on her own and also knows a handful of sight words.

The other thing Miss C. said (well, two things, actually) that confused me is that she has been working with the kids on writing their names but wasn't sure she was "supposed" to be. What the heck does this mean?? It seems to me that four-year-olds working to write their names is pretty developmentally appropriate? Ella was writing her name in 3 YO preschool, so why is this not a skill they would be doing in 4 YO preschool? I think maybe I just misunderstood Miss Curie because this doesn't make any sense to me.

And, finally, we get the typical "She knows all her colors!" line, which always baffles me. Her 3 YO teacher said this too. Um, yes. But is that really something worth mentioning? I realize that if she didn't know her colors at four, it might be indicative of a problem of some sort. However, I have to assume that most children Ella's age know their colors, so it's not as if this is anything noteworthy. Heck, Ella has known all her colors since age one and so has Sadie.

So good conference overall. Ella is doing well in school and absolutely LOVES it, which is great. But after each conference, I find myself wondering how she's *really* doing, if that makes sense. Does it make me a terrible person that I want to know how her skills compare to those of the other four-year-olds in her class? Should I be worried that she can't write her last name (mostly because she won't try!)? Is there something she should be doing more of at home? Sigh. Yes, I know. I'm becoming one of *those* parents.

In other news, Sadie (who is always eager to remind people that she doesn't attend school because she cried there) has now decided she will be Super Girl when she grows up. She has apparently spent the majority of the past few days asking Dean all sorts of questions about what this most important job entails: Does a Super Girl fly? What sorts of special powers does she have? What sorts of work does she do? Sadie informs us that she will eventually be looking for a Super Boy or a Super Girl to marry. So if you have a two-year-old ready for marriage--and with super powers to boot-- feel free to send them Sadie's way.

Sadie has also been playing at being Barbie lately, which is a trend I rather loathe. I try to keep our house a Barbie-free zone. I just don't like that chick very much. Now, I'm fine with the Princess dolls in Barbie form, but Barbie herself just leaves me cold. (And don't even get me started on those awful Bratz dolls!) However, Saturday night, we were leaving the girls with a sitter and Ella was being a pill about it. So I rented the girls a Barbie movie to keep the peace. Since then, Sadie has been insisting that she is Barbie. Last night, shortly before dinner, Sadie called out, "I don't really want to be Barbie anymore." Which is fine. I much prefer Super Girl, myself. She could totally kick Barbie's ass!