Elliot's Parent/Teacher Conference

Today I had my first parent/teacher conference at Elliot's school.   Before the conference started Elliot pointed to the play area outside and said "Too wet.  Miss Kem wipe the slide with washcloth".  They use the Creative Curriculum at his school and there are certain objectives they use based on the child's age/development.  This is what she had listed on his form and under each objective she put an example of him mastering the skill.

To learn about Self & Others
Objective #6 Learns to be a member of a group.
#5 Participates actively in group experiences
Elliot joins in lunch time finger plays, makes sounds that go with song and folds his hands for prayer.  (I had no idea they prayed before they eat.  It's sang to "Frere Jacque" and says Thank you God, Thank you God, for our food, for our food, thank you for our  ?????, Thank you God for friends, Amen" or something like that.)


To Learn About Moving
Objective #8 Demonstrates basic gross motor skills.  
#5 Balances while moving arms & legs in active play
Elliot runs, kicks a ball, and climbs the stairs to the slide easily (he can also climb the counters and get into all my cabinets - didn't need school to tell me he had that one mastered)

To Learn About The World
Objective #11 Understands how objects can be used
#5 Plans ways to use objects to perform multi-step tasks
Elliot & a friend gathered sealed bottles and used them to pretend to pour liquid into cups then pretended to drink


To Learn About Communicating
Objective #16 Develops receptive language
#5 Demonstrates understanding of increasingly complex and abstract spoken language
Elliot follows most directions he is given and will put away things if you tell him where to put them.  (She also told me Elliot has the best receptive language skills of any kid that age she has ever known!)

Then she asked me about his favorite activities and special interests at home (outdoor play, bikes, trains, blocks, reading, drawing, dogs & playing at the park); Situations or Experience that cause him disress (being told "no" hurts his feelings and he cries and tells me "Say sorry to me!"); and what next steps I want their support in (potty training!).

Anyway, she confirmed the kid is a genius, basically.  He understands everything, remembers it, communicates well and plays well with others.  He really enjoys school and I think he'll love it even more as Spring actually comes back and stays and he gets to play in the "outdoor classroom".

Cold day at the park

It was about 30 degrees and verging on snow when I took the boys out to play yesterday.  It was all I could do to get them to put on something other than a shirt and pants, and keep them on.  Neither one of them wanted to leave when it was time.

I enjoyed watching Noah and Elliot chase each other around, and actually play with each other instead of wanting to do their own thing.  Whenever Noah pushed Elliot on the swing, E kept saying, "Higher, Noah!" until Noah told him he was getting too tired.

I brought Noah's bigger bike to try it out. It's actually one of our neighbor's kid's bike that he outgrew, and they were nice enough to give it to us to use whenever Noah got bigger.  His little bike is almost too little, and his feet have to circle furiously on the small pedals whenever he goes fast. 

He did great on this one once he got going, although it was a little too high to start and stop very easily, even with the seat cranked all the way down. I imagine he will get used it though. He says he now wants to ride both of them.

After we got back, had lunch and put Elliot down for a nap, I took Noah to the library to check out some new books for bedtime reading.  This library has a great kids reading area that overlooks the Plaza, so we stayed and read a couple of books there before checking the rest of our books out. 

As we were leaving, we walked across the parking lot to the Yogurtini shop - a frozen yogurt store that sells about 20 different flavored yogurts and about 50 different toppings, all by the pound.  Between us, we got about $2 worth of yogurt, but it was enough for him, as he devoured his cheesecake-flavored yogurt, topped with 3 red cherries, 3 sour gummy worms and a sprinkling of crushed graham crackers. 

Elliot, who is now talking quite a bit and making sense most of the time, was making me laugh everytime he would talk to me.  Just the way he says things, and the things that he's thinking always surprise me, as I'm not used to him being so interactive. 

Pretty average weekend day.  A little more spring would make it even better. 

Bitty basketball

Noah recently completed his second season of basketball at the YMCA. “He’s better than he was the first season” is about as generously as you can put it. Noah loves it, even if he doesn’t completely understand the point of the game, or pay attention to you when you’re trying to explain it for that matter.

At his age, attention spans are short to begin with, and “organized sports” is somewhat of a misnomer. Beth, one of the managers at the Y, confided to me that the staff refers to it as “sperm ball” for the chaos and randomness that occurs after the whistle is blown. Even so, Noah stands out for his limited focus. If he’s on the bench, he’s goofing around with the kids around him. When he’s on the court, unless the coach is in his face telling him exactly what to do next, he could be dancing, he could be waving at us on the sidelines, or he could be staring at the wall. On rare occasions, he may actually be running with the herd as they stampede from one end of the court to another.

This is not to say he doesn’t have some good skills – he can dribble while walking, can shoot with some accuracy – even when they don’t lower the baskets from regulation height – and can get his arms up to play defense, but only if someone tells him to right that second.

Because he knows how to do all this physically, it has been surprisingly hard to lower my own expectations about his performance and just relax. I find myself telepathically trying to urge him to “Pay attention! Go after the ball! Shoot it!” I get anxious because I know he can do it, if only he’d pay attention (I probably sound like my mom, regarding schoolwork). I’m much better this second season, but it remains a difficult urge to control. I really don’t want to be “that guy”, the sports parent who berates his kid for not doing better and then berates his wife for telling him to calm down. We actually had one like that, and I feel for his kid long term.

If you can disregard your own projections for future college hoops success, it really is an amusing form of entertainment. Noah may not be the best, but he’s far from the worst. There are somewhere around 20 or 30 coaches and parents yelling things at the kids who, like Noah, barely know why they’re there. A basketball to the face will stop play as the injured party sobs mid-court. Teammates will wrestle the ball from each other, chase one another around the court and occasionally tackle if they have to. Dribbling may or may not be involved, and occasionally it evolves into a game of “keep away” rather than basketball. The kids find themselves under the basket with a “What now?” look on their face, with everyone in the gym shouting “Shoot! Shoot!” at them. Even at this age there are a few kids who are standouts, and are much better in dribbling, shooting and tracking the action. One kid even has a victory dance down when he scores, and it takes so long the action has long since moved on by the time he finishes. Even the customary end-of-game handshakes with the opposing team take a Herculean effort to organize and carry out.

The important thing is that Noah enjoys it, and proud of the medal he received. On to soccer...

Grandpa Rick, who is an experienced coach, giving some shooting pointers

dribbling

Practicing some defense

Sideline antics

Showing us his medal after the last game of the season

Noah's never had a very spontaneous smile in front of the camera. Somewhere we have a soccer team picture with this same deer-in-the-headlights look

His more natural picture-taking face.

Learning to skate

Many times as we leave the YMCA, Noah will ask if we can go to the “YMCA Park”, a large park located about a half block away. We’re usually already coming from an activity and in a hurry to get somewhere else, so we’ve never been.

After basketball Monday night, Noah wanted to go for a ride with me. I asked him where he wanted to go, and he told me this park. I hesitated, it being so close to his bedtime, but decided "Why not?" After playing on the playground for a while, we walked over to a white-walled structure I’d always wondered about and discovered an outdoor skating rink, complete with two netted goals.

Noah received a pair of inline skates from his great grandparents for Christmas, but we had yet to give it a try. Since we now had a convenient place, Mandy and I decided to take the boys up there the following night and try teaching him to skate.

The beauty of this rink was two-fold: nobody else was using it, and it was completely enclosed, with locks on the outside of the rink where E couldn’t reach. We brought his bike for him to practice riding, and Noah’s too just in case the skating thing didn’t work.

Noah’s capacity for frustration – or any 4-year-old’s for that matter – is limited, and I tried to set both our expectations low. As we both strapped on our skates, I told him that he would fall a lot, that it would take many visits to learn how to do it, and that he should just keep getting up without getting mad. I fully expected it to last about five minutes, especially after the first shaky attempt gave Mandy and me the feeling that perhaps 4 was just too young to get it.

Much to our surprise, he stuck with it and really seemed to enjoy it. He did fall, a lot, but there was very little frustration and he kept making progress. By the end he was able to move slowly on his own and even get up on his own when he fell, refusing all offers of help. We were both relieved, and proud of his determination. When we finally had to go home and put them to bed, he wanted to stay longer.

Meanwhile Elliot alternated between tooling around on his bike and asking me to give him a “ride” on my skates. Poor kid didn’t realize what a risk he was taking, as I haven't been on skates in a long time – maybe 15 years? This rink was a perfect place for him to ride – flat, smooth and way wider than a sidewalk. Unlike Noah, who we started on training wheels before we knew what a bad approach that was, Elliot got started “riding” his bike last fall. His rides then consisted mainly of walking around with the bike between his legs, which is normal. But he really seems to be getting the hang of it now, and I’m sure it won’t be long before he’s gliding down hills by the church, a year or so earlier than Noah did.

A couple days later, I took both back to the rink at Noah’s request, even though it was considerably colder out. There were three 9-year old girls playing around after their soccer game who immediately swarmed Noah and Elliot and decided they needed some shepherding around, and some “lessons”. They were sweet, and Noah let them help him – something he wouldn’t let me do very often.

Both boys did even better this time around, Noah on his skates, and E on his bike. I brought a soccer ball too, and I played soccer with them for awhile (with me on skates, which came in handy). Both of them kept taking turns pushing me around on my skates. I was even able to talk Elliot into pushing me after Noah in a game of tag. Afterward, we played on the gym in the park until it got too cold to stay.

We had a few of these...

But he took most of them in stride.

Playing goalie

One of the few times he let me help

Determined, or angry?

Noah's helpers

Elliot actually started picking up his feet and gliding

Whoa!

Now shadowing Elliot

Back at the playground