Survived Parent Teacher Conferences

WHEW!! Am I glad those are over with. I'm usually excited about them and dread them at the same time. I really don't like critique and I always feel like my children are being critiqued--trust me, I live with them--I have their faults pretty much down! I know they are supposed to be helpful, and generally they are. It has always been a struggle to listen to T's simply because of the problems we have with his attention problems. A dear friend of mine has a daughter in the grade ahead of T. Last year when she was in 6th grade, Jen always said, "she is so stressed out and she is such an organized kid--what in the world happens to the boys??" Well, I can tell her as far as T goes--He just doesn't give a rip. Yeah, I'll do it later, Yeah, I'm not sure where the paper is, Yeah, I might have a test tomorrow, or was it yesterday?? EEEK. I am highly organized too, so listening to the teachers tell me that he isn't very organized and can't find his homework, or didn't remember to do his homework or whatever, is very stressful for me. So the day they got out of school for spring break he says "Um, I think I have a D in science" and kept on walking thru the room on the way to his room. My response wasn't not able to be repeated here. I was so proud of him when I got to his conferences today. No D's on his report card--not even a C. A's and B's and hardly even an assignment not handed in (almost none). He has finished the standard goal for reading (a whole 9 weeks early) and earned himself a place on the mystery trip they take the kids on in the spring. He really doesn't get into reading much, so this was a big deal--also considering that we spent the first semester constantly hounding him on getting his books read. And his teachers seem to enjoy him--so that is even nicer. His music teacher would sure like him to take a solo to contest, which he told me was too late to do. HAHAHA--He was wishin I didn't know that. So hopefully he will agree to that.
G's conferences are usually good. He is a good student, tho he likes to rush thru his work so he can be done. It always a cringing moment for me too as I listen to them tell me about the mild OCD/anal-ness/black and white issues that he deals with--It reminds me of the things in myself that I don't always like!! I think he and I are a lot alike and wonder if my mom listened to the same things that I hear about him. He also had A's and B's.
D's conferences were better this time around. The first time I heard that he was a bit of a chauvanist pig and didn't really like the girls, except for one. He has grown out of that and the girls are no longer scared of him. He still likes things to happen the way he thinks they should (OCD/anal/black and white-I see a pattern!!) Overall, things are going well for him too. Hard to believe that summer will be here before we know it!! Hope everyone has a great week! We're hoping for one here--a little rain would sure help!! M