Mrs. N spent most of the conference bragging on Tyler and that was SO good to hear! She said that he is one of the brightest kids in her class and is above average in pre-K skills and phonics. She also shocked us and said that his behavior and social skills have grown by leaps and bounds in the short almost 5 months that he has been in her class. That he was learned to accept discipline and consequences for his actions better, that his listening skills have improved and his ability to share as also improved. He still has trouble talking in an appropriate "classroom voice" (you have your Mother to thank for that, son) and needs to work on his pencil grip when writing. See the sheets below for all the skills they tested him for.
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| An example of work that she was really proud of...cutting and writing his name. Two skills they have been working hard on with him. |
We went into this school year by telling Mrs. N that we were most likely going to hold Tyler back next year and have him repeat P4. Mainly for social maturity and also for size. She opened the conference by telling us that due to his vast improvement in social areas, that she thought he would be ready for Kindergarten if we wanted to send him. But that (raising 4 boys herself and teaching for 30 years), she understood if we wanted to hold him back still, too. We spent most of our 30 minute conference time discussing the pros and cons to both and she ultimately felt that we couldn't make a bad decision...he can be ready if he needed to be but that she also felt another year would really help him in the later middle school years for things like confidence and social skills.
Also having a late-June birthday, Russ feels very strongly that he personally could have benefited from being held back a year from a maturity and confidence standpoint (Russ has always been academically gifted), so that is what we have decided to do. Tyler will repeat 4s at CtK with the teacher that Mrs. N recommended for him.
Mrs. N went on to say how much she loved Tyler and how blessed she considers herself to have him in her class this year. She said there are only a handful of students from her entire teaching career that you truly connect with on a deeper level and that will stand out in your memory over all the others and that Tyler was one of them! She called themselves kindred spirits. She is such a wonderful and caring person and Tyler just loves her so much. He has grown so much this year and I know it has been because of her love and compassion.
We are so proud of our big 4 year old and the progress he has made this year!! Here are some pictures that Mrs. N shared with us at the conference, too.
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| Tyler has thrived at playing with friends this year. |
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| He is very proud of his sister and loves seeing her at school. |
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| He loves playing sports! Though he can get a little frustrated when he doesn't feel like he's doing something well. |
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| Watching a film on something they were studying. |
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| Tyler's house! Apparently he got on a kick where he was drawing this most every day. Mrs. N was very impressed with his stairs and pointed them out to us. This year is the first year where we have seen more drawing and less "scribble scrabble", as Tyler calls it. Ha! |
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| Tyler building with his beloved trio blocks! These have been his favorite thing to play with so far this year. Santa was going to bring some, but they are discontinued!!! |
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| Finished product! |
We have also been doing a lot of research on schools for Tyler Kindergarten and beyond. We have toured 5 schools, both public and private and for right now, we are leaning towards the optional program at Grahamwood (which is a public 1-5 program). They have Kindergarten, but since it is not optional, we will probably keep him at CtK for Kindergarten. He will have to test to get into Grahamwood and the classes are structured with kids who are all gifted and bright. We think this type of learning environment will be a good challenge for him and will also humble him that he is not always the smartest kid. By choosing a public school, we are giving up the biblical-based teaching that we love at CtK (and other Christian schools we toured) and the sense of community that private schools provide, but their academics are far behind their public school counterparts, we believe. And a free, great education is hard for us to pass up, too! So that is our plan for now. Since we are holding Tyler back, we will likely do another tour next year just to make sure we are steadfast in our decision.
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