Parent-Teacher Conference Survival Basket & Comments
A while back I read Bunches and Bits idea of creating a parent-teacher conference survival basket. I thought it was such a great idea, that I stole it for gifting our teacher (Teacher N) when our conferences finally rolled around (yesterday).
I decorated a basket with some pretty ribbon and filled it with shredded paper. I included water, an energy drink, some fruit, a muffin, mints, citrus candies, tylenol, blistex, a stain remover pen, and added a very cute stamp (she uses them on paper for the kids all the time) from MJ’s Art Stamps for Teachers, just for fun. [Do I have a picture of ours? Of course not! Grr camera!] Kidlet decorated a thankful for teacher card (since conferences lined up with Thanksgiving week it seemed appropriate) and we tucked that in as well.
Teacher N loved it! She said that in 23 years of teaching she’d never gotten anything like that, and was so touched to get such a thoughtful gift to help her through 12 hours of conferences. When we arrived at our conference time in the afternoon, she said that she’d been making the other teachers jealous all day, showing off her basket, LOL.
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The conference itself didn’t really hold any suprises. We all know that his behavior is something that we are all working on — he just seems younger than the other children emotionally and socially (and that’s not really shocking, given his history). But he is improving, having fewer emotional melt-downs, etc.
As we (immodestly) know, Kidlet is very bright and Teacher N had nothing but good things to say about him academically. It’s not just that he knows things that are well ahead in grade level (ie, reading, math, etc), but the way that he looks at the world. He is constantly seeing things that tie into whatever the class is doing and the things that he knows (finding “wall words” in the community, pointing out that such and such is a noun, or a solid, etc – that kind of thing). He is so enthusiastic, he apparently has some of the other kids (including a couple of the slower ones) doing the same thing. She would like to have Kidlet enter TAG, but thinks we should wait a little bit to give him more time to work on his behavior and emotions.
We are probably going to have an occupational therapist look at Kidlet, mainly because of the writing situation I posted about the other day. There just seems to be a disconnect between what he knows to do and what his hand does. I had read enough on the internet to wonder if he might have some kind of sensory processing disorder. Mom and DH and a SiL thought I was just making the symptoms fit the disorder, but without any mention of it by me, Teacher N brought the subject up. So we’ll see what comes of that.
aw, that was such a sweet thot and gift basket! No wonder Teach N was the envy of the other teachers. well done but wished your camera was working then, nvm next time ok.
I stumbled onto your blog today and thought I would leave a note.
My son has SPD, and writing can be one of the indicators. I am curious to know what else is going on with Kidlet to make you think SPD is the issue…my son has SPD and we had him diagnosed at 4–a year before Kindergarten–and his handwriting is still a struggle at 8.5.
I am going to copy your gift idea for next confrences–our school does a full snack bar for the teachers in their lounge, but I LOVE the idea of giving them tylenol! LOL
Thanks for sharing,
Hartley
hartleysboys.blogspot.com
@hartley: My son is adopted, and was sensory deprived for the first six months of his life. There was alcohol (100%) and probably drug use during the birth mom’s pregnancy. He was basically left in a stroller for 6 months. He had muscles that were shorter on one side of his body than the other (like in his neck) because he was left in the same position so long. His developmental milestones were all very delayed.
So I tend to be hypervigilant in looking for potential problems and pitfalls. Although born without fetal alcohol syndrome, I have been concerned that he may be affected by another of the spectrum of alcohol induced issues. FAE has a tendancy to surface around kindergarten age, so I was looking at that when I came across SPD.
It’s just tough to know if he is just behind a bit, and his behaviors are normal, just more pronounced for now, or if there really is a problem.
Aside from the writing and fine motor issues, we see other problems as well.
Some of the issues are emotional. He seems much younger than the other children in his class because he is excessively impulsive, easily frustrated, has difficulty with transitions and changes in routine, and emotional outbursts are not uncommon. He avoids eye contact, and in general has a lot of trouble relating to his peers. He tries hard, but isn’t well accepted and doesn’t really have a good friend.
Physically, there just seems to be a disconnect with what he should know and how he acts — like he knows his baby sister is right there, but he will fling himself around and flop and I worry all the time that he’s going to smack into her; just not spatially aware. He is excessively fidgity, a bit of a “spaz”, and is always knocking things over, very clumsy, and doesn’t seem to have very good control of his gross motor at times.
Hi,
This post is so exemplary of why you are such an fantastic mama blogger! I hereby give this award to you! Please stop by to pick it up!
Happy Little Bento