Schools Out... Let the Learning Continue.

At Caiden's last parent teacher conference, he did so well.
He had high marks in almost everything and has improved so much since the beginning of the school year. The progress report showed that he is ready for kindergarten except for in two areas. Those areas are fine motor skills and rote counting to 100. When I asked about the fine motor skills they said that they want him to basically love crafting, which he DOESN'T. (ME EITHER, but we have gotten out the beads and puzzles. So, I didn't totally disregard their suggestion.)
He still has a full year of preschool before he is even old enough for kindergarten so those two things will be easy for him to accomplish over the next couple of months.

I loved parent teacher conference this time. I went into it with a different attitude this time. I went in only looking at all the amazing things that Caiden does know, and understanding that he is going to have areas that are his strengths and others that are more of a challenge.

A funny/cool thing about Caiden is that he can learn anything if it is put to music. (Spelling of his full name, phone number, address and he is working on his birth date right now.)

Since school has been out we have been able to teach him his phone number (writing it and reciting it). I couldn't believe that it only took about 5 minutes for him to memorize it and have it stick. He has also learned to identify so many more of the numbers that he had been struggling with.... He officially hates the number 13. We taped it up around the house and drilled it into him at every corner.... he knows it perfectly now but begged us to please pull the cards off the wall.... "I hate that number!!!"
The poor kid had to be able to recall it before he could have it come down off the screen of the TV... Before he even went down stairs the next morning he stumbled out of his room and in his sleepiest voice he said, "The number is... 13." Poor little boy, he probably had nightmares that the number 13 was coming after him around every corner. Taping it up everywhere was simple yet extremely effective. (Thanks Ms. Vallo for the tip!)

I purchased a kindergarten readiness book and was quite surprised at some of the things that they want children to know before they ever start school.
A couple of the things that I thought were interesting were the full names of siblings and parents and their birth dates and ages as well.
Caiden knows our full names but not the other kids'. I think we will skip the birthday thing. It just doesn't seem that important yet.

I love being able to stay at home with him. It is great to be able to take the time to complement and reinforce all the things that he has already learned at school.

FYI... He can finally identify all of his numbers from 1-100 and is getting close to being perfect at wrote counting from 1-100 also. (He can even count by tens and 2's... HE IS AWESOME!!!)

CAIDEN,
You are amazing and wonderful. It is OK to fail sometimes, but you can only fail if you do not try. Be YOUR best!
We are so proud of your growth and development. You amaze us everyday.
You are such a blessing to have in our home and we thank Heavenly Father for you daily.
♥ Mom