Montessori Conference
I had my parent/teacher conference for Annelise at Montessori this morning. I already knew that her teacher loves her; she's said before how much she values having Annelise's non-stop smile and happy demeanor in the room. :-) I was a little anxious, though, b/c Annelise actually complains some days that she's "bored", that she "didn't get to do enough work"; I was ready to finally get to chat about this at length.
Y'all, I could just burst! Her teacher went on & on about how awesome she is - she follows the rules to the letter, she's "extremely" social, she works well with partners, she is so courteous & respectful, and she is the "full package" when it comes to her enthusiasm for math AND letters AND projects AND puzzles = everything. She said Annelise comes in every single day with news to share with the class. :-P Her teacher admitted she hasn't pushed her much, yet, but after talking to me this morning, knowing she has an older brother she tries to keep up with, and hearing that Annelise has told us that SHE gets bored and SHE wants to do more, her teacher is excited to offer her further advanced work. She agreed that while Annelise has this desire & this motivation, we should jump on it and keep her passion stoked so that her love of learning is always nurtured. :-)
Funny: I mentioned I was glad she had settled in so well after the first couple weeks. The truth is, she *HATED* the first couple weeks!!! In Montessori, each class has ages 3-5 all together; she has ALWAYS been the youngest - in our home, in Montessori last year as a 3 yr old - and she's not used to having to "teach" the younger kids how the classroom works. She was REALLY irritated that these little kids didn't get how everything worked quickly and that they had to "waste" so much time on them, esp. when they "cried like babies." Yeah, the first couple weeks were really irritating for her. When I mentioned this in a really nice way, her teacher said with a laugh, "Oh! I'm so glad you said that! I'm glad that's what she was thinking, b/c a few times in the beginning when I had to repeat myself over & over, she sat in the circle & put her fingers in her ears." :-P HA!!! I can TOTALLY see our stubborn little piece of peach pie getting so mad that her teacher is explaining this boring junk AGAIN to the silly little kids who aren't listening, completely wasting her time that she could be doing REAL work! :-D
I am so thankful that every one of Annelise's teachers (Montessori, dance, gymnastics, Sunday school) thinks she is a ray of sunshine in their classes, that she has good manners, and that she LOVES learning! I thank God for this and pray that He will guide me as to how to keep it up!!! (PS - Will is awesome, too, but we'll brag about him in 2 weeks after his conference. ;-))
Y'all, I could just burst! Her teacher went on & on about how awesome she is - she follows the rules to the letter, she's "extremely" social, she works well with partners, she is so courteous & respectful, and she is the "full package" when it comes to her enthusiasm for math AND letters AND projects AND puzzles = everything. She said Annelise comes in every single day with news to share with the class. :-P Her teacher admitted she hasn't pushed her much, yet, but after talking to me this morning, knowing she has an older brother she tries to keep up with, and hearing that Annelise has told us that SHE gets bored and SHE wants to do more, her teacher is excited to offer her further advanced work. She agreed that while Annelise has this desire & this motivation, we should jump on it and keep her passion stoked so that her love of learning is always nurtured. :-)
Funny: I mentioned I was glad she had settled in so well after the first couple weeks. The truth is, she *HATED* the first couple weeks!!! In Montessori, each class has ages 3-5 all together; she has ALWAYS been the youngest - in our home, in Montessori last year as a 3 yr old - and she's not used to having to "teach" the younger kids how the classroom works. She was REALLY irritated that these little kids didn't get how everything worked quickly and that they had to "waste" so much time on them, esp. when they "cried like babies." Yeah, the first couple weeks were really irritating for her. When I mentioned this in a really nice way, her teacher said with a laugh, "Oh! I'm so glad you said that! I'm glad that's what she was thinking, b/c a few times in the beginning when I had to repeat myself over & over, she sat in the circle & put her fingers in her ears." :-P HA!!! I can TOTALLY see our stubborn little piece of peach pie getting so mad that her teacher is explaining this boring junk AGAIN to the silly little kids who aren't listening, completely wasting her time that she could be doing REAL work! :-D
I am so thankful that every one of Annelise's teachers (Montessori, dance, gymnastics, Sunday school) thinks she is a ray of sunshine in their classes, that she has good manners, and that she LOVES learning! I thank God for this and pray that He will guide me as to how to keep it up!!! (PS - Will is awesome, too, but we'll brag about him in 2 weeks after his conference. ;-))
I had my first Montessori p/t conference on Monday morning for Mitchell. He is a first year, so he's one of those crying kids that has to be taught everything new! They said he usually gets "Montessori fatigue" after working hard for about 2 hours and needs "large body movements" (ie starts to run around). I love the Montessori lingo!
ReplyDeleteHeehee! Will never had a problem with teaching the younger kids, but I'm sure it's b/c he does it naturally with Annelise. He did Montessori through Kindergarten & this is Annelise's 2nd year - we LOVE it!!!
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