We must be doing something right

Or at least there are no glaring defects to the public school system which is required to have meetings with parent/teacher conferences within 9 weeks of the beginning of the school year. Our first with the 1st grade teacher was this morning at 7:15. Amazingly we both made it. Well amazing that I was, the dh is good about being up for these things. If he remembers. If he fails he fails big, he'd just flat out forget, which he didn't, he was good.

Per the teacher we're doing well, the kid is on track, a bit ahead for her reading which is good. Teaching a kid to read is hard. I don't remember learning to read, does any one out there remember how they learned to read? I do remember that I learned to read early and I mean hella early. At my 4th birthday somebody (a college friend of my parents) gave me a Dick and Jane book (remember those?), I opened it and read it aloud, by myself, cover to cover, without pausing. The group of them looked at each other and said "Oh, we're going to have to get her the next level book aren't we?". Like I think I mentioned before, I was kind of an after thought in those days. No one really noticed me around or the fact that I was reading their college text books. They were interesting books, even to a 4 yr old. Stupid pot head college students.

Our kid, now we actually are trying to teach her how to read. Her teacher thoughtfully sends home these reader books with sticky notes on the front with specific chapters we have to get her to read every night. We find that as long as we have her do them before the 7:30 hour we're fine. After that is a bad idea. Her daddy has the hardest time with her after a certain hour, I can usually push it a bit later, not sure why but whatever works. She's really getting good at it and she can do it but dang it's frustrating when she starts making up the words. Ever teach a kid to read? Not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. It no longer surprises me that so many people in the US graduate illiterate. Patience, it's not a virtue that many parents have a lot of and you need it to teach a kid to read. Teachers can't teach a kid to read all by themselves, you must teach a kid at home too.

As a side note, cause I can't write a blog entry without one, it's like those parents that brought the kids to the dh's 1 hour swim classes twice a week and expected them to be able to swim in 2 months. Not going to happen. They have to go to the pool like every day for months for that to happen. 2 hours a week isn't going to work. And the instructors tell the parents that from the get go and remind them that every time they come. Do they listen? No. Same with reading, teachers tell the parents, read with your child 15 minutes every night. Minimum. Do they? Who knows.

Add it to the rest of the stuff people know they should do and they don't. Excersize. Eat better, go to church, call your mother, walk the dog, dust the floor boards, clean the attic, put away the Christmas lights before Labor Day, did I digress again?

Sorry, we had confirmation today that the kid is doing well in school and not killing any kids in class. Yet. Oh, and she behaves like a little adult by correcting others quietly and doesn't lose her temper. I think that puts her on track to either be class president in high school or be the next class shooter. Either way we're pretty prepared. Personally I just want her to do well in math, none of the teachers ever mention math. What is this anti math bias? Don't they know her mom is a chemist?