School Time

"I think we should schedule a conference". I have always dreaded that note home every year. After so many years in Florida, and their less-than-stellar school system, that note in my kids' backpacks made my skin crawl. Twice a year I would find those little reminders for parent-teacher conference time and just remind myself to breath. (Remembering to breath is always good, right?) They were less of the "here are ____'s strengths and here's where they could use some improvement" and more of the "this is all the reasons your kid sucks". I would leave those meetings (every single one) feeling horrible. Like I'd become the parent I never wanted to be - the kind of parent I'm sure the school thought I really was. (Probably not such a good thing.) One of the girls' teachers actually told me once that every parent thinks their child is smart......and then just looked at me. (And I sat there thinking "so you're saying she's not??") That was pretty much the epitome of our 9 years in Florida, and pretty much why I hated living there.

Enter our move to England. From the very beginning I was amazed at how different the schools are here. It has been a total 180 from our years in Florida. (yay!!) Anyway. Today was parent-teacher conference day and I was so nervous. I had no idea what to expect. But seriously, it could not have gone better (well unless they wanted to give me a million dollars. That would have been awesome.) The kids' teachers had so many positive things to say about the kids and it was finally that "here are their strengths, and here are their weakness, and here's how we want to work on that". I was (am) totally over the moon.

Not to downplay how well Kierstin & Makenzie's conferences went but Hayden's was the best part of my day. His teachers told us how the kids in his inclusion class (the "regular" kids) love to work with him and include him in their activities. Last week he got a certificate for meeting his Reading Counts goal and they were all so excited for him - clapping and congratulating him. Hearing about all of it brought tears to my eyes. Of course he sat there listening to us talk about him with this look on his face like "yeah, I'm awesome. How could you not notice that?" LOL But the best part of his day? Showing us his very first school locker.

His first school locker.

He was so proud!