Monday evening I had a Parent-Teacher conference. I wasn't aware, but, over the last two months, the children have been given a series of assessments to see just how much they know and/or have learned since beginning 3K.
We went through colors, shapes, body parts, letters, and finally we came to numbers. Her teacher said that she'd been waiting for so long to tell me this story about Audrey and her numbers. From her tone, I couldn't tell if this was going to be good news or bad news. I was told that she was, indeed, able to identify all of her numbers and she counted up to 29. Well great, so what's the issue?
For each number, the children were shown a flashcard and had to tell the teacher what number they saw. The cards were not in order and for most children, the process took about 30 seconds to complete. For Audrey, it was almost 5 minutes. Why is that? Because for my kid, every number told a story in relation to her age.
"Oh that's a 5. That's what I'll be after I'm 4."
"1, that's what I was when I was really, really little."
"3, that's what I am now. I'm 3 1/2 really."
"9, that's what I'll be when I am SO big."
"6, that's what I'll be when I go to first grade."
"10, wow, that's a big number. That's all my fingers, I'll be really really big."
As it turns out, this isn't the only situation where a simple answer would have sufficed, but Audrey has to provide as much detail as possible. If you ask her how her night was, be prepared to get a full synopsis of the evening, including details of her dinner, the shows we watched, the pajamas she wore and the books we read before bed. If you ask her about her clothing, she'll provide you full details on the color, the feel, if there were any tags that had to be cut out, and why she chose the shoes she chose. I suppose she's preparing for the day when she walks the red carpet and the reporter asks "And who are you wearing this evening?"
I left the conference wiping away tears. Tears due to the fact that I was laughing too hard to control myself. Her teacher joined me in the laughter and said "We always know we'll get complete answers with Audrey, and we never know what exactly will come out of her mouth."
It was a wonderful feeling to know just how far she has come since the beginning of the school year when I had to leave her crying in the classroom. All the guilt I felt about whether I had done the right thing by keeping her in school has dissipated and I'm left with a warm feeling in my heart; a feeling of pride and a tinge of "What in the heck is that kid going to say next?"
