I had Maxwell's last Parent/teacher Conference with Ms. Cynthia at his preschool. It was a big departure from the first one we had a year and a half ago where I wondered if she even knew my son at all. She had much to say about him and I left feeling so appreciative of everything she has taught him. It made me a little sad to think that the end of his time with her is coming before I know it. I may have had my doubts when we started but it has turned out even better than I could have hoped for.
Some of the notes I took during our conversation...
Maxwell still can't hop on one foot (I'm not sure why but he's just not able to!).
He is getting better at problem solving. He doesn't cry and will take a deep breath.
He still doesn't want to participate in P.E. Specifically when they are playing games that involved being "tagged". He is afraid to be "tagged" and be out so he just would prefer not to play.
He needs to work on tying his shoes.
He loves performing and loves to sing and use the exact words in the song.
He's doing much better at resolving conflict and interacting with peers. (I think the play dates with his classmates have been a great idea!)
He is doing really well at his skip counting and chains which are the prep for learning multiplication.
We spent a lot of time talking about my uncertainty about putting Maxwell into Kindergarten. I am concerned that he is going to be really little. I wonder if he's mature enough to go to Kindergarten. My concerns isn't for his educational ability - in fact I think he will be far ahead of most of the kids in his class already. (In Texas, some parents hold their kids back that turn 5 in early May/June before school starts. So there are going to be 6 year olds in there with him and he will only have turned 5 a few days before school starts. Plus, he's already on the small side for his age...)
Ms. Cynthia felt like he's ready for it and that it would only put him even further ahead of his peers to send him to Kindergarten in a year and then he would get bored and potentially get in trouble.
She suggested that we try to get Maxwell in the lead Kindergarten teacher's class because that teacher will probably be the best equipped to deal with his abilities. She also suggested that I ask the principle about they separate the high performers. She said that Maxwell is reading at about a 2nd grade reading level. When I asked about Maxwell's maturity level, she talked about the fact that when he cries, it's because he's afraid. She said to watch the first 6 weeks of school and watch for the tears. If he cries a bunch, then he might not be ready and we may want to pull him out and wait for the next year.
It was really helpful talking to her and I appreciated her experience and insight.
The Primary Program Skills Inventory goes into a lot of detail, here's a broad recap.
Maxwell's gross motor skills are age appropriate except for his inability to hop on one foot. His Fine Motor Skills, Writing Skills, and Health/Nutrition are all age appropriate.
Oral Language: He exceeds age expectation with his Expressive Language and Receptive Language
Personal Development: He exceeds age expectation in his Attitude Toward Work (he has grown his ability to apply a variety of strategies to solve problems to an age appropriate level), Independence, Concentration, and self control (except handling transition well with his age appropriate). In Maxwell's ability to take care of one's self he is great at some things, good at others, and then needs to work on tying his shoes which makes sense because he doesn't have any shoes that have laces. His personal expression through music, paint, story telling, clay, and drawing is all age appropriate.
Social Development: All Age appropriate
Refinement of the Senses: He has Mastered understanding size, color, differentiation with sound, and touch/weight. For his 2 and 3 Dimensional shapes, he's got the standard shapes down plus all the polygons, curved line figures (I may not know what a quatrefoil is, but he does!), and quadrilaterals.
Mathematics: He has mastered Numeration from 1 - 1,000. He has mastered place value and units, tens, hundreds, and thousands. He has mastered addition and has made steady progress with subtraction and multiplication. He has memorized addition facts and is starting to memorize his multiplication facts.
Science: Max has mastered the days/months and can tell time by the hour with steady progress on telling time by the half hour, and quarters.
Geography: He's made steady progress (the level right below "Mastered") with the continents, oceans, countries of North America and state of the United States. He knows the flags of the US and Texas. He has made steady progress on his knowledge of landforms like lakes/islands/bays, etc.
Botany: He has mastered the leaf shapes and can name the parts of a leaf, flower, and tree.
Zoology: He's mastered the parts of a horse, frog, turtle, bird, and fish.
The notes Ms Cynthia wrote about Maxwell, "Maxwell is such a great student, he's always willing to volunteer in class. During Math time we will be working on multiplication and skip counting. In Language we will be working on identifying nouns, verbs, and improving writing skills,"
How awesome is all the stuff that Maxwell has learned??!?! I am so incredibly grateful for all that he has learned at Montessori and the fun that he's had too. The Montessori method has been a great fit for Maxwell and he has thrived!
