I asked Ms. Howrey how she would describe Alice to her future
first-grade teacher. She said, "I wish I could have a whole classroom of
her. Think of what you could accomplish with a whole room of Alices!"
I'm all conflicted. This is my sixth parent-teacher conference EVER (preschool and kindergarten combined) and I'm officially calling it a pattern. I get all tangled up inside about how much to push Alice and how much to simply let be. It has everything to do with my hopes and dreams for her and very little to do with what she really "needs". *sigh*
She's doing great. She's in the top 5 of her classroom for reading, writing, and math. I crave more quantitative comparison data (*sigh*)...tell me where she stands in her class, in her grade, and nationwide. What would I do with this data? Just feel good about her (and myself, because of course I love to take credit for my child's accomplishments *sigh*). Why must I compare her performance to other kids in order to feel good about this whole thing? *sigh*
She could do so much more! If I pushed a little more, what more could she achieve? Should I be pushing? Do I want to push? How much and in what way does pushing help? What's my goal in all of this? And am I doing it for her or for me? Argh! *sigh*
What I honestly liked most about the visit: Alice showing Buddy all the cool things in her classroom. They bounced around from station to station, chatting quietly and sharing. Buddy showed proper respect/awe for all the new toys. Alice loved playing tour guide.
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there is a lot of sighing going on in this post.
ReplyDeleteI think Alice is great. I can't imagine a whole classroom full of her! I think one is perfect.
Relax, chica. You have an awesome child. But I know what you mean, especially the part about "am I doing it for her or for me?" Why do our egos have to get in the way??
ReplyDeleteJust ask yourself, what would pushing achieve? Do you want her to skip a grade? Is there an advanced program you want her to be in? If not, she's happy and learning and advancing just great on her own, and pushing her academically might cause more problems than it solves.
Where you might need to start pushing is when school starts to get hard, when the curriculum catches up to her. For me, my teachers raved about me until about 3rd grade, when I actually started getting challenged. Everything had come so easily until then, and I never had to work to learn. So when it got hard I stopped trying.
If you think that might become a problem for Alice, maybe you could push her to work for something. Maybe not academically, but in another area. Piano lessons or a sport or something else she'd enjoy but would still be challenging, and where she can see results from hard work.
Good luck. And remember to chill. At least just a little. :)