The Ella and Lily Report

Sidenote: I am accompanying this post with some photos I took of Ella "reading"...the post is about Lily too, but I don't have any photos I could really use for her, so you just get Ella. She wanted me to take photos of her one day, so I had her "read" me Pinkalicious--she knows the story by heart. And then she likes to be "me" and pretend to read. So the photos of her in the chair are of her pretending to be me. :-)

Andrew and I went to the girls' spring parent/teacher conferences last week. What a treat it was! First, we visited with Ms. Debbie, Ella's teacher. Ella has made HUGE strides since we had her fall conference. At the beginning of the year, she could only identify six letters of the alphabet and now there are only 7 she has trouble with!! She is doing great recognizing the rest of the letters. She'll see a word and tell us each of the letters and then want to know what it says. She can sight-read several words. She does a great job of "reading" to us if she knows the story.

She's doing really well with recognizing her numbers as well and can pattern. Most of the kids can only do an ABABAB pattern but Ella can do ABCABCABC. She also continues at what she's doing even if the task proves difficult for her. Her fine and gross motor skills are spot on. And I have to say, this next comment was the most exciting for me! "Ella is extremely talented in Art! She takes the directions to the project and always ups it a few levels. Please place Ella in art classes of all types, she truly excels! It's her love, and creative juices flow left and right. She is someone who stands out on EVERY art project. I enjoy watching Ella create!!!" WOW! Fun, right? Just a little background, Ella's preschool teacher was an art teacher for all grades before she became a preschool teacher so she really knows what she's talking about. I suppose I should probably tell Ms. Debbie about my art history background and that we highly encourage the artistic process in this household. But I do agree that I think Ella is very talented! :-)

Oh, and Ella is in this Fancy Nancy mode right now. She LOVES the books by Jane O'Connor. She will dress up in multiple layers and accessories. Here are two self portraits Ella did. The first is from the fall and the second is her self portrait as Fancy Nancy complete with this purple hat with a flower that she wore to school a couple times (click artwork to make image larger).

Oh, and Ms. Debbie was very supportive about our decision to put Ella into full-day kindergarten next year. She thinks she will do great and that it is the perfect thing for her.

After Ella's conference we hopped on over to Ms. Joanie's table to hear about Lily. She is doing great as well and has really blossomed from this fall when she would cry everyday when I would drop her off. She loves going to school now and every night at dinner when we talk about our favorite things of the day, school is always Lily's favorite thing (on the days she goes). Now, since Lily is only three, her class isn't as "advanced" as Ella's, obviously. They are more concerned about learning social skills at this point and just beginning to introduce letters and numbers. Lily can count to 5 using one-to-one counting. She draws and builds a construction to represent something specific. She is beginning to learn to write her name. She does really well with sharing with other kids and compromising with them. And like Ella, art is her favorite thing. The first thing she does every day is head for the art table. She also is able to identify her colors and shapes really well. They tested her by asking her to follow 2-step directions (find the yellow crayon and color the square). She got all of them correct and then drew little hats on all the snowmen that were holding the shapes. ;-)

Here is her "writing" her name at the beginning of the year when she had no clue about the letters. And then now! I think that's a great improvement!

We talked about Lily's teacher next year who will be Ms. Deborah (Lily will be going three mornings Tu-Wed-Th next year). Ms. Deborah is very creative and thinks outside the box which Ms. Joanie thinks will be great for Lily and that Lily will enjoy being in her class. Ms. Debbie was also excited to hear that Lily will most likely be in her class year after next.

Lily's self-portraits are to the right. Top one is from the fall and the bottom one is from February. :-)

After Lily's conference, we then met with Ella's school speech therapist (yes, we were at the school for an hour and a half having compliments showered on us about our kids). Her therapist loves Ella to death and thinks she is just the nicest, sweetest kid. She said it will be hard to say good-bye to her this spring. Ella has met all of the goals set forth last spring and even though she could probably be discharged from speech at school, we are going to have her at least meet with a new therapist at the elementary school just so she can be in the system and can make sure she doesn't slide backward during the summer when she is not seeing a therapist three times a week at school.

Anyways, all wonderful news! We were so proud of our girls and I have to say I sort of felt like I was getting a report card too. Since I stay at home and feel like it is my job (and more my responsibility since I am home with them all day) to take care of the girls. It's very validating when I hear how terrific they are doing in school. Of course, Andrew has something to do with it too. I'll give him a little credit. ;-) We just hope they continue to do so well and love school in the future!