Parent Teacher Conference

The kids are only in school half days this week since it's parent teacher conference week. Both our kids had their appointments today. So we got to go meet with their teachers and hear about how they're doing. My favorite moment was when we first got there and were told how independent Catherine was, and during the time we're being told this Catherine was hanging onto Ginger's leg for what seemed like dear life. She warmed up about halfway through the meeting and eventually went off and started doing some of the work exercises in the class. Quinn did get complimented that he seems to pick up the math stuff pretty quick and doesn't have to repeat it as much to learn it (I'm guessing he gets that from me, but Ginger's no slouch in that department either). Catherine is probably a bit behind on her number recognition and numeric ordering knowledge, but it sounds like she's doing better though. We were also told that Catherine is big into doing real life exercises (sewing, cleaning, peeling, etc). Meanwhile, Quinn is currently working on learning subtraction at the moment and his teacher mentioned he is showing some real interest and progress towards actual reading. He still has a ways to go, but at least now we can tell he's actually making an effort (it's been noticeable at home also). They're teaching reading phonetically. I'm still not sure that's the best way. I mean I had to learn reading by memorization using "Dick and Jane" crap, and I can reed and right good.

Overall both kids sounded like they're doing well. But at the same time, since you have to pay to go to this school, I find it hard to believe they're going to really tell you otherwise (and I know that's just my cynical nature showing through). Seriously though, do we really believe they would tell us our kids are idiots and their program isn't helping them? I just don't see that happening. And I have no way of comparing how Quinn is doing compared to 'normal' (if there really is such a thing as normal, I've heard it said that everyone's normal till you get to know them). About what age do kids typically start reading?

Tomorrow is the big election day. I'm still not sure what's going to happen. Everyone's predicting a change but I'm not holding my breath. I have my own views on what I would like to see happen, but I don't feel the need to get up on a soapbox about it though (maybe after the election). I do think everyone should go out and vote, even if you happen to favor a candidate I oppose. It's somewhat disgraceful that we live in a country that allows us to pick our own leaders but then only about half of the people actually care enough to show up and make their voices heard.

Tonight's parting image is another one from this past weekend's walk through the woods.