Solana Parent Teacher Conference

I met with Solana's teacher a couple of weeks ago for a regular conference. Solana's doing great in first grade. She gets along well with other children. She's reading well beyond first grade level. And this doesn't surprise me considering the way she devours books. It's almost embarrassing to pick up our Hold Request books at the library these days. Her pile is HUGE! Her current obsession is the Rainbow Magic series. They're chapter books about magical fairies and each book is devoted to a different fairy. So far she's read the Rainbow, Jewel, Weather, and Pet Fairies series. There are seven books in each series and probably about 20 series. I'm in trouble when she finishes all the ones the library carries. You know how cheap I am when it comes to buying books.

She's also doing well in Math. I was surprised to hear this since I help her with her math homework every day. Math always came easy to me when I was young which is why I think I have a hard time teaching it. But her teacher said she's doing well so that's reassuring.

Solana's currently in speech therapy. I hesitated putting her in it. My mom told me that I was in speech therapy in first grade. They said I mixed up my sh and ch. My mom wasn't convinced that I had a problem. She suggested that perhaps they just thought that because of my ethnicity except that I didn't speak Spanish at all. Already reluctantly allowing me to do speech she arrived at school to pick me up early one day. Upon arrival to my classroom she discovered that I was in speech. The fact that I wasn't there wasn't the problem. The problem was that the other kids blurted out that "she had to go to speech because she can't talk right." Well, that was the last straw. My mom pulled me from speech and I think I "talk right" now. Anyway, Solana definitely has trouble with her S's and R's. I spent a good 45 minutes on the phone with the speech therapist, who reassured me that speech would be a positive experience for her and, as far as she knows, all kids love it and there's no stigma attached. Indeed, Solana loves it. Her speech therapist arrived for part of the conference and used words like, "charming," "a joy to have in class," "hard worker but not too serious to be enjoyable." She glowed when she talked about Solana and made me feel great.

Solana's teacher also made sure to tell me that she has a special gift for poetry. I was not aware. Oh yes! She not only writes poetry but she writes it completely on the spot and TO MUSIC! The music teacher played a tune and Solana immediately came up with the words to go to the tune. Not only did the words fit the tune but they rhymed. She was amazed and so was the music teacher. They agreed that they'd never seen a student do that the way Solana did it. She went on to tell me that Solana sparked an excitement in the entire class and they ran with the assignment. All the students wanted Solana in their group as they wrote verses to the song Solana began. I remember Solana coming off the bus a couple of weeks earlier. She was excited to tell me about the verses she wrote and sang them to me. I didn't know the rest of the story but I'm sure glad I made a big deal about them. It's no wonder she was proud. Apparently, the teachers were beside themselves.

I'm so proud of Solana! She's a great kid. I'm tough on her and don't gush about her nearly enough.