Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails.

And energy.

And mischievousness.

And silliness.

And creativity.

And wonder.

And mischievousness.

So, I had my first conference with Ephraim’s teacher. It went well. She’s a great lady and she does a great job with the kids. Lots of fun hands-on stuff, painting, tasting, cooking, etc. She told us that Ephraim is “active” and “silly”. Sounds like some boys I’ve taught before. Little boys are just – different from little girls. They want to clown around, make jokes, laugh and get laughs. They can’t stay still for long, they enjoy their friends, and they’re a little sneaky. (And men are just oversized boys. You know how guys love to quote movie lines and crack up? Still got that class clown silliness.)

However, I still want for my son to obey the teacher. (Isn’t it funny that if the parents are giving orders, you obey, but if the the teacher is giving orders, you follow directions?) She also showed us an assessment she gave all the kids, and he missed 5 items, and the most any child missed was 6 items. (My teacher self thinks: Oh, he’s a low kid.) It’s true, he learned his colors and numbers more slowly than Madeleine did, and he didn’t talk quite as much as she did as a toddler, but he walked at nine months and was climbing up the chairs and onto the dining room table at – one? Maybe before one? He’s always been very active.

I can tell he is learning, though, because when I show him Aa, he can tell me the sound it makes, and if I tell him the letter is named A, he’ll say “capital A and lowercase A.” If I show him Bb, he says /b/ (sound b makes) and do the capital/lowercase thing agian. He also has been pointing out the letter b to me in books we read and saying /b/. He has concepts of print because he knows when a book is upside down and he knows letters go left to right because he will point to the words. He will also try to “read” a book on his own or pretend to be a teacher and “show” Madeleine and I the pictures in the book and “read” it to us. I definitely see growth.

His teacher’s final comment was how happy he is and how she loves to see his smile and his big blue eyes looking up at her. I love that about him, too.