Parent Teacher Conversations

On Monday we had Parent/Teacher Conferences at school for the boys, or as George calls them, "Parent Teacher Conversations." I know everyone says this, but it's funny how our two kids are so different. George gets upset when he's not the absolute best at something in his class, and there is a little girl in his class that is way advanced in reading and so Mr. Competitive George is not happy about this. He told me, "Well, she may beat me in reading, but I'm still the best at math." And he was serious about this! His teacher reported that he has a perfectionistic streak which can inhibit him in the classroom as he is afraid to write words he might mispell or answer questions that he is not 100% sure on. I am not sure that I would call George a perfectionist  - as I was driving away from conferences I looked at him in the backseat and he had snot in his eyebrow, his pants unzipped, and dried yogurt on his face. Not such a pefectionist.

Henry on the other hand is happy just being Henry. His teacher reported that he is doing very well this year, enjoys his friends, and is a hard worker. They are supposed to be doing 20 minutes per week of this IXL online math program and the teacher can track how often they've logged on. He gave us a printout with all the kids' names blocked off and showed us where Henry was. Henry was about 1/3 of the way from the bottom, basically doing his 20 minute weekly minimum and not a minute more. I showed him the paper thinking that would inspire him to do more minutes since he was near the bottom of the list. This was his reaction:

H - I'm doing pretty good!
A - You are, but there are a lot of kids that are doing more than they are required to do to get extra math practice - maybe you would want to do that too?
H - Nah, that's okay. I'm fine with where I am. (Shrugs.)

Here' s a picture of George's class on their field trip to the pumpkin patch yesterday.