I was dreading tonight’s meeting with YaYa’s third grade teacher. You may remember my reaction to her bold, red ink at Back-to-School Night. I was expecting more of the same. I think Tom was too.
YaYa’s teacher met us at the door with a welcoming smile. Right away she began showing us some of his finished work. She showed us an essay that he wrote about something that he was proud of doing. Apparently, his biggest struggle with this paper was finding a topic. Can you believe that? My little blogging buddy has so much to be proud of and yet he couldn’t recall anything that he wanted to write down.
His teacher began explaining the process of YaYa’s journey towards producing the end product. Actually, it hasn’t quite reached the end product. He has a nice rough draft written in his composition book but has taken so much time to get it just right that the final draft is not done yet. Perfectionism gets the best of him sometimes. The process his teacher described took a few different turns than what I often encounter at home, but it didn’t sound that unfamiliar.
YaYa likes to check in. He likes to do it frequently. He likes to do it whether he needs to or not. I’ve encountered it when he does his homework. He says he doesn’t “get it”, but he does. His teacher mentioned that he won’t even write his name until he has been reassured that he has it right.
It is “confidence” that we’re building. Confidence in who he is, what he knows, and what he knows how to do. Tom and I left the conference confident that our happy, little third grader is doing pretty darn good.
*sign*
Now, we just need to reassure YaYa of it.