Samuel the Teacher

This afternoon we packed up our family and headed to Samuel's school for our very first "Student-Parent Conference." Not your typical parent-teacher conferences. No, with this, your preschooler gets to be the teacher and show you lots of things that he/she has learned! Samuel has been beside himself with excitement and pride. He even came bounding out of school yesterday telling me that he had a "secret" and couldn't tell me! I can't tell you how much I love love love to see the confidence and excitement brimming on that sweet perfect little face!

And amazingly enough, Samuel managed to keep his "secret" until tonight! We were impressed that a 4 year old could keep a secret that long:) When we got to school, one of his teachers gave him a paper with his agenda of things he was going to show us. He got to choose 1 out of 3 choices in each category. He chose book/story time, blocks, snack time (one of his favorites each day!), writing his name and surprise of all surprises...computer! We were instructed to let Samuel do everything by himself and let him show us. He was so darn cute during snack time. He very carefully poured little cups of juice for each of us and laid out a little napkin in front of us. He scooped a few pretzels out of a bowls onto each napkin and sat down to enjoy:)

He is getting really good at writing his name! He is working hard on lower case letters. He couldn't wait to show us the computer. While Ben was watching that, one of his teachers, Mrs Darby, pulled me aside to explain how he was doing (great!!) and give me some papers, including a Scholastic book form! Can I tell you the great memories that brought back? Do you remember coming home from school with your Scholastic book form, excited to pick out which books you wanted? anyways...I'm digressing....

And then after he had shown us everything, his teachers said, "Now, Samuel, go show them your painting!" The teachers had such expectant, proud looks on their faces. I must admit, before you look at the picture, that I was expecting a few careless paint brush strokes or a few blobs. Samuel isn't exactly crafting-inclined! He hates to get messy and has refused to paint at school until now....

We went out into the hallways and this is what we saw:

How amazing is that?! Okay, let me be a proud parent for a minute! We were so excited and surprised to see Samuel's rendition of Thomas the Train! For his first big painting, I'd say that's pretty good! He wrote his name down in the bottom right corner with the "e" and "l" above. Pardon my phone pic:)

The look on his face when he marched up to it was absolutely priceless and is imprinted in my mind. He was so proud and it brings tears to my eyes to think of it now. He wanted to take his picture home tonight but we had to wait:) You can bet I'll be saving this one in his memory box!

Ah, the life of a school parent!