Parent/teacher conference. First edition.

I can't believe we had our first parent/teacher conference. It still floors me that Xander is in kindergarten.

He's doing great. He was made for school...or school was made for kids like him. He thrives, he loves it, he's excited about it, he just can't seem to get enough.

He's the kid who comes home and immediately wants to do his homework. (Yes, he totally has homework in kindergarten.) He gets off the bus every single day excited to tell me about his day. He doesn't want me to get him out of school early, even when he has the opportunity - after field trips or special events. I am so glad that he loves school.

The teacher was proud of him and even said she wished she had more kids like him in her class. He's such a rule-follower. We laughed and said, yes, your class would be orderly, but it would take FOREVER to get anything done. He's quite the little perfectionist and therefore spends a lot of time on each of his assignments, making sure they're just right.

This may come out wrong, and I certainly don't mean it arrogantly, but I've always thought Xander was a bright child. It's just that he's always been smart in what he's interested in whether that's cars, countries, flags, maps, the alphabet, numbers, etc. He's always been very articulate and fairly serious. He is a rule-follower and an old soul.
The funny thing is, I always thought he would stand out once he got to school - like, I figured his teacher would be in awe and tell me he needs to skip a grade or something - him being so brilliant and all. But that's not the case. Nothing like a parent/teacher conference to knock me down to earth.
He's mostly right on target. His social studies and science skills are average. He's a bit advanced in math, and he does okay in reading. But basically he's fairly average. Huh. Who knew?

I plan to write a blog post about volunteering in Xander's class for pumpkin centers, but let me tell you - there are some really smart kids in Xander's class. Some of them are reading extremely well, some of them are great logical thinkers, some are super-social and quick-witted, and some are methodical and intentional. Maybe it's my optimistic nature, but I just think we're all smart in our own way. And Xander is very smart. No matter what his smarts look like, I know he is and is going to be a success.

I am so proud of him.