Parent Teacher Conference

On Thursday last week, I had to go to the school for Casey's last parent/teacher conference of the year. You may be surprised, but the conference did not revolve around how I failed miserably as a parent this year by: sending my kid in the wrong uniform on the first day of school, not sending in Valentines for the Valentine's Day party, and getting kicked out of Busch Gardens when I was chaperoning the field trip. In fact, none of that came up at all -- and I'm really really glad because I was a bit nervous. Apparently, at parent/teacher conferences you talk about the kid, not about the parent. That's a helpful tip for those you parents out there with kids not yet in kindergarten.

So, the conference focused on what a great kid I have and how he's just smart as a whip. All of these things I knew, of course, but it is nice to get outside validation sometimes. Casey's teacher mentioned how much Casey's handwriting has improved this year and showed me several examples. She talked about how much she loved the stories he wrote and his scientific mind, and how much he loves learning. And as wonderful as all of that was, my favorite item that came home from school this year was this:



My favorite part is the exclamation point.