21st Century Jedi

Apparently, Jedi in this century drive HumVees.


This is not the HumVee you're looking for....


In other news, we had our first parent-teacher conference with Michael's Kindergarten teacher this week. I was looking forward to hearing more about what Michael does, and more so what his teacher's opinion of him is. However, as we sat in those tiny chairs, I found myself a bit nervous. This is our first parent-teacher conference EVER, and even though I know there will be a ton more, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, or even what I was supposed to do.

As we left, I gave Michael one last chance to 'fess up to anything that we might find out from Mrs. G, similar to how someone might plead guilty and strike a deal with the DA in an effort to reduce the sentence (man, I've been watching too much Law & Order: CI lately). Michael declined, fervently professing innocence.

Mrs. G had a lot of positive things to say. Michael is the sweetest kid (right, get onto the stuff we don't know), he's friends with everyone in the class, is attentive during class and follows directions (we're going to have to get some of that school water here at home, because when she said that I almost asked 'Wait, we're still talking about Michael, right?'), and has no difficulty working with a team of other children. She said that every day he comes into class he has some story to tell her; Grammy is visiting, Nana & Papa are coming, the cat threw up on his bed, etc.

Academically, she reported that he is doing very well with his alphabet, and is showing the appropriate signs of being able to read, which should happen soon. He can recognize small words, and has the ability to sound out words he can't recognize. She stopped number recognition at 110, confident that he knows his numbers. I've taught him to count to 1000, so that was no surprise. He can count by fives and tens to 100. He's having a bit of trouble with periodic points of complex quadratic mappings, but he should be able to nail that down soon. He's excited about Spanish, pays attention, and is learning quickly. Overall, he's excited to be there, and it shows in his progress. I know she wanted to say that he's the best student in the class, and perhaps in the history of Kindergarten, but I'm pretty sure that school policy prevents her from doing so. But we all understood each other.

The only negative (if you can call it that) is that Michael is quick to look to a teacher or other adult to resolve conflicts or issues with other kids. It's a sign of a lack of maturity, but considering that he's only five, there's no need to call in the shrink just yet. I figure a good solution is to talk to him about it - ha, just kidding. We're going to enroll him in intense martial arts classes. That way, when a conflict arises, he can just sand the floor with whatever little Kindergarten punk is dumb enough to start something.

Sal and I didn't hear anything we weren't expecting to hear, and there were no surprises, so I guess Michael is off the hook until the next conference in the spring.