25 March 2011

Things I'm Loving 25.3.11

This week I'm dedicating my 'loving' post to our firstborn:

♥ Parent/teacher interview 
Went to our first parent teacher interview with daycare yesterday. And came away smiling from ear to ear.

You know in your heart that you love your child regardless. Whether he's tall or short, thick or thin, co-ordinated or not, academic or not, sporty or not, social or not. In spite of......and despite..... you love him.  It's called unconditional, baby.  

So to hear the teachers say such wonderful things about our boy was just the happy tonic I needed this week. Here's a snippet of the little report we took away:

What are Noah's strong qualities?
Friendship, Communication, Confidence, Perseverance

What learning and interests is Noah engaged in at daycare?
Writing his full name, gaining physical confidence on the monkey bars, doing cartwheels.  Construction - building rocketships. Building and strengthening his friendships.

What are 'where to next' opportunities and possibilities for Noah?
Developing Noah's leadership skills by giving him more responsibilities. Getting him to assist with transition of the new children. Developing his interest in writing his name, and support him in writing simple words.

How well does Noah participate in focus time/letter of the week/readers?
Noah is highly engaged in focus time, in any area from arts and crafts to writing and games. He always  participates in letter of the week (we always make an effort to help Noah take something for show and tell each Friday that starts with the letter of the week). He loves the opportunity to suggest which letter the week should be. He enjoys reading his reader and listening to stories.



Are there any concerns you have?
No concerns as he is a wonderful child.


Woweee!

♥ Confidence and Leadership 
We talked some more to the teachers about how Noah was coping with the loss of his main group of friends who have all moved onto school recently. As any caring parent would be, I was really worried about how he would cope with the change. But both we and the teachers have noticed that, if anything, his confidence has grown in leaps and bounds over the past few weeks. Being the 'big boy' at daycare has been a great opportunity to start to develop his leadership skills instead of always being able to cruise along being a follower.

 Day out to Petone on the train with Grandma & Grandad

♥ Resilience 
I look back now and realise how little credit I gave Noah when I was worried about how he'd cope with all this change. I was especially worried how he would cope this week with the loss of Grandma & Grandad going to back to England the same week that his best buddy B headed off to school. But we've heard not a murmur. He understood that Grandma & Grandad had to go back to their home. He got it that B's time had come to go to school. And has just accepted it as life and has moved on. But he's still looking forward to two playdates, one with B on Saturday and another with another old daycare buddy A on Sunday.

♥ Friendship 
It has been so heartening to see Noah building new friendships now that all his older friends have moved on. This week I was so moved to see him interacting with another boy at daycare. We'd left daycare and he was yelling 'Bye C.....' as C walked off down the street. Suddenly C ran back down the street and gave Noah a giant bear hug and I heard Noah say 'let's have a playdate and a sleepover'. My heart melted.

Friendships on the football field

♥ Patience and perseverance 
I think we could all learn a thing or two from Noah. He is ever so patient. He will often ask for us to do something with him when it's not quite the right time. When we explain that he will need to wait for a few minutes or wait until later, he is so good at waiting or understanding that it's not the right time right then. But he's also very persistent. If you ask him to wait, don't worry he won't forget. Memory like an elephant that one!

We're off to meet the principal of his school on Monday. He doesn't start till the beginning of August but it'll be a nice early introduction to the school, and we'll have the opportunity for three school visits in Term 2 as well.

Oh my boy, you are growing so fast. I can still remember the day you were born. The day you crawled, walked, and talked. The day you started daycare. The day I had to hold you while you went under general anaesthetic. The day you flew halfway around the world with us. The day you became a big brother. And the day you said 'I love you'.

Love ya, gorgeous. So, so much.

Linking up with Paisley Jade's weekly Things I'm loving linky:



3 comments :

PaisleyJade said...

That is so precious - and lovely to hear as a mum!

Brigitte said...

Oh wow - what a beautiful post to read! What a precious little guy you have and can understand how you must feel so proud hearing the glowing comments from teachers!
Cute football-friends photos :)

Anonymous said...

That is so sweet go the big 4 year old boys. He sounds so sweet!

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