Preschool Update

Although I missed it because I was stuck in traffic, Jason attended our first parent-teacher conference last night.  He had his own parent-teacher conferences to work around in order to go, but he made it.

We learned a few things about Rachel during this process.  She has been part of an evaluation process at school over the last few weeks, and has done well on all the elements.  The evaluation options for temperament are 'flexible', 'fearful', and 'fiesty'.  She falls into the 'fiesty' category of behavior type, which have descriptor words such as "...active, intense, distractible, sensitive, irregular, moody".  Jason and the teacher had a discussion about ways to best deal with children with this type of temperament.

A few of our questions for the school were answered, and have helped us change our thinking on some things:

THUMB SUCKING - although the dentist may not like it, the school sees it as a great way for Rachel to regulate her own level of arousal.  The school recommends that we don't worry about it and don't try to stop it or control it because it's probably helping Rachel cope very appropriately.  To us as parents, we are a bit relieved to hear this, because we were feeling a lot of pressure from people around us to somehow stop this habit.

NUNU - the school also has no problem whatsoever with Rachel wanting to be attached to her white blanket bear, Nunu.

DROP OFF - I (Meggan) still have a really hard time dropping Rachel off because Rachel attaches herself to some part of me and then I don't know how to escape.  I was encouraged to continue to be matter of fact and firm and leave quickly, and not be nice or nurturing or show any guilt about it.

NAP - We have been experimenting with shorter naps or no naps in order to make bedtime easier.  Preschool will support a shorter nap but does not want to eliminate nap at school because Rachel is still very tired after lunch and sleeps well.

HYPERACTIVITY / DISTRACTIBILITY - The school sees Rachel as behaving pretty typically for her age, and has no concerns with these behaviors at this time.

Rachel has been a delight lately, and has been a real help as a big sister and a good traveler.  We are looking forward to a terrific October without many travels and a 3rd birthday to celebrate soon!