So, we've just had our first (ever) school parents' evening for young Oliver - I booked half a day of holiday from work to come home early, to go to see Oli's teacher about his progress.
It's amazing, as all the things that she said about Oliver are exactly what we would like to hear from the teacher… but see so very rarely at home.
"Oh, he's a pleasure to teach"
"He plays so nicely with other chidren"
"He gets on and does, whatever we're doing and doesn't kick up a fuss"
Pfft. Yeah, right.
Maybe at school, but at home, he can be right little handful, that one. Maybe at home, he's able to let down his hair (metaphorically-speaking, as we clipper it quite short!) and that's perhaps when he learns to be around Jack. Granted, that being around Jack might be a bit stressful for him, but that's what brothers are for, is to tease and play with.
But she did comment on his vocabulary and his ability to read, given his age, which was great, as Claire has been spending lots of time with him, either on the readingeggs.co.uk website or through getting him to read short books and pick words out using flash-cards.
Reading Eggs has played a big part in his read, and I'm sure I might have mentioned it in an earlier post, but it's WELL worth noting again. It teaches children words and encourages them to learn it mostly through repetition, but also through games and tasks, all with short exercises but frequent rewards; with these rewards, he is then able to 'spend' them on upgrading his avatar or other things in the game. He also gets to print out a real-life certificate too, which he is most proud of. So, yes, cannot say a bad word about Reading Eggs - a fantastic website, aimed at teaching children how to read, showing them the wonders that it brings too.
Going back to Oli, and his teacher, she said that he's quite laid back and will do as they ask (!!) and will also join in with lots of different people, irrespective of differences. For instance, if he wants to play in the sand, which he can do, there may already be people in there, but he's not put off by playing in there if, say, there's someone he doesn't like or doesn't get on with, or… heaven-forbid… a girl is in there. Remember, he’s at ‘that age’ whereby they’ve just realised that there are boys and the other ones, (namely GIRLS – and yes, you have to say it like GiiiiiiiiRRLS), and that boys are great and girls… well, they're not. This is obviously a little ‘virus’ that must spread around the school, particularly easily when some children have3 older siblings to help introduce new 'things' to them. Either way, it is certainly not something that we'd say at home.
But my badly-illustrated point, is that he's a generally happy little lad with no fears, but no concerns either. And just gets on and does it. Obviously, very much like myself. Except I'm not so little height-wise anymore!!
