And the answer is...

Parent teacher conference went a lot better then I thought it was going to. We had a 30 minute talk with Mrs S, and came away feeling very comfortable with having him in her class.

Key points:

- The first thing Mrs. S said to us was "so, if I remember correctly the Kiddo has never been in any other sort of school atmosphere. No preschool? No daycare?" We said that was right, he's been a home kid only. And she said "that's what I thought, that explains a lot about his behavior in class." That's a great thing to hear from her because it tells us that she knows his issues are because he hasn't learned "how" to be in class, NOT because he's any less mature then the other kids.

- In regards to those behaviors in class I gather the kiddo has a problem staying in his seat and not laughing or talking at inappropriate times. As well as personal space when the kids are sitting in the center rug playing learning games. All are common in kids who haven't learned via other social situations and things that he will pick up better as the year goes on. For now she has had to pull him out of the group a couple times to get him to listen (mini time outs; go sit in your chair, or put your head down on your desk) .. and each time she does he stays in time out for a few minutes, then he apologizes, tells her he will not do it again and asks if he can come back to the group. She says she really likes that he does that.

- In regards to the assessment scoring; the Kiddo scored so low in some areas because he didn't focus and follow directions NOT because he didn't know that particular skill. Good news there is that Mrs. S says he's doing better then he was at the start of the year with those issues (following directions being a big one).

- Mrs. S showed us each paper/test form she used for her grading. She told us what he did, and what he should have done to score higher. We talked about what we can do at home to help him for the next quarter. It's pretty much what we are already doing, which made her happy (and me). Bonus points to me!

- She said he is doing very well socially. He makes friends easily, and all the kids seem to like him.

- She mentioned that one boy in particular is quite a bit bigger then the Kiddo. She said this boy likes to try to pick him up... and that she had put a stop to that a couple times. She said "I hope this is okay, but I talked to his parents..." She said she'd explained to his parents that the Kiddo has some special circumstances and that if the boys were rough housing and happened to fall over he could end up in serious trouble. So she asked them to talk with their son about appropriate play in school. We told her that was absolutely fine, we appreciated her paying enough attention to notice, and to solve the problem, before anything happened.

In the end I think we were all happy and on the same page. Mrs. S said that when they start doing reading centers next week she is looking forward to seeing how well the Kiddo does. She told him that if he reads anywhere near as well as I told her he can that she would start sending him home with a library book a day so that he could read them that night. That made him pretty happy. I really hope he buckles down and reads the way he CAN when he has the opportunity to show her how well he does.. he is really proud of how well he does and I think it would do him a world of good to know he's shown her how smart he really is.