Term Number 2-Finished!

Last week we had parent teacher conference with Colby's first grade teachers. I absolutely look forward to this because it's really the only time we get to see Colby showcase his Chinese skills. So far in first grade he is doing AMAZINGLY! Last year he did great academically but had a little bit of a problem with talking too much to his friends. (I really think a lot of it had to do with his teacher but that's a whole other subject.) Since he is in the Chinese program we meet with both his English and Chinese teachers together. As soon as we walked in his Chinese teacher started talking to him in Chinese. Chris and I looked at each other dumbfounded because we had no idea what they were saying or talking about. At this particular conference she asked him to name a bunch of different shapes in Chinese and after they finished that she had him put the Chinese symbol for that shape underneath it. He struggled a little with saying the shapes (or so I thought) but knew every single symbol she showed him and put it with the right picture. When he struggled a bit verbalizing the shapes I started to second guess myself and whether putting him in the Chinese program was working for him. After he finished with his Chinese teacher his English teacher gave us his report card and went over all that with us. He is doing so well and made the honor roll again. He has been on the honor roll every trimester in school so far which we are very proud of! Now back to the part about being worried about putting him in Chinese...to "grade" the kids on Chinese they fill out a form that says C for Can do this, WH for Can do this with help, and G for This is a goal. All the skills are broken down into categories such as Novice Low, Novice Mid, and Novice High. For example, this is a line from his report card:
Novice High-short, simple conversations on familiar topics=C

We were so pleasantly surprised to see that on all levels low through high he had received a score of C for every single task except for one. That means he's doing as well as he possibly can in this class. The part that blew us away was when his teacher said that Colby and only one other kid in both classes-56 kids had all C's except for one. When she told us that I really had to think about it because I couldn't believe she was saying that-Colby is one of two kids at the top of his entire class in Chinese. AMAZING! After I heard that I no longer worried about whether putting him in Chinese was the best choice or not.

As far as his English report card is concerned, he received all 4's which is the highest grade you can get for every area except he received a 3 in handwriting. If that's his only problem, if you can even call it that because it's still above average, heck I'll take it!

We are so very proud of him and could not ask for a better student! Colby when you're older and reading this remember that we love you very much and are so proud of you and couldn't ask for anything more!

Here's Colby showcasing his report cards, honor roll card, and missing front teeth.

Just had to add this picture too. Love these cute little boys more than words!