"You're pretty tricky, Dad"

Kailyn informed me yesterday--out of the blue, totally unrelated to anything else we were talking about. "You're pretty tricky, Dad." "How's that, Kailyn?" "I never see you give Mommy the money you make at work. You're pretty tricky when you give it to her."

And now, a little bragging about Kailyn. Yes, it's full out bragging. If you're one of those people who just despises listening to others talk about how good their kid is, skip the rest of the post. It's okay. We don't mind. I brag about Kailyn here because this blog has become our family journal/scrapbook, so when something like this comes up, I've got to post it.

Kailyn was spot-lighted in her class last week. We got to select 30 pictures of her growing up and turn them in, along with some of her favorite toys. When Shelly went in to help drop off the pictures and stuff, the teacher pulled Shelly aside and told her what a joy it is to have Kailyn in her class and said that Kailyn is "such a sweetheart." Our neighbors' children had the same teacher a few years back. On mentioning to him that we were excited for parent-teacher's conference so we could see how Kailyn was doing, he asked if we had heard anything yet. I said we had not. He said that was a good thing, because he knew from experience that the teacher was not bashful at all about telling parents if their kids were misbehaving.

Parent-teacher's conference went well. Shelly went. She said that the teacher had only glowing/good things to say about Kailyn. Before the school year started, the teacher gave all of the kids a 30 question quiz to see how prepared they were for school. Kailyn scored 28/30, apparently the 2nd highest in the class. The teacher reports that Kailyn is very polite and attentive (we told Kailyn her teacher had said this, Kailyn said, "That's because I like to learn!")--for those of you who know Kailyn, you know how much she likes to talk. The teacher said this hasn't been an issue in school or class--Kailyn always gives the teacher the respect she needs. Kailyn continues to do well academically--she can read all but a handful of words from her "Fun with Dick and Jane" book. The book is a collection of "Dick and Jane" stories and is 150 pages. Here's a video of her reading.



Kailyn interacts well with other students. She makes friends easily. Her teacher points out that Kailyn is even sweet to those who are not nice to her. "Kailyn has such a cheery disposition. She always has such a great smile and always seems so happy. I've been teaching children for 30 years--Kailyn is a very special girl. Whatever you're doing at home, you're doing it right," were some of the greatest words to hear from Kailyn's teacher. Wish we could take all the credit (actually, Shelly, since I'm never home anyway), but for everyone out there who knows Kailyn, she really is a very special girl. The teacher said Kailyn is in a group of students who are in the "ready to read" group. The teacher asked Shelly if she could spend an hour each week coming in to help the students in this group. Shelly would like to do it. Shelly mentioned that Kailyn really likes reading the "Dick and Jane" books but sometimes gets frustrated about sounding out words. The teacher suggested that Kailyn start working on some of the words that the kindergartners are supposed to know by the end of the year. Kailyn already knows about 3/4 of them just from reading her "Dick and Jane" books. Now that we think about it, we think we may have misled the teacher a bit--that whole comment about how she doesn't always like to sound out words seems to undertell how Kailyn has already developed a pretty extensive reading vocabulary. Oh, well.

At any rate, you know how it is--you get a little praise about your child, you feel so proud, you know that she is absolutely the best student this school has ever seen--all the while, the next parent enters the room and hears similar things. But, hey, for us, it's a wonderful thing to hear. Kailyn has her moments (like whispering all through a primary program practice session), but overall, we're pretty proud to have her in our family. We're sure proud of all of our children. Of course, Jordan and Caden are also very special--we just don't have parent-teacher conferences for them, yet.