Parent-Teacher Conference

Ethan is doing well in school, according to his teachers.  The Chinese teacher, who speaks no English, said that Ethan loves to talk and talks too much in class.  She also encourages students to speak only Mandarin in class but Ethan is talking too much in English.  She wants me to be aware of this problem.  I don't see what I can do to change this except to mention to Ethan that I am aware of his being a chatter box in class.  Then the Chinese teacher noted that Ethan has the inclination to color and draw with black and other dark colors.  She said that's a sign that Ethan is not happy and he is thinking about things.  I thought that was an interesting observation. 

The English teacher, and her assistant, was more upbeat about Ethan.  They said that he is not just a follower, and that he sometimes enjoy taking the lead when he plays with other kids.  They were quite pleased with his progress because he apologizes when he is told that he did something wrong.  In particular, he used to hate holding hands with his partner Sally.  He would either refuse to hold her hand or he would squeeze her hand really hard so that Sally would go running to the teachers.  Now, they said, with relief, Ethan doesn't do that as frequently.  The main teacher said that she has high expectations from Ethan because he is one of the few in the class who has a large amount of vocabulary.

So, not so bad!  I just have to work on his sleep and his ability to control words that comes out of his month ... yeah, a long story.