Last week we had parent-teacher conferences at Alexander's preschool, Bluebird Montessori. We'd been just dying to know what was going on in the classroom because Alexander hardly tells us anything. At first, we were drilling him on what his day was like:
"What did you do?"
"What did you learn?"
"Who did you play with?"
"Did you have fun?"
No wonder he wouldn't really answer us. His teacher, Teri, says that's pretty typical for kids just starting school. They're experiencing so many new things and they don't know how to put all these experiences into words.
So, we were trying to lay low until the conferences. Although, I got pretty sly with my questions: "If I were to ask Teacher Teri what you did today, what would she tell me?"
Strangely enough, he didn't have a problem telling me what Teacher Teri would say.
After weeks of trying to pry information out of Alexander and surreptitiously peeking in the classroom windows at drop-off and pick-up times, the conference day finally arrived.
And of course, we learned that Alexander is doing fine, wonderful, and all that good stuff. But there were some surprises. We learned that our son is a good observer.
To fully understand this, you have to understand that in the montessori classroom a child is allowed to work on something until he is finished. If the pink tower of blocks is already in use when Alexander wants to work with it, he can either find something else to do or he can observe. Observation posture is very specific--standing quietly with hands behind the back. Aparently, Alexander will walk around the classroom like this, observing at one table then the next. Quite a change from home, where he can't keep his hands off anything!
We also learned that of all the other children at the school, Alexander is the one most concerned with order and tidiness. He always has to put things back exactly as he found them and will help other children when he sees that they haven't done it correctly. Now if we could just get him to do that with his toys at home!
I'm amazed by how much he's learning. When we're out and about he's always pointing out shapes to me. "That's and oval." "What's that cylinder over there?"
The other day he asked me, "Why do grandma and grandpa both start with a G?"
And he can add and subtract on fingers (up to ten).
I guess I'm proud of our little guy!
She's a cheeky little thing, very determined about what she does and doesn't want. She's getting to be quite social. Often I call it nosy. The minute I get her up in the morning and carry her out to the living room, she's whipping her head around to get a look at who else is there. 
