Conference with Mrs. Ayotte (Jackie’s Preschool Teacher)

According to Mrs. Ayotte, Jackie is doing very well. Mrs. Ayotte is no longer concerned about Jackie’s gross motor development (i.e. the awkwardness of movement that she mentioned in the fall). She was very encouraged by Jackie’s resilience and willingness to challenge herself physically on the playground. She believes that it is this resilience that has helped Jackie overcome any gross motor lag that may have had earlier on.

Jackie is acting age appropriately in all areas (i.e. separating easily, following instructions, participating in class projects). She is doing more and more of interactive play. However, she still doesn’t initiate play too much using language. Rather, she’ll initiate play by movement. According Mrs. Ayotte, true interactive play usually occurs around 3-3.5. Of course, at home, Jackie initiates play all the time (i.e. at 6am “wake up Mommy and play with me”). Overall, Jackie still prefers to play by herself at school (but she will join in when another child initiates play with her).

Jackie imitates her friend Lucian a lot (something that Mommy observed during the carpool rides) and she’s grown VERY fond of him over the last 6 months.

Mrs. Ayotte mentioned that she was extremely impressed with Jackie’s cognitive abilities, particularly when it comes to learning new skills and working on puzzles. At home, Jackie is currently working on 48 piece puzzles. One of Jackie’s strengths is her ability to focus and pay attention for long periods of time. I can read to Jackie for over an hour and Jackie won’t lose her attention. We can also play a game for over an hour and she won’t get bored.

Overall, Jackie is doing very well at school. However, we are sad that we will need to take Jackie out of FB Meekins. Mommy is going back to work full-time (beginning on Monday). We will be enrolling Jackie in a different preschool (Redeemer Lutheran) that works better for the family schedule.

One other note about Jackie – she seems to have a good combination of being girly and boyish at the same time. She loves cars, but she is starting to pursue more girly interests – namely ballet. We had no idea that she would take to ballet as much as she has. We initially enrolled in classes because we had a gift certificate that we received from her preschool auction. She absolutely loved the class! She loves dressing up in princess and ballerina costumes and one of her favorite DVDs is Angelina Ballerina.