Last night was the ever popular parent-teachers meeting. As is custom, we gave our Little Fella the chance to clue us in on any high jinks that may come up in conversation so we aren’t taken by surprise…

‘My Angel, NEVER, you’re deluded lady!’

Oh yes, learnt from experience on that one. Although Big Daddy’s common response on boyish mischief is usually to put his chin in his hand, look very stern and say,

‘Really? Of course. Uh huh – well I’m not surprised really…’ (mainly because he KNOWS where Little Fella gets his mischievous streak from).

So Little Fella thought for a bit and said there wasn’t really anything. In fairness though we’d had a very long conversation the night before about telling the truth and how important that is with family which has resulted in a slew of confessions…
“No, I didn’t really run around the class in a chicken suit, I was cleaning up because I was disruptive in class”
“No, I didn’t really look for my lost jumper, I went to play Football instead.”
“No, I didn’t really forget my homework, I just didn’t want to do it,”

Minor transgressions really, so I went to the school last night feeling quite positive.

Teachers were friendly. Good start. Teacher 1 started off the meeting:

T1 “Well, we wanted to start by showing you this!” she announced pushing a letter in front of us that had been written by Little Fella, “We are so proud of him, this was an excellent piece of work – a true flash of brilliance!”

Well I was about to stand up and say, “Thank you very much, that’ll do. It’s been lovely to meet you, bye now,” When T2 interjected…

T2 “So we know he’s capable of wonderful work, but he’s still very distracted and unfocused in class…”

Sorry, what? I didn’t catch that – did you say my son was brilliant? I’m sure that’s what you just said. Woo hoo, he’s a genius!
I realized at this point I was doing what seemed to be an awful lot of nodding… Focus woman…

T2 “… so what we mean to say is that we know he can do the work really well but he needs to concentrate in class…”

Yep a true genius – bored in class because he is just so good… I could hear Big Daddy interjecting a lot… phew, he’s got this one. Fantastic. Yep sounds all under control…. back in we go…

BD “… so ultimately this is nothing new, we know he can do it, he knows he can, he needs to be MADE to focus in class…”

So to conclude, on Big Daddy’s recommendation, Little Fella will now get a quiet area in the class where he can have a chance to have some quiet time to do his work. While the teachers initially thought it may be negative (like putting him in a corner), somehow the idea has such merit, they are going to try it out for a couple of other kids, make some special tables up and turn it into a positive area where kids – most importantly Little Fella of course – can get some peace to just get on with it.

We concluded the parent-teacher meeting with some lovely-to-meet-you’s and well-done-Little-Fella’s and with entire family in a good state of mind, we proceeded to get some congratulatory treats and chilled for the rest of the evening.

Now THAT’s the way to do it!