Today I attended my first ever parent/caregiver conference. Last week I noticed a sign up sheet on the infant room door for parents to sign up for a slot to discuss their child. Wanting to be an involved parent, I dutifully added my name to the roster. Once I got home, I queried Jaeger to see if he would also be interested in attending. Like me, Jaeger wasn’t sure what would be covered in such a conference and suggest I go and give him an executive summary.

My appointment was scheduled for 9:00am today. Calvin woke up around 6:00 this morning so it was time for his first morning nap around 8:00. The only way I can get Calvin to sleep is by putting him in his car seat and taking a walk. Even though he usually only takes 1/2 hr naps, I was worried that we wouldn’t have enough time on the walk before needing to go to daycare. It turns out I was right. I guiltily woke him up at 8:50 and rushed around to get to daycare by 9:00. (There are very few things I will wake Calvin up for. For example, I won’t wake him up to sign into work on time. However, I knew there was another parent signed up after me so I thought I better be on time.)

We entered the infant classroom and were cheerily greeted by the staff members. I put his bottles into his cubby and then Miss B led me off to the conference room to talk. Calvin seemed in a pretty good mood so we brought him with us. Miss B had a notebook that apparently is Calvin’s daycare “portfolio.” She showed me pictures they had taken of him at various times in the last couple months (including 2 of him sleeping!). Apparently the daycare also writes dated notes on stickers of various “firsts” they observe in Calvin. For instance, they noticed he started trying to sit up in August.

Next up was a review of Calvin’s “art projects.” She told me they needed to keep one for his daycare portfolio but I was welcome to take all the others that I wanted. I felt like a less-than-appreciative parent when I only chose one that consisted of his footprints in various colors of paint. (At what point is an art project truly Calvin’s work? I’m not sure putting paint on paper and letting him ecstatically smear it counts. At least the footprints give a pretty good representation of his foot size.)

The daycare also has what they call a “Curriculum Checklist” to see how the child is doing developmentally. It’s a pretty extensive checklist with multiple subcategories under language arts, sensory stimulation, cognitive development, creative art, motor skills, music/movement, and self-Help/life skills. Each subcategory is given one of three letters: A, S, and N. A means the child demonstrates the skill whenever it is appropriate, S means sometimes, and N means not observed. Calvin falls under the “infant II” checklist. However, Miss B informed me that Calvin just moved into the Infant II category so it wasn’t surprising that a lot of the categories were marked with Ns. At the end of the checklist is room for additional comments where they talk about specific skills he has developed (“Calvin really enjoys arts & sensory activities!”) as well as skills they are still working on (“We are working with him on crawling”). Miss B went on to assure me that Calvin appeared to be progressing perfectly normally and she expected that he would be ready to enter the next room when he turns one. (Based on this it seems like “graduating” to the next room is a combination of both age and skills.)

Overall, I found the conference to be fascinating. On one hand, it made me feel like they really are paying close attention to Calvin. On the other hand, I wonder if grading his development at this early age might be a bad habit. I know that if I’m not careful, I’ll fall into the category of overachieving parents that try to mold their children into perfect geniuses.