It’s that time of year again…  Report card writing time.  

While I don’t miss teaching *or* writing reports (I’m so glad I don’t have to write phrases such as, ‘must endeavour to do her best’ and ‘has made sound progress in…’ anymore) many of my teacher friends are pre-occupied and completely absorbed by theirs.  I don’t blame them – it’s a stressful, all-consuming task!

Anyway, I started thinking about what Vinay’s report card might be like when he starts school.  Will he get comments such as, ‘not reaching his full-potential’ or ‘is making wonderful progress’?

So I decided to write my own progress report for him (once a teacher, always a teacher?):

Vinay has made a lot of progress in recent months.  Most notably, he is now walking confidently and hardly ever crawls.  This does, however, mean that he needs to be watched all the time.  He likes to wander from room to room, touching things and pulling items off tables and shelves.

Vinay can understand and follow simple directions.  For example, ‘put this block where it belongs’, ‘bring me the other shoe’, ‘give me kisses’, ‘come here’ and ‘please put this in the bin’.  While this is all very good, he must remember to listen when he is told, ‘no’.  I am sure that he understands it.  

He has become excellent at making himself understood and his needs known, especially since he can only say ‘mama’.  He makes sure it is known that he does not want to watch the programme on television by throwing the remote control at whoever is in charge of changing channels.  He shows when he wants to go downstairs by pointing, and he shows that he’s hungry by ‘smacking his lips’.

He can show where his hair is, where his nose is and, by blowing raspberries, where his tongue is.  He can also show where his feet and hands are and, if he’s not wearing a nappy, will happily show you where his nooni is.  He is still confusing eyes and ears, though.  Perhaps a body parts book will help?

He is able to identify (by pointing) many animals in books, on television and on his clothes.  Some of these include, horses, pigs, dogs, cats, monkeys, lions, tigers, giraffes, penguins, birds, bears and butterflies.  Perhaps it is time to move on from animals and onto other objects?  Maybe body parts?

He has learnt how to show his muscles.  He does this by stretching his arms up over his head.  He has also learnt how to do ‘suuuuuper baby!’.  This is done in the same way as showing his muscles.  He is working on ‘shake your bum bum!’, but so far will only wave his arms above his head.  Perhaps he doesn’t know *where* his ‘bum bum’ is?

Vinay loves (some) nursery rhymes.  These include, ‘The Wheels on the Bus’, ‘Twinkle Twinkle’, ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’, ‘London Bridge’ and ‘Ring O’ Roses’.  He can do some of the actions to these rhymes, but mostly does his own version of them.

Vinay likes approval, rewards and praise.  Very often, when he’s done something right (such as identifying an object correctly), he claps for himself and looks around to make sure other people have noticed.  He likes to make eye contact with other adults so that they smile at him.

His confidence has grown and he is now comfortable walking away from his mother during playgroup, experimenting and playing with different toys.  In fact, he finally sat on the rocking horse he’s been eyeing up for the last month!

Although he has made a lot of progress in recent months, there are things on which he needs to work.  Vinay must remember that pulling the dog’s tail is not the way to touch him and that he must be gentle.  He should continue to work on learning the different parts of the body.  He must work on putting the shapes in the correct place in his shape sorter and maybe even work on the names and colours of the shapes. 

Most importantly, he should try to not wake up twice every night for a feed.

Overall, Vinay is a delightful, loving and affectionate child and an absolute pleasure to have in everyone’s lives.

*Please note that this might be completely biased