A girl's best friend, at any age
Yesterday, I met with Peanut's teacher to talk about her progress in school.
It was an overwhelmingly positive meeting. Peanut's teacher describes her as bright, happy and polite. She says she's already reading beyond what's expected of her for kindergarten and that she is doing well in all her activities. One thing she needs to work on is her handwriting, which has always been her weakest link. Those fine motor skills are slow coming to her.
Another is focus. She tends to get a little day-dreamy sometimes and needs a regular tap on the shoulder to stay on task. But otherwise, she's doing just great, which is a relief because we struggled with the decision of when to send her to kindergarten. We were afraid she'd be bored if we kept her out an extra year, but in hindsight, we definitely made the right choice.
I'm amazed by what they teach in kindergarten now. I remember kindergarten being about social skills, shapes, colors, number and letter recognition and not much else. Now they learn to read and write, start building the foundation for things like algebra, use the computer, learn Spanish and talk about Monet's impressionism.
They write every day - short stories and sentences. We're told spelling doesn't matter so much as sounding out the words and including consonants and vowels. Outside of her classroom, there was a bulletin board covered with the children's work. They were asked to write about what they'd do with $100. The kids wrote everything from "give it to poor people," to "buy Legos."
The apple did not fall far from the tree apparently, because Peanut has decided she will spend her $100 on something near and dear to my own heart:
Maybe by the time she gets to first grade, she'll realize she needs a few more zeros on that bill. I'm not about to break it to her.
It was an overwhelmingly positive meeting. Peanut's teacher describes her as bright, happy and polite. She says she's already reading beyond what's expected of her for kindergarten and that she is doing well in all her activities. One thing she needs to work on is her handwriting, which has always been her weakest link. Those fine motor skills are slow coming to her.
Another is focus. She tends to get a little day-dreamy sometimes and needs a regular tap on the shoulder to stay on task. But otherwise, she's doing just great, which is a relief because we struggled with the decision of when to send her to kindergarten. We were afraid she'd be bored if we kept her out an extra year, but in hindsight, we definitely made the right choice.
I'm amazed by what they teach in kindergarten now. I remember kindergarten being about social skills, shapes, colors, number and letter recognition and not much else. Now they learn to read and write, start building the foundation for things like algebra, use the computer, learn Spanish and talk about Monet's impressionism.
They write every day - short stories and sentences. We're told spelling doesn't matter so much as sounding out the words and including consonants and vowels. Outside of her classroom, there was a bulletin board covered with the children's work. They were asked to write about what they'd do with $100. The kids wrote everything from "give it to poor people," to "buy Legos."
The apple did not fall far from the tree apparently, because Peanut has decided she will spend her $100 on something near and dear to my own heart:
Maybe by the time she gets to first grade, she'll realize she needs a few more zeros on that bill. I'm not about to break it to her.
Labels: Pictures, The Darndest Things
posted by Kimberly at
10:09 AM
7 Comments:
I luff this girl. I think her handwriting is beautiful.
Okay, first of all...she is writing AMAZINGLY for Kindergarten and second.....diamonds?! I LOVE IT!!! :-)
That is awesome :) Definitely a momento that needs to be saved for a memory book.
Thanks so much for linking to your kindergarten post. We are struggling very much as of late with the same decision with our daughter. She also has a late August birthday, and we must decide if she'll be entering Kindergarten or Pre-K next year.
Diamonds - awesome! Yesterday, our five year old left us a post-it on the door of our home office saying that the "sare da ofis is clozt" (Sorry, the office is closed) because he'd left toys all over the floor. I love seeing how they are full of their own thoughts at this age.
Aw, thanks everyone! Her handwriting has actually come such a long way since the beginning of the year, but some of her peers have nicer handwriting than me already. :-)
@Momisodes - email me anytime if you want to chat more about pre-K. Happy to share more of what went into our decision. Just remember, you know your child the best and trust your gut.
@LadyM -that note is awesome! You have to save it.
Like mother like daughter =)
I LOVE it!! My kind of girl! I love K sentences because they're just cute!
On M's bedroom door is the sign - 'No GrowNuPs Olowd Posodid' or No Grownup allowed positive.
M has a early September bday, doing our district's pre-k program last year, was the best thing for her. K has been extremely easy for her, while I've watched other classmates struggle. I can't see them going onto first grade next year.
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