Kindergarten

Noah? For real? OK, much more tomorrow.

Kinsey's year of Kindergarten is ending this week, and I can only tell you that I'm shocked it went by this quickly and so very pleasantly surprised at how far she has come both academically and socially.

Kinsey's always been a particular girl and always like things a certain way, so I wondered how she would react to a new environment, and honestly, she just flourished in so many ways with friends and leadership in her classroom. One story I was told was this: There is a child in Kinsey's class that has some severe behavioral problems. Kinsey's teacher has been dealing with it the best she can, but sometimes the child just has a bad episode. About 2 months ago, Kinsey's teacher moved her and one of her friends to the table with the badly behaved child. When I asked her why, she said that it was because she had been talking too much, which I could see, but didn't think that was the whole story. I asked Sheryl and she said that Kinsey's teacher had told her that when the badly behaved child get the "attitude," Kinsey just ignores it and when it's over, goes back to being the child's friend again. Which just made me so very proud of her. I hope that's something she can keep doing.

Similarly, she's also increased so much this year with her academics. Coming into the year, Kinsey knew her numbers and letters and could identify some words, mainly from memorization (which is how most of us know them). After this year, she is sounding out words, knows her numbers up to 100, and can talk about the lifecycle of a butterfly and frog and other animals. She's doing great on math (thank goodness for fingers) and just had such a great year.

I'm so glad Kinsey had a great experience her first full time year of education. I know it only takes one crappy teacher to mess with a child and I'm so glad and thankful for Kinsey's teacher and friends this year. And even though she's going through a mourning process about not being in Kindergarten any more, she's also looking very forward to first grade and her adventures there.

And really, what more could you ask?