Today is Monday, and our schedule is full. It’s not quite noon, but I’ve already made 4 loaves of banana bread, cleaned up the kitchen, and made 2 egg bakes to feed my freezer with. Silje’s new sweater is all done being knit, and I just need to sew up the seams, and hide the strings, and I’ll post a picture of it later today. Hopefully some modeling pics too!
This afternoon the boys are going over to Grandma Linda’s as Knut and I are taking Silje to a meeting with her kindergarten teacher. School officially starts with her on Wednesday. I’m getting increasingly nervous about her starting school, and hopefully our appointment with her teacher will make us all feel better.
One thing I would like to talk with her teacher about is Silje’s reading. Her writing is about kindergarten level, but her reading is off the charts. Have I blogged about this before? I know I’ve posted pictures of her reading. That’s pretty much what I always catch her doing. Her bus ride will be very long, since rural kids are picked up first and dropped off last. So the other day, as we were preparing her backpack, I suggested that she pick out a book to read on the bus. It will be about 45 mins each way after all. Do you know what book she picked out? Charlotte’s Web.
CHARLOTTE’S WEB! I mean, it’s one of her favorite books, and she has read through it a few times. It brought me back to me in 2nd grade, when I wanted to read that book. I wanted to check it out at our school library, but it was in the 3rd-6th grade section, so I wasn’t allowed. I asked the librarian for special permission, and she said I could check it out if I could read her a page. I was so nervous, that I read to her terribly, and she said that I could read it maybe in a year or so. So I saved up $5, and bought it at the book fair. So there, Mrs. Librarian.
But Silje, has already read through this book a few times, and will read it on the schoolbus on her way to her first day of KINDERGARTEN! Something clicked in my head when she picked that book out, that made me start to worry that she wouldn’t be challenged enough, or she wouldn’t learn as much as she could. But then I think she’ll have fun, and if school is fun from the beginning, that’s a good start, right? OOOooooo I’m a basketcase. If you could only see me now.
So there are some things I want to talk with her teacher about, and I’m so excited about who her teacher will be. Maybe I’ll give you an update on our meeting when I post sweater pictures later.
J and K Smith says
August 31, 2009 at 5:04 pmBest wishes with your meeting at school. As Kelten gets closer (I know he isn’t really close at all) to school age, I am glad that we have decided to homeschool because I am a wimp about sending my child to school. I don’t know that I could handle it. 🙂
jdreitme says
August 31, 2009 at 5:29 pmAt least you know she can read. My kindergarten teacher informed my parents that I could read around the third week or so of kindergarten. She asked mom if she had taught me, and mom said no…she and dad just read all the time to me and my siblings…and they thought I was “reading” the books from memory, not with word recognition…so I was given the extra challenge of doing level and age appropriate reading work by myself while the others did letters and phonics. It was lonely sometimes–because I sat in the coat room so I could have quiet to read–but it was also a great thing because they did not make me do stuff I did not need to. (I would have gotten really bored). They’ll be sure they have an accommodation for her, and there will probably be a few more that can read than back in my day. AND she probably won’t have to do SRAs which was the reading work I did that I did not like very much…because it was old sounding and kinda funny looking (early 70’s curriculum no doubt). Hugs to you! Joy
Candis Berge says
September 1, 2009 at 2:21 amGretchen, I know exactly your concerns. Daniel was a reader heading into Kindergarten. At the end of the first week he said to me, with an incredulous inflection in his voice “Mom, mom… the letter A … ALL WEEK???”
Take heart, the teacher paired him with another reader in his class with challenging activities and they did just fine while the other kids went on to the letter B… all week…
Don’t worry, she’ll do just great!