Caroline's School Days Update

[puppetmaker]

I haven’t done this in a while so here are my thoughts on Caroline’s year in kindergarten.

She loves her teacher. Her teacher, apparently, walks on water. She drew a picture of her teacher walking on water so I know this to be true. However her little world is about to be turned a little on its ear since her teacher will be out on maternity leave in about three weeks. Her teacher has been good about preparing the kids for the change that is about to come and their new teacher is now in the classroom so she can learn about the children from the teacher that they trust.

She is starting to read now. She brings home books to practice with and she reads them to us and then does her flashcards with the words she should know by sight. She is taking great interest in how words are spelled. She will ask me how to spell Unicorn or Pegasus or Pancake and then dutifully writes it down. She takes great pride in being able to read parts of our t-shirts that have writing on them. We can no longer spell out Ice Cream because she knows how to spell Ice Cream. We may have to switch to pig latin.

Math is fun to her. Her favorite part is counting coins which has taught her how to add and subtract in simple terms. She loves to count to 100 and beyond. Numbers make sense to her which doesn’t surprise me since I was always more comfortable with numbers than I was with letters.

I am amazed at the number of abstract concepts she grasps. Yesterday we had a discussion about the atmosphere and how that keeps the air in so we can breath since there is no air in space. We have talked about stars and planets. We have discussed how plants grow and the concept of evaporation. Her world is expanding at a rapid rate. I hope I can keep up.

And she loves to draw in school. Her teacher makes sure that they have time to just sit and draw whatever they want and draw pictures that she asks them to draw. Caroline has brought home a couple of sketchbooks she has filled with drawings and words she has written. She is singing which is something she did rarely before she went to school. She makes up little songs about her life and things that make her happy.

She thinks that the library is a magical place with so much information to see and read. She comes home with a new book every week and wants us to read them to her many times while she has that book.

She is blossoming into a good student with a fine curiosity about the world around her.

I am grateful to her teacher for helping her become the best she can be.

Comments

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

Frozen confection.
She will not be able to spell it for a very long time.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Or use the phrase in my icon. Hey, it's accurate: that's all food is, if you really reduce it to the most simplistic...

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Good idea.

She'll figure out pig latin quickly as it's used in many pop culture places a kid would find and she's a SMART kid.

And yay for the curiosity and the smart.

[wookiemonster.livejournal.com]

I envy Caroline as she embarks on a much larger Universe. I actually remember my first day of Kindergarten. I knew my alphabet and could read simple stuff. I was introduced to phonics with the word "the," and then I was a sponge for this stuff.

And now? I have a book collection over 600 books and am a voracious reader. I work in a Library and am surrounded by books and love it.

I hope Caroline's love of reading only continues to grow. Your posts indicate she is a very smart young lady, and I wouldn't be surprised if she cured cancer or invented warp drive or something...

Kudos to her teacher, but also kudos to her parents. I know my parents were instrumental in my love of reading and my curiosity about the world.

[readinggeek451]

She thinks that the library is a magical place

Smart kid. :)

Seriously, I'm glad she's doing so well in school and enjoying it. Here's hoping that both continue as she gets older.

[wickedsin.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad her first school year is one that's opened her up to learning. There are too few teachers who do this, and too many who crush the desire to learn in students.

[lacombe.livejournal.com]

I think it's extremely cool that they went through the extra expense to bring the new teacher in the room and adapt her. Too many schools I've seen would simply dump the new teacher in place and make him/her deal with it.

It's very nice to hear about Caroline! :-) Thanks for sharing this!

[jenandbronze.livejournal.com]

I had fun reading this! I am the opposite, words were better for me than numbers. It was old, I was able to read and catch on faster when it came to spelling when I was in grade 1, but comprehension wasn't something I caught on, and I fell behind starting end of grade 2 in that area. I am at a grade four level in Math (I got tested), so you can imagine how hard Math is for me *grin*