Reaching Our Goals for Kindergarten

This time last year, my husband and I were agonizing over whether to follow our gut instinct and send our youngest onto kindergarten as planned, or to follow the advice of her preschool teacher and have her repeat the 4’s class and start kindergarten a year late. After talking to everyone from our family doctor, to an eye doctor (we discovered she needed glasses, which may have been a big factor in her ability to learn at the pace of the other preschoolers), to fellow parents, to the principal at the elementary school – we decided to push ahead and send her to kindergarten. Her preschool teacher had told us that she was great socially, but her big concern was our daughter’s academic abilities particularly reading, writing, and her artwork, and she warned us that we would likely regret sending her to kindergarten (“the best gift you can give her is to give her more time”). She also told us that (at least in our district) you cannot repeat kindergarten, so if she did not do well, she could not repeat the grade – she said we’d either have to take her out of school and move her to a Catholic school for another year of kindergarten, and then move her back to public school for 1^stgrade, or just keep moving her along and she would likely struggle to keep up. We had no problem in supporting our girl whichever way we decided to go, but we faced our own struggle to make the decision that would be right for her.

 

After speaking with the principal at the elementary school, we felt confident about sending her on to kindergarten. We were fortunate that our eldest daughter had been through the school (K – 3) and we were comfortable with the staff and the school. We were upfront with the principal and the kindergarten teacher about the preschool teacher’s concerns. Right from the beginning of the year (early October) we were in touch with the kindergarten teacher to make sure that our girl was getting the help that she needed. Within a couple of months, we had a parent / teacher conference and we were told that our daughter qualified for extra reading help, which we were thrilled about! We have kept up with the homework packets that come home each month, my husband takes the girls to the library on his days off, we take turns reading to my youngest, and my eldest daughter loves to try and play school with her younger sister. She has shown a lot of growth this year in her reading and writing, in spite of having her original kindergarten teacher leave and getting a new teacher, mid-year (who fortunately is fantastic!).

This past Sunday, at my end of the year Daisy Girl Scout picnic, I was talking to one of the mothers whose daughter was in preschool and is now in kindergarten with my little one. She told me that she helps with the kindergarten reading groups each week and she said my daughter is doing great in her reading group! There are four kids and she said out of the four of them, my daughter is always the first one with the answer, does great with rhyming words, and she is very focused on getting her work done. She said she is just doing so well!  She also said basically that she knows what we went through this time last year and she could just cry at the thought of what a waste it would have been for our daughter if we had decided to keep her back a year.  It was so great to hear!  I was almost in tears when she told me – what a struggle that was last year!!  

It can be overwhelming sometimes to make decisions that will potentially have a big effect on your child’s life. We struggled with the thought of her repeating the 4’s class and doing all of the same projects and field trips a second year in a row (our eldest went there, so we knew it would be the same!) – what if she was so bored that she was miserable in school? We didn’t want to put her into that mindset. How would she feel when she was a year older than the other kids in her class (and a foot taller!)? How would she feel to be the same age as her cousins and a year behind them in school? She may not have noticed some of these things now, but they may present problems for her down the road. And deciding to send her to kindergarten was tough too – what if the preschool teacher was right and it was a struggle for her? We were prepared to do whatever was necessary – switching to a private school for a second year of kindergarten, a summer session with a tutor to get her caught up for 1^st grade, etc.  Our goal was to make sure she had the tools she needed to make it through kindergarten and to be prepared for first grade -- whether that meant one or two years of kindergarten!

The best advice I can give any parent in a similar situation is to have confidence in your child, advocate for what they need to be successful, be prepared to give them the support that they need, do your research and trust your instincts. And forgive yourself if you find out down the road that maybe what you decided wasn’t the right choice – we can’t predict the future, there are so many factors in a decision like this and you do the best that you can and support your child along the way. 

One of her new kindergarten teacher's class assignments back in January, was to ask the students to write their goal for the school year and to draw a picture.  Our sweet girl wrote (phonetically) that she wanted to swing by herself and she drew a picture of a swing set and herself on a swing.  

Turns out we all accomplished our goals for kindergarten this year!!   We could not be more proud of our girl!

Mother's Day

As I am sure all of you moms can relate, life has been so busy lately!  Work has been crazy and I've put in a lot of overtime on a recent project, but happily that is behind me!  We are winding down our first year of Daisy Girl Scouts, but still need to prepare for our first camping trip which will happen later in the summer.  I am also in the midst of planning my husband's family reunion and in addition to the party planning, we're using this as incentive to finish a lot of projects around the house and yard.  And the girls' school year is coming to a close next month, which means a flurry of school projects, school events, concerts, etc.  Thursday night we enjoyed our eldest's last choir concert of the year (possibly forever -- she wasn't a fan of choir this year!).  Next weekend her band plays the National Anthem at the local pro baseball game -- we're all looking forward to that!  And then one final concert for the band and the jazz band, and she also has to perform with the jazz band at the 4th grade band concert -- we remember that from last year, where they trot the jazz band out to show you what your child might sound like in the 5th and 6th grade!  My little one's elementary school will have their annual Flag Day ceremony, carnival, and her Kindergarten "graduation."  But tomorrow we are all taking a break from all of that to just spend some quality time together!  The only thing on the schedule is a bbq at my aunt's house and we'll get to see the whole family including Grandma (my grandmother - my girls' great grandmother).  So I'm looking forward to a lot of snuggles and kisses from my two sweet girls -- can't wait!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Fun at the Sock Hop!

Last night, after Grandpa & Gramby brought my littlest girlie back from Grandparents Night at her elementary school, we were off to our eldest daughter's middle school for their annual Sock Hop!  This was our second year attending, and it's a lot of fun!  Of course, my daughter and her friends never seem to do much dancing -- but the Sock Hop Committee puts on a great event!  For $8 for a family, there's a dj, pizza, snow cones, popcorn, floats -- you name it! They had great raffle prizes last night -- my girls naturally went for the sugar-filled ones -- thankfully we didn't win!  My little one was QUITE disappointed that she didn't win the gumball machine (and a BUCKET of gum!) -- so I think we know what will be the first thing on her birthday wish list...  They have great decorations -- including records strung up across the gym -- and the kids all come in costume.

Last year my daughter was able to fit into a previous year's Halloween costume and wore a poodle skirt.  She's grown about a foot this past year, so the poodle skirt's now a mini -- that will be put away in the back of her younger sister's closet!  She wore rolled up jeans, one of her dad's button-down shirts tied at the waist, her pink sunglasses from her old Halloween costume, and a scarf of mine tied around her neck -- she looked adorable, if I do say so myself!  This is her and one of her best friends -- they've been inseparable since the first grade!

One of the girls from my Daisy troop was there with her family, so my youngest daughter was thrilled to see a friend and they had a great time running around and playing together (again, not much dancing!).  She also saw a little boy from her kindergarten class -- they both smiled and said hi -- I think she's got a little crush!  :)  The school requires kids to come to the dance with an adult (wise choice!), so my husband and I enjoyed visiting with some parents that we have become friends with through our kids -- so a good time was had by all!

Busy Bunnies!

We've been busy little bunnies over here! Work, school, Girl Scouts, family reunion planning, getting ready for Easter, and most exciting -- Nana's here to visit for a week! We've kept her busy too -- she flew in late on Tuesday night and got to spend time with the girls when they got home from school Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday night we all went to my eldest daughter's first jazz ensemble concert which was a lot of fun! Thursday night I was off to a Girl Scout Camporee meeting (the girls and I are getting very excited about that!) and Friday I dragged Nana and the girls around to run errands -- Easter with two girls means stockings, sweaters (for their sleeveless dresses -- knew that would bring the cold weather!), and new shoes! We also managed to squeeze in lunch and a visit to my grandmother at the nursing home. The girls and I make it a point to visit her once a week, and we really enjoy it. The girls have made friends with Kermit (that's his real name!) who works there, and when we come to visit he always offers them a dixie cup of ice cream which they just love. We find it fun to bring Gram a treat -- she's got an incredible sweet tooth, so it's usually cookies -- and we've been making sure that her room is decorated for the holidays. A couple of weeks ago we took down the St. Patrick's Day decorations and last weekend we decorated for Easter and Spring. Gram is my dad's mother, but she just loves my mom and my mom always enjoys seeing her when she's in town.

Today we went to see the movie, "Mirror, Mirror" which was quite cute. The girls enjoyed it and were pretty patient, considering the movie broke halfway through and we were sitting there waiting to see if they could fix it! Luckily for us, they fixed it within 10 minutes or so, AND gave us each a free movie ticket for another time! We're probably save those until June, when Disney / Pixar's "Brave" comes out -- we're Scottish on mom's side of the family, and the girls and I are quite proud of that -- can't wait to see this new Disney / Pixar movie about a brave Scottish girl! After the movie, we took the girls to our favorite park and they played for a while before it was back home for Easter egg decorating and bath time so they are all ready for tomorrow! Nana treated us to Chinese take-out for dinner -- our favorite! And now the girls are asleep in my youngest daughter's bed -- second night in a row -- very cute! They are on Spring Recess now -- I wonder if we'll have a repeat of Winter Recess when they had sleepovers in each other's rooms for 9 nights in a row?

Tomorrow I'm sure they'll be up at the crack of dawn (I should really get to bed so the Easter Bunny can come!) and then they'll search for their baskets and we'll get ready and head out to church and then a visit with the Gram and the family at my dad & stepmother's house. Back to our house where the girls will search for eggs and then a special Easter dinner.

Here's wishing you a wonderful day spent with family and friends!

Happy 100th Anniversary, Girl Scouts!

Happy 100th Anniversary to the Girl Scouts! My girls and I are proud to be a part of such an amazing organization and this year, in particular, is an incredible time to be a Girl Scout! I was a Girl Scout growing up -- from Brownies all the way through Seniors! (I'm so old that they added two new levels -- now it's Daisies through Ambassadors!) And I was a Girl Scout during their 75th anniversary, but I don't remember if I realized the significance of that anniversary, and I'm sure, although I loved being a Scout, I realized how much Scouting did for me. My mother enrolled me as a Brownie when I was in the first grade -- we were cleaning the basement out this weekend and I found a box of things from my childhood, including my first Girl Scout handbook with my mother's neat handwriting spelling out my name on the front cover. I loved that book and was so excited to be able to share it with my 11-year-old daughter who is a Junior Girl Scout.

On Sunday, I had a meeting for the Daisy Girl Scout troop that another mom and I started for our daughters. My sweet 5-year-old is in that troop, and her older sister helps out as a Junior Aide. Since our meeting was yesterday, and the official 100th Anniversary of the Girl Scouts is today, we had our own little celebration. At the Girl Scout store (which I just love!) I had purchased green and white "100 Anniversary" balloons -- enough for each girl and our two Junior Aides to take one home. Yesterday morning, I went to the party store and asked if I could pay them to fill my balloons with helium. They charged me the regular price, as if I had purchased their latex balloons -- this was perfect -- MUCH cheaper than my back-up plan, which was to buy a helium tank! The balloons looked very festive on our table! Also at the Girl Scout store, I purchased the limited edition Girl Scout insignia pins with "100" on them, and we gave each girl a pin to wear on her uniform. In addition to our anniversary (or birthday) party theme, we worked on a badge that was all about being considerate and caring and we read a story out of the Daisy handbook about "The Art of Sharing." In keeping with the sharing and birthday themes, I had asked each of the girls to bring one craft item (children's scissors, crayons, glue stick, etc.) wrapped as a birthday gift to share with the troop and to help us replenish our craft supplies. For snack, one of our girls brought in Shamrock cookies to share (since we are so close to St. Patty's Day -- bonus, they were green and matched the balloons -- I love when a theme works out!) and before our snack we sang "Happy Birthday" to the Girl Scouts.

Finally, we followed one of the ideas in our Daisy book for earning our badge, and to (literally!) illustrate the theme of sharing, we passed out a piece of paper to each girl and we set out markers and crayons. Each girl started to make a picture and after a couple of minutes, we passed them all to the left and then that girl would continue working on the picture. That was slightly chaotic the first time, but we did it again and again so they got to put their mark on a number of their friends' drawings. Each girl took home a picture that was a combination of their friends' artwork -- they did a great job sharing their pictures and their art supplies, and it ended up being a really cute and fun idea!

We are helping out with Scouting for Food this weekend and we are also looking forward to our first camp-out this summer! The girls seem to have a great time together and I love being a troop leader. Girl Scouts offers so many opportunities for girls to make friends, learn great skills, build their confidence, and discover who they are -- it's been an experience that my girls and I will treasure always!

Do you have a daughter interested in becoming a Girl Scout? Or are you interested in volunteering? Go to the official Girl Scouts of the USA website at www.girlscouts.org to learn more!