She's Growing Up!!

As you might very well know, before we were blessed with Keziah, I taught Kindergarten for 10 years. It was fun and challenging, all at once. I loved almost every day of it, but there was one day that made me the most nervous. And that was Kindergarten Day.

This was a day in May, where the future kindergarteners were sent to school to meet me, me to meet them, and for them to see what school is all about. It would usually be about 2 hours (2 very looooong hours, or 2 very short hours, depending on how the littles handled it) and then they would be sent home to grow up a bit throughout the summer before they were officially considered a Kindergarten student come September.

After a 5 year break of Kindergarten Days, I am now experiencing it again. This time however, I am on the other side. Meaning, I am the parent that will be dropping off a future kindergartener, leaving her in the hands of her very capable teacher. And the feelings I am experiencing is pretty much the exact same emotions I felt back when I was the kindergarten teacher.

Keziah is certainly ready for the challenge of what school has to offer. Knowing that I was a kindergarten teacher, some might be surprised to know that I actually have not done a whole lot with her. I did teach her her name, which she now does beautifully:

She also knows how to draw a person pretty good.....

 .....and her animals are coming (can you guess what the two animals are below?!):

Colouring is a whole other story, though. This girl does not like to colour. She loves to craft, but to colour?! No way. This is about the best we can get out of her:

But other than that, I haven't done a whole lot academically, and no, she never went to Junior Kindergarten. I have however, focussed on other things that made my day busy as a teacher, things that encouraged her to be independent - zipping zippers, cleaning up after one's self, getting dressed for outside without help etc.

That means there was lots of time left in the day for her to be, well, a kid, which was so important to me, much more important than her being able to recognize all the letters and numbers out there. Spending time with her brother, playing together and building up a relationship with him was far more important than learning how to read. Teaching her incidentally, guiding her as she experiences different life situations, helping her to learn respect and how to treat others was much more of a priority of mine than sitting her down to do paperwork. And this past year has been a joy to watch her enjoy all that life needs to be for a 4 year old:

While she may not recognize all her letters, or identify the numbers past 10, I know that she will do just fine. It has been amazing to see how she has just picked things up without being taught these concepts. I have loved watching her learn things by herself just because she is developmentally ready.

And ready she is. Here is a list of ways I know that she is ready for what school has to offer:

• Loves rhyming words and has been rhyming for almost a year (a very long year....)
• Listening for sounds at the beginning and ending of words, all on her own
• Wants to know how to spell things
• "reads" to her brother all the time
• Makes up stories that she wants me to write down for her (she draws the pictures for the story)
• Eager to learn "what time it is"
• Trying to figure out her left from her right
• Thinks Knock Knock Jokes are hilarious and the sillier the better (i.e. they make no sense)
• Plays school a lot (even though she has never been....but knows it includes a lunch bag and a knapsack)

and just in case I wasn't sure if she was ready, what she stated a few weeks ago has put all my doubts to rest:

"I wish everyone was like me."

Yup, she sounds like every other ego-centric (almost) 5 year old out there!! :o)