We're more than 2 months into kindergarten already. The kids can tell you exactly how many days of school they have had. At first, I thought Gretchen was being freaky and remembering/counting them herself, but now I know the teacher must be counting them daily with them. I think when they hit 100, it will be something fun. So, they are counting away. Friday was Day 46.
Here are the twins with their teachers on orientation night before school started.
On Sunday, our friend Lindy dropped by with Kinder Eggs for the twins since we probably couldn't fit trick or treating at his house in on a Monday night. He was right. The kids were so excited to be able to put on their costumes for Lindy!! Then, they changed again and we all took a nice walk through the neighborhood while visiting. On that walk, Lindy asked Carl, "So, how is kindergarten?" And Carl didn't miss a beat.
"It is the best!" he replied!
Carl is so different in kindergarten than he was in pre-school. He started pre-school when he was 3, but entered the 2 year old class due to their birthday and the cut-off dates for kindergarten. For all 3 years in pre-school, he was a wonderfully sweet, easy going guy. But, he was quiet. Very quiet. Now this year, he is talking people's ears off! I mean, he always did at home. You know, these kids haven't mastered the art of pausing and letting someone else talk. It is usually both kids, talking to me at top volumes. Especially when I pick them up from school. The ride home is loud!
I think one reason is that in pre-school, he was following his own lead. He was quiet when he was 3 and it worked well for him. So, as long as he stayed in that building, he didn't mess with success. The other positive thing I think is that when we went to kindergarten for orientation, we were the only people there for quite some time. Carl was very interested in the room and talking to his new teachers - and mostly talking to Daddy about the new things he was seeing. So, the first impression he gave all of his new teachers was a chatty one. And, he was comfortable in that classroom right from the start.
Gretchen
loves being social. She loves playing with her new friends, both girls and boys. Right from Day 1 (so, 45 days of school, right?) Rebecca has been her best friend. Actually, this is the little girl who, on the very first day of school said to me, "My mommy is sad because now I am in kindergarten." when I dropped off the twins. The first time we met her mother, she asked us, "Do you hear as much about Rebecca as I hear about Gretchen?" We've gotten the kids together at the Children's Museum several times and got to hang out with them at the school's Fall Hoe-Down festival last month. But, Gretchen does tell me she plays with the other girls, too. They seem to feel you can only play in groups of 2, though. I always hear about how she plays with one girl at center time and one different girl at recess. She does have a tendency to get a bit bossy in my opinion. But, she is always polite, so I don't think it comes across that way to the kids. I just sometimes hear her telling kids to stop being mean to each other or to do certain things to be nice. Stuff like that. And she will talk to any adult anywhere.
One on-going example...I have to drive them back and forth to school because this is not our home district. We have a minivan with manual doors. And cloth seats. And I like it that way! But, when you pull up to the pick-up lane, there isn't always an adult there to open the door. Actually, it's a pretty big pet peeve of mine. Even when there is an adult, they don't help the kids until someone asks. That isn't the issue. The issue is that they expect the kids to open the door by themselves. Now, my mother and mother in law can't even open the door when we travel with them. How can you expect a 5 yr old to do it safely? So, the teacher hesitates and then has to open it for them... and 100% of the time, they open it halfway and it slams shut on a kid. See!!! Even THEY can't open it correctly! And then, 100% of the time they ask, "Will this shut by itself?" Whoa, I have almost bitten my tongue off on many occasions...
"Did it open itself?" but I politely reply, "No, it is manual." Sometimes, whomever shuts it doesn't get it to close all the way and I have to pull over, get out and do it myself. But, they don't want you getting out of your car in the pick up line, so I wait for this process to play out every afternoon. Unless... there happens to be some parent walking by picking up their own kid on foot. Then, Gretchen will ask them nicely, "Can you open our van for us?" They always do and feel compelled to say to me, "She asked me to do it." as if I would be upset because they were touching my stuff. We smile and laugh, "Thanks!" "Have a great afternoon!" You, too!" Gretchen sure isn't shy about talking to adults.
Morning drop-off line is much easier. There are 2 fathers who are there every day opening doors for people. I assume it is a volunteer position - they are not teachers. They stand there with travel mugs every morning happily opening car and van doors and wishing the driver a good day as their kids bounce out and into school. The afternoon people could take some pointers from these 2 guys.
About a month ago, the teacher tested the kids to determine reading levels and be able to break the class into small groups based on ability. Just a brief indication of how my kids did:
- ISF - looking for a score of 8 at the beginning of the year and a score of 25 in May. Carl scored 23, Gretchen scored 30.
- LNF - looking for 8 now and 40 in May. Carl scored 43, Gretchen scored 45.
I have no idea what those initials are for, but the teacher said Carl would have scored a lot higher if he didn't get distracted and timed out.
So, with the scores and the kids' actual reading ability, she placed Carl in the Fluent First Grade Group and Gretchen in one group lower. Missed the title of it. There are only 4 kids in Carl's level and they are the only kids who get to check out 2 books from the library each Thursday. They are Advanced Reader books and the kids get to take a test on these books after having read them at home several times. The test is administered on the computer. His teacher said Carl doesn't even need her to set it up for him. He is that independent on the computer as well. There are 5 multiple choice questions about the book. They have to get an 80% to be allowed to color in another wedge of pie on their color graph. Once the pie is completed, there will be a reward of some kind. Honestly, getting to work on the computer when no one else does is reward enough for Carl. He has scored 80% on his very first and 100% on his second test! This is because he is awesome. Actually, this is helping his reading comprehension soar!! Which is exactly the point.
Carl's reading group is focusing on comprehension while Gretchen's is putting their focus on reading strategies. There are other groups with kids still learning letter sounds and recognition. We have seen a huge improvement in Gretchen's reading in the past couple weeks. Now, she has that crazy memory (I still hold to my diagnosis of photographic memory on her) and so she is picking up a lot of words by memorization, not necessarily by sounding them out. So what? Isn't that how we all learned to read? She does sound some out, but she often draws the sounds out too much and can't put the word together. She does very well if you remind her to use the pictures or remember this word from the sentence prior. She is really into non-fiction books. Last week, she was soooo excited to bring home a book she knew Daddy would love! "It's all about football and it's non fiction!" It was titled,
Terrell Davis and was all about the Denver Broncos running back. Both kids loved it! It was an easy reader and both kids could read it at bedtime. Gretchen gets mad when she can't figure out a word and Carl jumps in to read it for her. So, don't let Carl sit next to her when she is reading. Have him sit on his own bed and let Gretchen show him the pictures after she is done with reading the page. The only problem is if she spells a word. "Daddy, what does s-u-p-e-r spell?" and Carl will answer immediately, "Super." She does not find this as amusing as I do.
We are still really involved with the color coded behavior chart. There are 7 levels of behavior and they are trying to get to the highest level, or Pink. If you reach pink, you get a sparkly jewel to glue on your clothespin. Everyone starts their day on green. You can move up (yellow, purple, pink) or down (blue, orange, red). If you hit red (or "Oh no!") your parents get called. Carl dropped to blue one day very early on for speaking without raising his hand. Other than that, they are usually on yellow or purple. Each has reached pink one time (thankfully). It was a long week between Gretchen getting her sparkly jewel and Carl finally getting one. But, each day when I pick them up that is the very first discussion we have to have. What color they rose to, who dropped, who got up to pink. At least now I get some other reports on things. In the beginning, this was all they talked about. And, I spoke to other parents early in the year and their kids were the same way. This is the first year their teacher has used this system. It will be interesting to see if she continues it next year or modifies it in any way.
Every morning they have a "Special" class. Art, PE, Music, Library, Computer. Before school started, all they wanted to do was go to computer class, but honestly, I hear very little about it now. I do know they have passwords to log in and right from the first day, Carl could whip off the numbers needed to get into his account. They are allowed to go to Star Fall's website, one we have saved in their Favorites folder at home, too. They wanted to be able to add another site to the home list, but it was quite expensive to join, so I told them that is one they will have to enjoy at school.
The funniest special class to me is PE. Not Gym Class. I even used that term last night and Carl looked at me like I had 2 heads. They call it PE. In that class, they not only play games, but the teacher is teaching them about muscles. They come home each week talking about big muscle names that I can't even remember. It's really cute. The gym teacher organized a school Field Day in early October. Most schools do them at the end of the year, but the weather is much nicer here in October than in May. There were 16 stations (I volunteered and worked a station where the kids had to try to kick soccer balls into hula hoops and get them to stay in the circle) with everything from crab races to scooter soccer to tug-of-war to the Electric Slide taught by local dance teachers to hippity hop races to bean bag tosses to a bouncy slide for just plain ol' fun! I was able to snap a few pictures of the kids throughout the event.
Gretchen trying to kick into the hula hoop...
Carl loved rolling on the scooter thing...
Here he is dancing...
Hippity Hop curls....
They enjoy Art class, but it sounds like it is a slow class. They are always working on something they started a couple weeks ago. They must be making big on-going creations. The school doesn't have a specific music classroom, so that teacher comes to their classroom. And, I know that the Library is always freezing.
Carl has also been moved up in his sensory group. He was in the group of kindergartners, but the teacher in that program asked me if it was OK to move him to the first grade group. Apparently, the K group has some behavior issues that Carl does not. They didn't want him picking up bad habits. She also said, he simply isn't being challenged in the K group. So, he now has 5 new friends. One is a little girl named Angie. I hear so much about her! I also hear a lot more about his teacher because it is Mr Miller. Carl has never had a male teacher or therapist and he just loves Mr Miller! Actually, he usually calls him "Mr Millerhehasawhistlebutheneverblowsit". He never reported on the old group, but now I hear that he and Angie did this today or he and Angie sat on the carpet for the lesson. And his favorite... "Me and Angie played bowling today." For a couple weeks, I thought they had a bowling set. Then, he told me he plays Wii. I said, "Really? In sensory you play Wii? How do you spell it?" Sure enough, he knew how - so I knew he was reporting correctly. I did get him to tell me the whole story. Friday is Game Day and on Fridays only, they can play Wii. That is where he and Angie are bowling. "I throw the ball until I knock down all the pins." Not roll, nope... throw. You may not want to take him to the alley just yet. We do not have a Wii, so this is a real treat for him. Shhh... Gretchen doesn't know what she is missing.
So, that was intended to be a quick update on kindergarten.
Report cards are coming out soon! I can't wait to get our very first ever real report cards!!! You'll probably be forced to look at photos of them.
