Kate's been in school for two months now! I'm experiencing that odd duality, where it feels like she just started but also feels like she's been going forever.
When we went to our parent-teacher conference, Kate's teacher told us that they tested the kids to see how much they knew already before dividing them up into reading groups. Kate went through all the kindergarten material, and then they pulled out the first grade word list. This is 200 sight words that the kids are supposed to know by the end of first grade. Kate only missed 13 of them. So they tried putting her with a first grade reading group, but it just wasn't a good fit. She's five years old, after all. So she's back with her kindergarten group.
She doesn't seem to be bored by the material, which is good. She gets excited when they learn a new cheer for a letter ("Monkey on a mountain! M M M!")
We're getting used to being school parents. It certainly is an adjustment for the whole family. Mornings are hard sometimes, getting Kate up and ready, but I'm developing some strategies. Kate really likes her teacher and has made some friends in her class. She loves P.E., too. I hear the teacher is really good.
We walk to school together, with Andy in the stroller. (Andy cries when Kate goes into the school and he doesn't get to go. I tell him he has to wait four more years. Waaah!) Kate sometimes complains about walking and says she wants to drive, but I tell her it's good exercise. It's only a couple of blocks and takes less than ten minutes. I've been enjoying the walks and the autumn weather. We had some nice misty mornings that burned off to sunny afternoons, and then we got hit by some hard rain and had to drive.
Everyone knows that it rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest. But it's not so much a quantity thing as duration. We have a lot of gray, drippy days with a steady drizzle or a light sprinkle. It doesn't often rain hard. So we just put up our hoods and walk to school in the rain, and Kate gets to use this cute little umbrella that Aunt Barb gave her. (Or maybe it was Aunt Betsey? I will have to check on that.)
This week we had so much rain that I ended up dropping Kate off and picking her up one day, and dropping her off the next morning as well. The dropping off was a lot easier than the picking up. There aren't enough places to park. We'll keep walking as much as we can!
5 comments:
I also want to point out that we hardly ever get thunderstorms here. I've watched a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy and it really bugs me when they use the sound of thunder to indicate that it rains a lot in Seattle. Bah.
I'm laughing at your comment... We actually have a fair amount of thunderstorms at the coast, and in the winter, incredible amounts of HAIL. It's the craziest thing!
Go Kate go!! (hah, the word ver. is "trudge")
I don't know if it's the fact that it is such a cute LITTLE umbrella, but Kate looks so grown up in that first photo. And the second one makes me want to splash through puddles, dance around lamp-posts, and break out in song.
Ah, I remember those days--the little ones packed in a jogging stroller and the big ones running (or whining, as the mood took them) down the street...
Here we are too far away from the school (which does not provide transportation for the elementary school children) to do anything but drive.
Kate is so adorable--it looks like she's really enjoying that umbrella!
It was Aunt Betsey!
I saw it and said, "hey, that looks just like my umbrella! Oh, wait..."
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