So these days, kindergarten isn't about fun and games, singing around the piano and playing with baby animals. (what, YOU didn't play with baby animals? You must have had a HORRIBLE kindergarten experience!) Nope. These days, they expect these kids to be reading by the middle of the year, learning basic computer skills, and simple math, things I don't recall learning until 1st grade. Not that there's anything wrong with this! I get so excited to learn what Chlo has learned everyday when she comes home from school. Our conversations usually go like this:
Me: "Hi Chlo! Soooo... How was school today!?"
Chloe: "good."
Me: "Well, that's awesome! What all did you do today?"
Chloe: "I dunno."
Me: "You don't know? You don't know what all you did today?"
Chloe: "I ate chicken nuggets at lunch, and I need you to button my pants."
Me: "sigh"
These are our after school convos. About an hour later, I can guarantee you she'll be in her room, telling Ness ALL about her great day, and I'll overhear "yeah, and ____ puked in the art room, and ______ calls himself Boogerhead!!" followed by a ridiculous amount of laughter from both chuds.
Later, I'll ask again. "How was school?"
"Ok. I dunno."
"Oh."
So. I've decided, since she's learning sentence structure in school, I will rephrase my questions with "So, tell me ONE complete sentence about lunchtime/recess/computer lab/music/math today!".
And holy shit. IT WORKS.
I am learning SO much from her mad kindergarten skills, I can feel my brain swelling and growing and getting smarter. Either that, or I have cerebral edema. Hmm...
I'm super proud of her. Lately, they're learning how to spell words on their own by sounding the words out first. We practiced tonight. She is surprisingly AWESOME at this. I hit her with words like robot, blanket, box and fox, napkin and money. She got all of them right, and I was definitely impressed. She may have her dad beat on the spelling skills already! This is no longer a household, it is a spelling dojo, and I am her master. It's bitchin.
As I type, Chuck is upstairs working on the kids' room. When we moved in, it was not finished, and it still isn't. He's been working so much, there's just no time to finish. I don't know a damn first thing about construction, so I'm most definitely not the best candidate to finish it. I can't wait for it to be finished though; it'll look great. We live in a one and a half story house, and the whole upstairs will be the kids' room/playroom. We plan on painting a Super Mario Bros. mural on the wall once it's finished, and that'll be exciting/a fucking challenge. I can't wait!
Heartburn has struck this stricken soul, so we must depart for the night. I'm going to go overdose on Tums and pass out. This is my nightly routine, and I realize it is very sad. Take pity on this poor soul as she eventually gives in and downs a spoonful of baking soda and high hopes. Goodnight!
1 comment:
Its amazing how kids react to different approaches toward communications. When Logan was little he didn't talk. He'd stare at objects, in a trance for long periods of time. When he was almost two I was huge pregnant with Tatum. I was frustrated that the doctors wouldn't listen to me that he wasn't deaf. He could hear me was Autistic, Logan wouldn't respond to me. He just stared at nothing. So in that frustration I went to the kitchen and started banging on pots and pans. I was yelling ”Logan do you hear me. Logan baby do you hear me. Damn it baby do you hear me”. Of course I was an emotional mess and crying. I sat on the kitchen floor blubbering like a baby. To my surprise Logan walks in and he begins to take the wooden spoon I threw out of frustration and bangs on a pan I started laughing and crying at the same time. He responded to me. So I started singing Old Macdonald Had A Farm. He continued to beat the pan. Everyone I wanted his attention I began to bang and sing. It worked! From there obviously our communication style evolved, but you always have to start somewhere, and keep evolving. Good job Sandie!
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