Whole 30 Days 23-25

I am hanging tough.  This has been one busy week!  Tuesday night was Carolyn's first reconciliation.  It was an awesome service and the kids did so well.  My favorite part was the song they all sang together twice.  I could listen to little kids sings all day long I think.  The asst principal commented on Carolyn's leadership during the service as well, saying she was the first to start singing and the first to step into the aisle when they all needed to go up together.  It is so awesome to see the adults at her school recognizing her talents and abilities.  Both kids have crashed quickly the past 2 nights to make up for being up late on Tuesday.  Tuesday afternoon the weather was beautiful so I got to play ball with James in the yard while dinner cooked.  It's interesting to hear the things that wander through his head while playing catch.  He even started to learn some multiplication since he was asking about it.

Yesterday I went for another run and my ankle felt pretty good.  I skipped the brace since jogging is just a straight movement and I found my ankle felt better as I went.  I completed nearly 2 laps, jogging for 1 minute, walking for 1 minute for 10 minutes and then jogging for 1:15, walking for 0:45 for the next 10 minutes.  I felt pretty good afterwards, although I did ice when I got home.  Last night I had a MOPs steering meeting and beforehand I was lamenting how I was on day 24 and didn't feel like I saw any change in my body.  A couple people then said that they could see a change in my face.  So perhaps if I bother to put batteries in the scale when I reach day 30 I will notice a change in weight.  It was wonderful on Wednesday so I sent the kids outside to play ball while I finished dinner.  Before that they both helped chop vegetables for dinner.  It's so wonderful to see them helping more around the house.

Today was another good day.  I worked most of the morning, took a nice bath with the epsom salts, worked some more, and then went for a 2 lap walk.  It's nice to listen to KLOVE radio while I walk, streaming through my phone.  Tonight I played soccer and while my ankle is definitely sore now, I was able to play pretty much uninhibited.  I definitely need to keep running to get back in shape, but I think I'm pretty well beyond the injury stage, YAY!  I am definitely ready for a weekend with not much to do though.

Tuesday
Breakfast - Eggs fried in coconut oil, zucchini, fruit
Lunch - Leftover stir fry
Dinner - Lemon chicken, sweet potato "fries", cauliflower

Wednesday
Breakfast - Eggs, fruit
Lunch - Leftover chili
Dinner - Tex Mex Casserole (new recipe that was okay, but not a huge favorite, likely not worth the effort again)

Thursday
Breakfast - Eggs, fruit
Lunch - Leftover casserole
Snack - Banana, cashews
Dinner - Chicken spaghetti w/ zucchini noodles for me

Looking forward to a low key day.  Since I played soccer tonight I'm thinking I will not run tomorrow and instead walk and do some kettle bells.  I did some on Wednesday and got tired pretty fast.  Now time to crash and let my muscles recover.

Whole 30 Day 18

Another successful day!  I finished the majority of my work in the morning so after helping the 3rd graders I headed to the library.  I got the kids a new load of books and myself some too.  I stopped at the bank to order a new debit card since my replacement never arrived back in October.  And then I made it to Athletico.  The trainer did a bunch of different things to my ankle.  She used a vibrating tuning fork to check for a fracture.  That was interesting, but I think I get how it would work.  Part of what's strange about this injury is only one motion really hurts.  I can turn my ankle in and out, I can pull my toes up.  But I can not push with much force.  We even pinpointed that pushing with my big toe causes the most pain.  I've had a lot of sprained ankles in my life, but never pain in this manner.  She did say it makes sense that the air cast doesn't help much since the pain is forward/backward sensitive.  The ultimate decision is that this is muscle based.  So the solution was some kinesthiology tape for a little support, using the ace bandage as needed, and starting strengthening exercises.  I will start those tomorrow as tonight I'm in a bit of pain.  I think my gait has changed and as such muscles in my entire right leg are aching.  Carrying all of the library books probably didn't help either.  It's looking like I probably won't be able to play soccer this weekend either.  Hopefully I'll start to see improvement now since I have an idea of what I'm dealing with.

I received the results for James' Northwestern testing today.  With everything else going on I had forgotten I was expecting them!  When the email came in I was surprised.  And then I opened the attachment and I was even more surprised.  James scored in the 99.8 percentile for both math and reading on the KTEA!  No wonder he reports being a bit bored during math and reading lessons at school.  I kind of already knew this, but it's nice to have it verified.  He has been so excited this week to work on math homework that is challenging for him.  He finished a page of 3-digit addition and subtraction (no regrouping/borrowing) in about 15 minutes.  The smile he had on his face afterwards was awesome.  And he was so determined to get it done.  His KBIT score is pretty awesome too.  It's going to be fun to see where these 2 kids end up, knowing they both have a very good start.

I am officially ready for the weekend!

Breakfast - Eggs fried in coconut oil, beef jerky, strawberry, blueberry
Lunch - Leftover offal meatloaf, sweet potato fries, brocolli
Snack - grapes
Dinner - Chicken Tortilla-less soup

Whole 30 Day 16

I've made it through another day.  The weather was pretty crazy today and we now have a dusting of snow on the ground.  But not quite enough to actually play in still!  Today ended up being pretty busy.  This morning I payed the bills, got in some work, and started laundry.  Then I headed over to the school.  I had another wonderful meeting, this time with the principal and Carolyn's teacher.  First the principal wanted to check in how things were going for James.  This was great for him to even ask, since the meeting was about Carolyn.  I let him know things seem to be improving.  Once Carolyn's teacher joined us we went over the plan for the rest of the year.  With each unit, Carolyn will complete the pretest and if she already knows the material she will go the third grade classroom for math that day.  This will allow her to stretch what she knows and do more problem solving activities.  The school is to planning to get new math materials this summer, which does put the whole system in a bit of an awkward spot.  But the plan seems to be to have some pretests ready for Carolyn to take late summer to determine what the best system will be for her at that time.  Carolyn is very excited about this opportunity, so we will see how it works.

I came home after helping in third grade, had lunch and worked the rest of the afternoon.  After dropping Carolyn off at gymnastics, James and I had a nice afternoon together.  We read some books and tried some of his new math packet that came home today.  He finished over 4 pages, one of which was double digit addition and subtraction (no regrouping)!  He really amazes me sometimes.  We did a little of mobymax tonight as well and he does a nice job using their strategies to see the different ways to learn the basic facts.  It will be interesting to see where he is at by the end of this school year.

My ankle was doing fine for most of today, but suddenly started really hurting about 30 minutes ago.  It's so strange as it's still the front of my ankle that hurts.  I'm starting to worry that this is going to be an injury that takes a long time to heal and flares up at random.  Hopefully tonight is just a fluke and with some rest tonight I will be better tomorrow.

Breakfast - eggs fried in coconut oil, beef jerky, orange
Lunch - hard boiled eggs, clementines
Snack - beef jerky
Dinner - New meatloaf recipe from the Frugal Paleo Cookbook (will not make again), baked sweet potato fries, cauliflower

The recipe I tried tonight had liver in it.  I was hoping to be able to hide the taste with the ground beef and bacon, but even I didn't like it.  I will eat the rest of it for lunch this week, but this will not be a new recipe in our rotation.  Liver is supposed to be a super food, but it's not something that seems will fit into our family tastes.  You live and you learn!

Whole 30 Day 8

Another day completed.  I sprained my ankle at soccer last night, so I did not sleep well.  I have kept it wrapped in an ace bandage, under ice, or in my air cast all day.  I spent a chunk  of the morning trying to remember where I put the air cast.  Funny enough, I had put it somewhere I would need it most... in my soccer bag!  I could have put it on last night and probably walked a bit better.  I have wonderful teammates though that helped me to the front desk, where we got a rolling desk chair, and then a teammate drove my car home while someone else followed.  I am feeling significantly better today and will ice one more time before bed.

Despite the pain of my ankle today, it's been a decent day.  I managed to complete all of my work this morning before heading to the school.  So this afternoon I spoke with Doris (my late grandfather's girlfriend) for a while and then worked on Carolyn's scarf.  It was really nice to hear from Doris - so mentally aware for 98, she was working on her taxes!  The scarf is coming along nicely as well, 2 of the letters completed and then it will go more quickly.  I might finish before winter ends.  The kids had their activities this afternoon - acting for James and softball for Carolyn.  Carolyn is really enjoying the classes and the coach has suggested she try out for the fastpitch this fall.  We'll see how things continue to progress.  I did find out about some possible summer opportunities for her to play which actually sound like they fit into our schedule pretty well.

While Carolyn was in her class, I sat with James and read some books.  He picked up one and I asked him to try it.  I had to ask him if it's a book he's read before as he was reading it SO well.  He has progressed so much this school year with his reading it's amazing.  I was shocked to see the words he was able to read without even sounding them out.

I started the kids working a bit on mobymax again.  It's interesting as both seem to love the science portion of the site.  It talks them through some lessons and then has them answer questions.  They are both working through their math facts as well.  Carolyn finished the addition in 2 days and is over 30% of the way through subtraction.  This was kind of expected and she's excited to move on to multiplication soon.  James again has really surprised me is at 52% for the addition already.  I do give him 10 seconds compared to Carolyn's 6 seconds as it takes him longer to find the buttons to push.  Plus I'll probably reset his account at the start of next school year and move the time down then to be sure he knows them all.  I am really interested now in what his NU CTD test results are going to look like.  Both of these kids continue to amaze me on so many levels.

Breakfast - 3.5 eggs fried in coconut oil, green pepper, blueberries
Snack - tea with lemon
Lunch - Leftover chicken stir fry
Snack - cashews and brazil nuts
Dinner - Chicken "nachos" - I pulled my portion out and put the chicken over romaine lettuce then added the avocado, cilantro, and green onions - the rest of the family I put corn tortilla chips into a pan, topped with the chicken and then melted monterey jack cheese on top, topped by the avocado, cilantro, and green onions.  This has become a new family favorite and is quite easy to prepare.

I got a spiralizer in the mail today.  I can't wait to give it a try.  So much so that I think I might change up our meal plan for the weak and do pasta on Thursday, giving myself zuchinni noodles instead.  I am excited to use it for making stir fry as well.  I have a feeling the kids will enjoy use it too.

Whole 30 Day 4

I made it through another day.  I felt like I had lot of free time today.  Things didn't start out so great as I discovered at breakfast that the special tea I bought was the wrong stuff and it smells and tastes like coffee.  If you know me, you know I strongly dislike both.  So I guess this will become Jon's tea from now.  He's been stealing my plain green tea at night for a while anyway.  I'll have to look for something different when I head to the store next week.  With the weather warming up I don't really need it at the moment anyway.  I fit in all of my work before heading to the school.

At the school I was caught off guard by 2 things.  First, I usually help with math but today was handed a reading packet.  Um, okay, but that's definitely not my specialty.  We made it through.  While I was working with the kids the principal came in and acknowledged he had forgot to update me on the math things for Carolyn.  He assured me they were working on it and asked if I could stop by on my way out.  Last week was a 4 day week ending with an institute day and this week is a 4 day week.  I totally get how things get lost.  He was genuinely apologetic.  So when I was done tutoring, I stopped by.  Turns out, testing for Carolyn and another child in her class started just after we discussed doing so.  So as not to overwhelm, it has been broken into chunks and she wasn't even aware that she was being tested.  This is good and bad.  Carolyn tends to not even try when presented with a challenge.  She was told to leave things blank if she couldn't figure it out.  To my child that means "if you aren't sure of your answer, don't give one."  We'll see how the results turn out once they're done and determine what to do in the next couple months and then next year.  I love how wonderfully flexible the school is being.  And I think it's awesome that another child is benefiting from my relentless question asking.  We also talked about James a bit.  I relayed the experience of our conference last week, that did not go as well as I had hoped.  He agreed to speak with the teacher to see what we can do.  It will be interesting to see what happens here.  I mentioned that was a little surprised that James scored so well on his NU CTD tests, as he is just harder to get a good grasp on than Carolyn was at this age.  There's a little more immaturity from him and there's also a whole lot of boy that she's obviously missing.  I was surprised with the praise for James that the principal offered, saying that he wasn't surprised that he scored well.  This principal is very involved in the school and supervises recess multiple times a week.  If you know my kids, you know they are often drawn to adults and like to share a lot (earlier this week Carolyn shared about me being sick and the teacher signed her out for me - a little crazy.)  He commented that James is able to carry a conversation and discuss things much more in-depth than a kid his age.  I'm interested to see what the scores come back as.  And now I wonder what it would be like to be around a typically developing child on a regular basis.  Although, is any child really considered typical?  I think the water is really muddied here.  I am just so glad we found a place where the school wants to work with us to ensure that each child is challenged.  That's all I've really ever wanted - stretch their brains.

This afternoon I had a chance to go for a walk twice around our neighborhood and finished up James' scarf.  The kids each had their activities and then James and I came home.  After reading for a bit, he got ready for bed and we read another story.  He's really into this old Sesame Street Bedtime Stories book that is from my childhood.  All my favorite characters and wonderfully silly stores.  Big bird is not an ugly mud monster!  We finished before Jon and Carolyn arrived home so he asked to snuggle.  Snuggling turned into him clapping my hands and them a silly game.  I love listening to him laugh and I think I could do it all day.  I know moments like these will get fewer over the years and I really took a minute to cherish the time with him.  I'm looking forward to Carolyn being done with gymnastics so we can have more relaxed nights with her as well.

Breakfast - Egg "muffins" (bacon, green pepper, mushroom, egg), blueberries, banana, tea
Lunch - leftover mahi, carrots with guacamole
Dinner - Pulled pork, cauliflower

The cupcakes are almost gone and tomorrow I'll give the kids some more of my Valentines candy in their lunches.  I am looking forward to the warm weather we're supposed to have tomorrow and Saturday!

Heartache

We had an amazing week last week and finished it up with an amazing weekend.  Carolyn only went to school 2 days last week, due to scheduled days off and then super cold (-6 before windchill!!) one day.  That one day was really great too.  We read a story and did follow-up activities, played a math game, played Sorry (kids' request), and then Carolyn did dreambox while I did James' usual preschool work.  Carolyn read 2-3 books that day as well, loving the freedom to sit lounge in her chair/on the couch/in her bed and read whatever she wanted.  She finished the day with a great effort at gymnastics.  On Saturday Carolyn attended her first chess tournament.  She did fantastic, winning 2 games and agreeing to a draw on a third (in which she was winning, she's too nice).  We were so proud of how she was able to concentrate in a gym filled with other kids.  She enjoyed some coaching from her chess teacher in between games, read a little and did some coloring.  We could tell she was mentally exhausted at the end of the day.  She sang at church that night, attended Sunday school in the morning, and basketball Sunday afternoon.  We hung out the rest of Sunday, reading together as a family and just enjoying being together.

At the end of dinner Sunday night is when heartache started to set in for me.  Jon reminded Carolyn she would need to make her lunch for school.  She went from smiling to a complete sullen look.  Jon suggested she was just tired after a busy weekend, she told me a few minutes later that she is just bored at school.  After preparations were done she played on dreambox for a bit while James was in the shower.  She craves learning at her just right level and soaks in all coaching she receives.

The next round of heartache was this morning.  I received an email from her teacher informing all the volunteers that we are no longer needed.  I knew it was coming, but didn't anticipate it so soon.  There are multiple reasons this email saddened me.  Beyond the fact that it means more time will spent on math and thus more time each day wasted for Carolyn, the response from Carolyn when I told her was the worst part.  I could tell that she was trying hard to not let any tears form.  In an attempt to not cry, she got angry, stating out loud that she doesn't understand why her teacher would do this.  She loves having me at school, she knows it's a portion of her day when the pressure is off and she can just sit and read.  And now that time is being replaced with extra math, one of the worst parts of her day at the moment.  I wasn't even sure what to say to her.  But it was really hard to bundle her up and put her on the bus this morning.

We received a response from the gifted coordinator last Thursday.  She spelled Carolyn's name wrong throughout the entire email.  I wanted to write a short response informing her that the email must have gone to the wrong parent.  How else can a professional explain repeatedly inserting the wrong name?  What's more, she didn't offer any solutions.  She offered several options for after school, clearly most were not well researched.  One option is the NU CTD she is already involved in.  She asked us what we want Carolyn to have access to at school.  Um, is that what she should be doing, letting us know what the options even are?  It's Monday night and we haven't received a response back.  If it takes a week again I'm going to get angry.  More time continues to be wasted, more time where Carolyn's view of school deteriorates,  Today she informed me that science is boring - I couldn't believe my ears.  The little girl who came home from her class on blood and bones this summer beaming?  The one who wants to know everything about the world around her... science is boring?  I talked to her about some activities we can do over spring break.  Now I'm thinking we might do one on Saturday morning if I can gather the materials in time.  I have to save her interest, I can't let school kill it.  Science is SO much more than reading books!

God is in control here, I just wish I could see the plan.  My heart is breaking a little more each day though with how it seems school is impacting Carolyn.  I feel helpless and don't know what else to do.  I know it will all work out, I just wish it would do so faster!

Real response

Just so people don't think I'm totally insane, I didn't actually send the last post to anyone.  It was a nice outlet to release some of my anger though.  The version I actually sent is below.  I wonder how long it will be before I receive a response, since I did ask some specific questions.  At this point we are still waiting for a list of authors.  This was promised to us in October and Jon sent a follow-up email regarding it on Tuesday morning after the phone call.  He received a response Tuesday night that she would "look at her documents" and get back to us.  Is it that out of line to ask for a list of authors?!  As an elementary teacher I would think that would be a common question.  We did contact the director of the gifted program who took 36 hours to respond and say she's looking into it.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes to hear back from her again.  I didn't think fully before I hit send last night, in that today I will be in the classroom.  Things are going to be a little awkward, but I work with the kids anyway, I'm not there to see the teacher.

We recognize that God is in control in this situation and He will lead us in the right direction.  Through His grace I was able to come down from my anger and not say anything I regretted, this is why Jon does the phone conversations as well.  We continue to seek guidance for His will and know that we will be led to the right place.  Hopefully we will have more answers than questions shortly.

Dear Teacher,

Now that we’ve had time to talk as a family and reflect upon yesterday’s discussion, we wanted to follow-up with some additional questions.  One concern we have is the use of Razkids and that earlier in the year, Carolyn completed the initial level but then was reset.  This effectively showed her that her hard work of taking the time to answer all the questions correctly would not be rewarded with more difficult material but rather her level is being decided by you.  Jon asked about this in the conversation but felt he was not given a clear answer.  Last night I looked at Carolyn’s iPad to discover that she has currently been set to level L.  This is disturbing since [last year's teacher] had her reading at level N and O in kindergarten.  I know that the questions asked after the stories in this program become progressively more difficult, so it would make sense if she were allowed to progress at her own pace so long as she is able to answer the comprehension questions at the end of the story. 

We are also somewhat puzzled by the discussion around reading.  Carolyn does not feel that anything has been difficult for her, aside from taking a couple days to effectively implement new ideas set forth.  She does not feel that she is able to share her opinion when working in a large group.  We did discuss this morning how it’s not possible for everyone to answer every question, but she feels that she is not being asked often to offer her opinion.  She does appreciate working in smaller groups now so that she can be more involved.

We are concerned about what is taking place with math.  We realize that her fact fluency is very high and that her abilities are well above the first grade level in that she is able to understand the concepts of multiplication and division.  We also understand your philosophy that homework is not necessary at this age and respect that.  But we are receiving a mixed message regarding this when homework that is sent home is busy work and not something that furthers understanding.  As a parent, it is difficult to keep track of and plan for homework when it is sporadic.  We also feel that time would better spent focusing on further fact fluency or other areas rather than reviewing material Carolyn has already shown proficiency with.  We want to know what can be done at school to support Carolyn’s growth in math and critical thinking skills.  Can the students that have shown mastery work on logic puzzles or something similar that helps to improve critical thinking skills?

The district website states that “The needs of gifted children are as disparate from the norm as the needs of special education students. The needs of gifted children in District 34 can be met with a proportional allocation of resources and expertise. “   We have yet to see this philosophy enacted for our daughter.  She has shown both on nationally normed IQ tests via Northwestern and the school tests that her abilities are significantly above her grade level, scoring higher than the 95% in every subject.  What needs to be done for her to gain access to what is needed to further her potential?  We want to be sure that her spark for learning is not lost and have found it to be waning as this school year progresses.

Frustrated

Dear Teacher,

My husband and I spoke after your phone call this morning and I had a chance to speak with Carolyn after school.  This conversation seems to have created more questions than answers at this time.  You effectively side-stepped the question of why the level for Carolyn’s RazKids was reset in the fall when she came to school having completed the initial level.  I looked at it just now and not only was it reset, but the current level is in fact lower than where she started the year.  For a child that scored 14 points below the 3^rd grade qualifying score for the gifted program as a 1^st grader, I am dumbfounded as to why she would be held back from progressing.  Once her level was reset, she lost all interest in reading on there.  And I can’t disagree with her, what’s the point of doing the work if the teacher is going to arbitrarily set your level anyway?  Your solution of giving her an assignment to compare 3 digit numbers since she knows her doubles seems pointless.  She was able to compare such numbers in kindergarten.  Will she at any point this year get anything that is even slightly challenging for math?  Something has been misunderstood as well – I was informed this morning that we don’t use centimeters to measure for science in the US.  I am praying that was a misunderstanding since it as far from the truth as one could get. 

Can you provide evidence of why you say Carolyn is struggling to ask and answer appropriate questions for reading group?  She explained exactly what “thick” and “thin” questions are to me in 1 minute, then provided an example.  She did complain that the room is very loud and that her group does not answer any of the questions they write.  But you have told her over and over again that it’s more important to listen to others, so she’s letting them decide what to do.  She has a very strong sense of right and wrong and I can tell that you have beat her down this year so she no longer wants to intervene in anything.  This deeply saddens me and makes me angry that your influence over my daughter has changed who she is.  We need you to stop trying to change her social abilities, your methods are not productive. 

It seems from the conversation that you don’t really know my daughter.  I don’t understand how you can spend 5 months in a classroom with her and yet know so little about her true abilities.  We sat just this weekend and discussed who the hero in Frozen is and why.  It was an amazing conversation where we came up with 3 different possibilities.  But apparently that type of interaction is not being had in the classroom – because you have emphasized so much that she no longer feels comfortable to share.

I have a hard time believing the “promises” that were offered to my husband, since very few things have so far been followed through on this school year.  In October at conferences we were told that a book list would be sent home shortly.  It’s nearly February and had I not spent my own time looking, Carolyn would have had no upper level picture books at home.  We reached out and were ignored.  Also at conferences we were promised that there would be opportunities for enrichment throughout the year.  When we look at the first 5 months, that has yet to happen once.  When my husband brought it up today he says you were confused by the discussion.  Instead of sending home work on math facts that she has already clearly shown proficiency in, send home something with facts she still needs to work on.  Since she already knows how to write how to books (they spent 6 months in kindergarten doing so), let her do something else, or make sure she’s spelling every word right. 

I cannot believe how disappointing of an experience this has been so far with district 34.  I grew up in Glenview and we moved here for the schools.  Yet we have had to fight every step of the way for Carolyn to receive anything.  We were promised last year that the gifted teacher would be working with the first grade during reading time.  Yet there is no evidence of this happening.  I have tried to work with the teachers, but we’re getting no response.  Every time we ask questions we’re told “this is how we do it.”  I am mad that I spent the money to move to this town and pay taxes when the school won’t provide a proper education for my child.  The district website states that gifted children need just as many resources as those struggling.  But not a single resource has been extended to a child that has scored in the 99.9% for reading on a nationally normed test and in the 96% for math.  I don’t know where we go from here.  But if we don’t start to get some sort of movement from the school with proof of how our child is properly being serviced, we will start to move up the ranks.  I know that other elementary schools in the district are providing for their students.  Do we have to petition to have her moved schools so she can get what she needs?  What is it she needs to show that you aren’t seeing?  Can I send information about dealing with gifted students?  They think differently, they act differently, they respond differently.  

Feel like I missed something

Jon is going to meet with Carolyn's teacher via a phone call tomorrow to discuss what can be done for her at school.  I have been listening to a lot of comments about boredom and how she wishes things were different lately.  In preparation for the meeting, we wanted to be sure we're on the same page and know out options.  So I went looking around the district website tonight.  I found 2 things that are somewhat scary to me.  First, all discussion of any accelerated/gifted math is gone.  There is no discussion about any way to service kids that are above grade level for math.  All criteria to qualify for the gifted program is now IQ and reading/language related.  As the mother of a first grader that is grasping multiplication and division concepts, this is almost terrifying.  We have emailed the person in charge to find out what is going on with the math.  Second, I found the cut off scores for screening for the gifted program.  They don't want to spend the money to administer an IQ test to every kid, so they use some of the MAP scores and CogAt.  Well, they start taking the MAP in first grade.  Carolyn took it this September, after having lived in the hotel for at least 2 weeks.  And she scored 11 points shy of the cut-off.  They look at the scores kids receive during the fall of their 3rd grade year.  Her projected score for the end of first grade is in fact 3 points above the cut-off.  But she's receiving no special services at all and from what we can tell, no differentiation.  She scored 30pts above the district mean.

I'm feeling like a terrible parent tonight as I look at all of this.  How could I have not realized what it meant when I saw these scores?  How could I have not been pushing earlier this year to get her what she needed?  Yes, we were living in the hotel, but I can only imagine how much higher those initial scores might have even been if we weren't at the time.  I don't know what to do at this point.

God, this is in Your hands.  We need Your guidance to show us what needs to be done for Carolyn to complete Your will in her life.  Give Jon the words to express our concerns tomorrow.  Show us what direction we need to move in next.  You have given Carolyn some amazing talents and we want to ensure that nothing is wasted.  Thank You for all of the wonderful blessings You have bestowed upon our family.

Focusing on the positive

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written in here.  Life just completely took over and I haven't had time to sit down and write.  Likely, I should of be doing a myriad of other things even right now.  I never did print off James' preschool for the week, but I think I at least have what we need for tomorrow!  And I signed up for an online physics course that I haven't even looked at yet.  We've had so many wonderful adventures in the last 8 months, let me see if I can sum them all up quickly.

Last Spring, once the ground finally thawed, Carolyn finished up her year of AYSO.  Her growth as a soccer player was awesome, along with the growth of her teammates.  We chose to pursue another route for soccer this school year so I am no longer her coach.  Carolyn played her first (and last) year of tball.  She really enjoyed it and can't wait to try softball next Spring.  James got to try tball as well, which he loved.  And it turns out that he has a great arm for such a peanut and can even hit a little coach pitch if the bat is small enough.  We celebrated birthdays for everyone in the family, sticking with family parties for at least one more year.  It was nice to see everyone and have low-key celebrations that focused on enjoying time together.

Once school ended we headed up to Blue Harbor for a few days and had a blast in the waterpark and at the beach.  The kids love it there, we'll see if we make it back next summer.  After that was the 4th of July and then Carolyn took her NU CTD classes and absolutely loved them.  Definitely a little weird to have my 6yo telling me about phalanges and telling stories about Nessie.  She did a bunch of projects and both teachers told how they loved the questions she asked.  After her classes ended, we piled into the car for Denver.  The drive was definitely long, but both kids did pretty well.  It was wonderful to see my grandfather and he did his best to stay awake when we were there.  For a 96yo he's doing pretty well and I am SO glad we decided to go.  Lots of great memories to last for a while, and of course I always know that this may have been our last visit with him (although we've been saying that for 5years it seems :-))  We came home and recharged for a few days before heading up to MN to visit my former department chair.  She has cabins in the middle of Superior National Forest and it was an experience.  We had intended to spend 2 days hiking and playing in the water.  Instead we spent 1 day driving to the ER to clear James of a concussion and then 1 day playing in the water.  The kids really enjoyed that one day though and it was nice to visit with Maggie.  She's really enjoying retirement and that's awesome to see.

Summer was basically over once we arrived home, with Jon heading back to work a few days later.  Both kids attended soccer camp and for the most part enjoyed it.  I got to walk each day while they were both at camp and James and I had some special time while Carolyn finished up each day.  Then we enjoyed another week of settling into activities before school started.  Carolyn is starting the team program for gymnastics, which is 2 afternoons each week.  She started first grade last week and was definitely exhausted by Friday afternoon.  But so far she is loving her teacher and kids in her class.  She has some of the more severely challenged students join her class for specials and on the first day helped one of the girls find a seat.  It's a great opportunity for her to work with others and use her gentle, loving spirit to encourage and include others.  We spent most of this weekend at a family wedding, which was beautiful.  We all had a wonderful time at the ceremony and reception and have spent the last 2 days recovering from staying up until about 11.  All ready to face a new week now though!

This week we don't quite get to settle into a regular routine since I have jury duty on Wednesday.  James is looking forward to some special time with Jon though while I'm gone.  And Jon is looking forward to being a part of activities like chess and soccer that he typical misses.  After this week we'll settle in for a bit though.  I can't wait to see the blessings God has in store for our family this school year.  Both kids continue to be very inquisitive and I am looking forward to helping them answer their questions.

My goal for this year is going to be to focus on the positive.  When I go for my walks (try for 3mi 4x/wk) I repeat a verse in my head as much as possible.  I don't know which one it is as it comes out of a song, but I just repeat to myself "Be still, and know that He is God."  Because really, that's all there is to it.  If I focus on getting things right with God and helping my children to focus on behaving through God's grace, we'll all be on the right path.  So while I can't be physically still most of the time, I am trying to focus on keeping my mind from racing by remembering that God is in control and everything is working towards the best outcome.
Ready for the next challenge, because I know that God is in control.

Some hope

Despite a very rough start to the day, Carolyn had a good day.  At school they did their usual stations since it was Friday.  One of the stations they were drawing pictures and writing single words to create a story.  In other words, leaving out the connecting words.  It looks like perhaps something a Native American may have written on the teepee.  She enjoyed telling us her story when she came home, and proceeded to write out the story with all the words on our easel whiteboard.  She also came home with an assignment to take pictures of shapes around the house.  We found trapezoids, pentagons, octagons, hexagons, triangles, squares, rectangles, circles, and made our own rhombus.  I added an extension where we went through and wrote down a list of what shapes are in each picture.  It was good practice writing letters and numbers, as well as spelling the mathematical terms.  All those words that are "le" are so hard to remember.  So Carolyn has a better feeling about school at the moment.  We'll see how things go next week, although with only 2 days of school they can't be horrible.  I have sent email asking to find more extension activities for Carolyn to do to push her critical thinking skills.  Hopefully we can look over the curriculum next week and identify where that can be done.

At home we are going to focus on reading rich literature as much as possible.  This week I got some books that are stories that incorporate math.  I found a list of the top 100 children's book and another of the top 100 chapter books.  So we'll work through each list.  I'll probably get 5 or so from the children's book list each week.  We started reading Mr. Popper's Penguins today and got through 6 chapters in one sitting before we took a break for snack and other things (like the shape hunt).

I received a well-timed email from one of my former HS teachers today.  He has always been very level-headed and was very supportive as I started teaching.  He raised 3 kids in Glenview as well, so can give advice from experience.  Interestingly, he suggested the Mindset book I read in August.  He also said he got some great insights from Nurture Shock, so I have put that on hold at the library and will pick it up on Wednesday when we go.  He made some statements to try and get me to think.  I'm looking forward to continuing our conversation further, even though through email.

Feeling in at least a little better place right now.  Looking forward to a weekend of snuggles, reading, popcorn, and probably some games.  I wish it was warm enough to spend a bunch of time at the park!

Disappointing conversation

So at 9:30 last night the principal emailed me to postpone our meeting.  Something came up, so she offered 2 times next week.  Considering I slept horrible last night thinking about what to say and how to say it, I was pretty frustrated.  But I sent my request for babysitting on to Jon's dad and luckily he's able to oblige.  So we rescheduled for next Tuesday.  We did agree to talk on the phone as well.  So after a great morning with James, I spoke with the principal for about 20 minutes.  I shared with her my background and my concerns of what is happening.  I let her know that the goal for meeting next week is to come up with specific plans of how we're going to help Carolyn.  I'm disappointed with some of the things said during the conversation.  She emphasized the social importance of the classroom and learning to work with other people who don't understand.  I get that it's important, I do, but not all the time.  Every student should have some time (10-15min?) every day where they feel their needs are being met.  Right now, that is absolutely not happening for Carolyn.  I am worried that school for her is going to become a place where she has to go and follow directions, I am worried she is going to lose her love for learning as I see it fizzling some already.  The principal's only suggestion for now is to have her meet with the social worker to see how she's feeling about school.  I agreed, but don't think it will help in any way.  There are no social-emotional issues at school, her teacher reports great behavior and didn't have anything to criticize at her conference a month ago.  But if we can get something going, I'll jump through whatever hoops.  I hope that the message I got from today's conversation - that Carolyn just needs to learn to help her classmates learn - is not the only choice.  Because if that's going to happen, my only real option is going to be to bring her home.  She likes the social aspect of school so at this point I don't want to do that to her.

I noticed today that there is a night and day difference in Carolyn when she has time to do something that is mentally stimulating.  Today they had their usual explorations, which are stations around the room.  Once of the choices is independent reading and so Carolyn chose a book to take to school and read that.  But that is something she could be doing at home.  And today I know she was not well rested because she was up twice last night. 

James and I had a wonderful morning today.  After dropping Carolyn off at school, we came home and he helped me put the soup together for dinner.  Then he brought his football and crab catch items into the living room and we listened to music and played catch, with an intermission to dance.  When he got sick of that we played Cooties for a bit, then he cut out the pieces to work with Bob book 1.  He knows all the sounds in the book (although there are only 6) and can sound out all the words.  It's going to be interesting to watch him progress with his reading since he's so different from Carolyn with learning.  He got to talk on the phone to Kathi for a while, which he loved.  We also, of course, read a bunch of books.  Just a nice, low key morning at home with lots of hugs and laughs.

Looking forward to 5 days with my family next week with no interruptions!  And can't wait until winter break so we have even more time together.

Frustration Mounts

Carolyn forgot her iPad this morning.  So on our way to soccer, I dropped it off at the school so they could deliver it to her.  She got off the bus without it in her backpack.  I come to find out that they won't deliver them during instructional time, so Carolyn didn't get hers today.  And because there's no lunch break for kindergarten or anything, she is without it tonight.  We were never informed of this policy and it makes me angry.  I wasted 15 minutes of my day so that my child would still be without her iPad and then be without it tonight.  There was no mention of the policy when I dropped it off.

Carolyn has now gone 3 days without anything to challenge her at school.  Her behavior is quickly deteriorating at home because she has to try so hard to behave appropriately when she's bored.  She has such excellent company manners but it should not be this hard for her.  There has to be some solution.  Maybe I'm being naïve, but I see SO many opportunities for differentiation that are being ignored.  Comparing numbers?  Use numbers bigger than 10 for the kids that can.  Identifying pictures?  Let them see the words to read them!  Working on writing? Encourage kids to reread and edit their own work - it takes seconds to tell a kid to reread what's there and be sure it has the right sounds.  We will work on some more math this afternoon, whether it be worksheets or games.  But at the moment my heart is breaking because I can see how hard she is working to hold everything together.

Hopefully my meeting with the principal will turn something useful up.  She doesn't want to leave school because she does like the social aspect.  But I can't keep fighting these behavioral issues when all that she needs is some mental stimulation.

Easy Math Game

Carolyn loves to work on math, but I'm trying to pull back a little on teaching her new math facts.  She is really good at "counting on" or subtracting by counting backwards.  I came across this game, http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/support-files/Race-to-50.pdf, and have adapted it for our needs.  We are using some of Carolyn's necklace beads as markers and I pulled out a couple hundreds charts.  Each person gets a marker for the game board and one for their chart.  We move around the board according to the original directions.  The hundreds chart has turned the game into a race to 100, but also an easy way to work on addition.  We have a chance to talk about how adding 10 means you just go down to the next row.  And when you land on top of someone else, you add that number twice.  This shows you can have multiple addends within a problem.  And as we play, I restate the addition problem to emphasize that is what we are doing.  Carolyn really liked playing and has already asked to play again after lunch.  As a twist in the future, we might count down to work on subtracting.  My hope is that this type of game will help her work on her adding/subtracting and satisfy her need for numbers without obviously working on math.

I heard back from the principal and am waiting to see if I can arrange for someone to watch the kids for a meeting at 11:30 on Thursday.  I must admit that the more I read about homeschooling though, the more I think it's for us.  I'm going to try and go in with an open mind and see if we can find things that will satisfy all of us.

Now what?

I have a bunch of work to do today, but I need to write this out before I can even begin to focus on work.  I met with Carolyn's teacher this morning and now really don't know what to do.  Carolyn is showing what she can do at school.  In 2 days, she wrote a three page story and started a new one, complete with illustrations.  She is not afraid to read in front of her class at all.  Carolyn is not the most independent learner, but I would imagine most 5 year olds really aren't.

The "answers" I got were less than promising.  Her teacher said she would nudge and push Carolyn to do a little more when given a chance.  There was no discussion about this in regards to any math, where they are studying shapes and will later this year look at solids.  Carolyn already knows those and we've done them at home by chance, with math seeds, and with magnatiles.  She emphasized that she really only likes to use picture books in the classroom, suggesting that they can have as much difficulty as longer books.  I just don't see how the plot difficulty of a book with 20 sentences can be the same as a chapter book, and Carolyn really enjoys the extended plots.  She did say that Carolyn can bring in books to read if she would like.  So I'll be discussing that with her this afternoon.  I just really didn't get many concrete answers for the plan for the year.  I asked if we're likely to have this boredom issue each year and she just said possibly.  So without many answers, as we were rushed at the end, she said she would understand if I pull Carolyn but that she doesn't want to lose her. 

Almost felt like an endorsement that the classroom can't meet her needs because they are so specific.  This is one of those things that frustrates me.  The kids that are behind get all the support in the world, but the ones that are ahead get less than even the average student because they are already so capable.  It looks like the next step is going to be meeting with the principal.  I think I'll give it a week and see how things are going.

Fall fun

I continue to struggle with what to do for Carolyn and school.  The last couple days we've been doing some learning activities at home and the kids have been loving them.  We've been creating a list of questions that we'll get books to find answers.  I spent the morning looking for things that I can confidently do at home.  I found some great reading and writing lessons on www.readwritethink.org and some good math ideas on http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/kindergarten-math-activities.html. It will be easy to pick and choose from these activities things that are at Carolyn's level and that she finds interesting.  I think I'm going to start with looking at "The Snowman" and writing a story to go with it.  Then I'll have Carolyn make some of her own drawings and write a story to go with it.  We'll give it a try tomorrow afternoon.  I'm going to switch between reading/writing, math, and science working on one project at a time as time allows.  I'm also going to speak with Carolyn's teacher about what is happening in the classroom.

I also reached out the high school principal, since I've kept in touch with him for a while.  And I emailed my other former HS physics teacher.  I asked both of them their thoughts on homeschooling and how it might effect HS.  I found out my 4th grade teacher and 4-5 principal are still at the school and contacted them as well.  I just said hi to them since it's been a while and I'm not sure they remember me.  But once we reconnect I'm going to ask what they think.  I'm guessing they'll remember me since my mom was pretty memorable.

Today we played in the leaves, made leaf rubbings with chalk on the driveway, cleaned up the backyard for winter, and then brought some leaves inside.  Making leaf rubbings on paper turned into cutting the steams off and forming straight letters with them.  Carolyn made her own and I made some for James to identify.  We took a break for dinner and now we're going to make thankful turkeys out of tracing hands.  It's been a nice day, even if I didn't get the PJs made I was hoping to work on.  The best laid plans... I know it'll get done!

Schooling Dilemma

I should really be working right now, but I have to get this out before I can focus.  I am really unsure what to do for Carolyn right now, and James in the future even.  Carolyn has been coming home lately riled up from the day, and it's clear she isn't being challenged at all while at school.  I wrote to her teacher and the response was that they've been doing some benchmark testing lately.  Yet I feel like they were just doing that a few weeks ago.  So how much time is being spent evaluating these kids?!  And how often does Carolyn have to sit around while they check on the abilities of all the kids?  Yes, she can count to 100, knows all 42 sounds, can write all the letters in lowercase, can identify a square, circle, triangle, and their vertices.  For that matter she can count by 2 (to 20), 5, and 10.  And yes, it's only November.  She hates guided writing where she just has to fill in a couple words that match a picture and doesn't get to use any of her own ideas.  She can complete a level L story and questions on RAZ kids by only listening to the story once.  She often wants to practice learning her math facts.  I can't help but feel like her time is being wasted each morning when she goes to school.  I've written her teacher again to see if we can meet or talk on the phone about what the rest of the year is going to look like and how to proceed from here.

And all of this makes me miss my mom so much because she was good dealing with all of the school stuff.  I'm fighting back tears right now because I just wish I could talk to her right now.  I want what's best for my kids, but I don't know what that is.  If I had all the money in the world we could send them to Montessori or an academy some where.  But we can barely pay our bills and fix the things that break.  But right now it seems my heart is breaking for the frustration that Carolyn faces each day.  People do need to learn to be patient with others and that not everyone learns at the same pace, but I guess I don't feel like learning at 5.5 that you are supposed to wait around while others catch up is appropriate.  And it's the exact problem with the education in this country and why we're falling behind in math and science.  I see Carolyn's love for learning slowly fizzling and I hate that, but I don't know what to do to give her the best results in the long run.  And it makes me crave a phone call with my mom like nothing else.

I love you Mom, and I miss you more than words can say!

2 months in to Kindergarten

It's hard to believe it's mid-October already and Carolyn has been in kindergarten for nearly 2 months!  It seems like we've been crazy busy lately, although to most families we're don't do very much.  I'm realizing that as a family we really value time to relax and just be together.  Carolyn and James don't handle constant activity well and require a day to just be, weekly preferably.  It gets hard to manage that as kids get older though.  With soccer on Saturdays and Sunday school, we have been stuck with weeks with seemingly no rest.  Tomorrow, though, we will get a day of rest.  A day to read books, go for a walk to collect sticks, leaves, and acorns, go to the park, ride bikes, just enjoy having no plans.  And I spent tonight putting together 4 different craft projects the kids can do.  I looked through the Oriental Trading catalogue and then sat down with some construction paper.  It'll be a little trickier since we'll need to use glue to put things together, but it'll be fun to put together these projects and then hang them around the house.

Carolyn has an amazing teacher at school.  She is being exposed to some new topics, and I am able to support and enhance that learning by bringing home extra books from the library.  They do continue to plod through the alphabet and phonics sounds, which she mastered a while ago.  But they also are working through Handwriting without tears and she is learning to properly form lower case letters.  They also have the opportunity to do some writing in class.  Conferences are this week and I am looking forward to a conversation of how we can continue to challenge Carolyn and what can be done at home to support her.  We are looking forward to expanded use of the Ipads as well as the year goes on.  We received Carolyn's STAR early literacy score today, 771.  775 is the cut-off between a "transitional" and "probable" reader.  A chart I found online puts her grade level at 1.8.  However, it appears that as the score approaches 900 (the top score), the test is less reliable because the child can read.  This is a pre-reading test and Carolyn is definitely reading.  I wonder if the district switches any of the kindergartners to the STAR reading test after this first round and it's proven the student can read.  We have been exploring poetry lately, to change things up a bit.  Carolyn is enjoying Shel Silverstein and Jack Perlutsky.  I am looking forward to some suggestions from her teacher as well, as it is difficult to find books that challenge her thinking/vocabulary yet have appropriate subject matters.  I was amazed when she read a poem recently that used the word "brigade" and I asked her if she knew what it meant and she said "army".  We can not figure out how she determined this because no one taught it to her.  Amazing that she is able to decode language this early! 

James continues to do an awesome job at home with me doing his preschool lessons.  We start each morning reading books in bed after putting Carolyn on the bus.  I love this snuggle time and I know James is getting some great things from it.  He had a rough start to the school year and some severe separation anxiety issues.  But we seem to have moved beyond this now and he is okay staying home with Jon's dad when I take Carolyn to gymnastics or volunteer in her classroom.  I am very glad that we canceled his soccer and very happy we did not enroll him in any preschool classes.  He is developing at his own pace and it's great to see his development.  He asks to do preschool several days a week, where we read Bible stories, books, trace/color letters and numbers, work on sequencing, counting, coloring, cutting, as well as do gross and fine motor activities.  We are using the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3 year old curriculum, supplemented with some other things, and it is going great.  We are currently on week 18.  Carolyn is also teaching James some of her Jolly phonics from school and he is learning some letter sounds.  He is able to trace very well when he focuses and can form nearly every letter by doing so.  He can identify J, O, C, B, Q, and probably some other letters as well.  Being 3, his biggest struggle is staying focused on the task at hand, but his concentration is pretty good considering his age. 

I sometimes sit back and think about how well my children are doing learning the basics and I wonder what sets them apart.  I never felt like I was doing anything special, just what a mom should do.  I usually put their needs before mine, and I will admit that I am sacrificing money/a career to help them get the best start possible.  We read countless books and my kids can often retell the stories because we read them so many times in one week before new books come home from the library.  I admittedly turn every day activities into learning - counting objects, describing why something happens, or asking my children to observe things around them.  Jon often reminds me that I choose the hard road.  And the main choice that I've made that makes things hard?  My children rarely watch TV or interact with technology.  They can effortlessly work an Ipad or Tablet, they love to play on Starfall or Reading Eggs.  But we put an emphasis on free play and getting outside.  Even on rainy days, they do not get more than 30 minutes of screen time.  Their imaginations are great and as they get bigger they are coming up with their own ideas of things to do.  My favorite recently is using blankets and furniture to create a hideout in Carolyn's bedroom under her desk.  I'm looking forward to what else they'll come up with this winter when I'm no longer forcing outdoor time in the afternoons because it'll be too cold.

Your kids will learn technology... if you make 2 choices to give them the best start they can have... play outside and read books.  The rest will write itself.

Kindergarten begins

I'm not sure who was most anxious this morning for Carolyn to start school.  I had a horrible time sleeping last night and James was up at 6:15.  Carolyn got up just before 7.  I made her a special breakfast of strawberry soufflé, which Carolyn put cheese on top of and had a glass of milk.  She took a banana as a snack.  Jon stayed home to put her on the bus, which was tougher than we anticipated.  We took many pictures and had to fight back tears.  She was just fine though and climbed onto the bus and sat right down.

While Carolyn was at school, I had time with James.  One of Carolyn's classmates came and played with him for a little while, allowing me time to put together a few more folders for preschool.  Once she left he asked to work on preschool right away, so we got down to work.  He can identify nearly every letter of his name and order them correctly.  We put together a 10 commandments train and then worked on some of his sequencing pages.  Once he reaches capacity for that, we gathered up all the pillows in the house and he crawled over them.  Then he made new patterns and crawled, jumped, and flopped around the room.  We were silly, pretending to hide from a monster, and just enjoyed our time together.  We went outside so he could pick berries to leave out for the birds.  And we read a book before heading to the bus stop.

James gave Carolyn a huge hug once she was off the bus and told her he missed her.  It was really cool to see.  We hurried inside since it was raining and went straight to make lunch.  As I was making lunch, Carolyn suddenly got upset.  Then she told me something "horrible" happened at school.  She had trouble finding the correct line to get into to go inside.  We talked about this for a few minutes and discussed how tomorrow if she has trouble she can look for some of her classmates.  It sounds like they didn't do much today, but she did get to meet the class guinea pigs named Cookie and Brownie.  So day 1 is over and she'll meet everyone in her class tomorrow. 

My little girl is getting big!

Crepes, Compost, and Homeschooling

In our effort to eat more healthy, we are going to be planting a bunch of vegetables this summer.  Once it's planting season, we might see about getting a strawberry plant as well.  To help with this, we decided to make out compost bin and rain barrell.  These often run $80-100 each, which is really out of our budget.  But with some searching online, I discovered you can make both with a garbage can.  So Jon picked up 2 garbage cans for <$7 each.  He picked up some bungee chords today and we made the composter.

Garbage can with lid
Drill - 1/4-1/2" bit (we used 1/4")
2 bricks (still need to grab these)

Drill holes up, down, and around the garbage can.  Be sure to put some in the top to allow rain water in and the bottom for drainage.  Put compost into garbage can (we gathered sticks and leaves from our gardens for the "brown" material, will use food scraps for the "green"), add a little dirt.  Add water to wet mixture enough so it is damp, but not overly wet.  Secure lid with bungee chords, then roll around on ground to mix everything up.  Secure to something sturdy so it doesn't blow away.  We will add food scraps as we go and roll daily for a little while, less often once it really gets going.  I'm exciting to use this on our garden rather than store bought compost!

I also made a new recipe for breakfast this morning, crepes.  It's a recipe I found online, but really not a recipe at all.  Regular crepes are made with flour, but these are just eggs.  1 egg, 1T water, a little salt.  I used 4 eggs, 4T water, some cream, and some cinnamon.  They were good, but definitely very eggy.  I might try adding in some almond flour or flax meal next time.  I made homemade whip cream and we filled them with strawberries, dusted with cocoa powder.  Will definitely skip the cocoa powder next time.  It was a nice change from usual though.  The only breakfast thing I still need to figure out how to make is french toast.  Need to find a good bread recipe first though.

Off the food topic a little bit, I've been thinking more about homeschooling lately.  Carolyn has such an awesome attitude when it comes to learning and she's ready to go.  I am going to start putting units together so we can work on things that go together rather than just bits and pieces here and there.  We will start looking at plants tomorrow.  A part of me wonders though, if we do a lot over this next 1.5 years, that's she's going to bored in Kindergarten.  Let's be honest, she already knows all her letters and their sounds, and is starting to sound out words and has some sightwords.  She can legibly write all of her letters as well, including her name.  She is doing basic math as well, starting by using her fingers to add.  She can count up to 20 unprompted.  Her language is spectacular for a 3 year old.  On top of all of that, she's inquisitive and wants to know about everything.  And then she's strong - can almost do a full push-up already!  I don't feel like we've really "taught" her any of this either.  We're going to take advantage of her desire to learn before she starts school.  But with the emphasis on testing in our schools these days, I really ponder keeping her home.  If it wasn't for the social aspect, I think I would do just that.  Well, and I don't think Jon would be real excited about the idea either.  We'll see how life develops in the next year though!