More on Kindergarten readiness

last week, we went to Skye's kindergarten screening and orientation. to help Skye prepare for it, i told her a little bit about what would happen. i told her she would be in a classroom with the other children and Phil and i would go to another room for a meeting. i told her that she would be asked to do some things because the teachers want to see if she is ready for kindergarten. well, this seemed to freak her out. she told me she didn't want to go. i was hoping to prepare her, but instead, it made her really nervous! so we had a long chat, that the teachers were going to ask her to do what she already knew how to do, like write her name, draw a picture of herself, look at some pictures and talk about what was in the pictures. and if she didn't know the answer to some of the things they asked her to do, that was OK. well, that helped relieve the nervousness, but Skye was still reluctant to let us go when we arrived at the classroom. but after a few minutes, we left her engrossed in a book one of the teachers was reading to her.

the orientation was great. they gave us lots of information on what the first day would look like and took us through a day of kindergarten. they talked about placement and school buses. it was so much information, but very helpful.

when we got Skye, she wanted to stay! she kept saying she wished she was going to kindergarten! so that was good. i felt like she got really comfortable there, especially since they had a morning much as they would have on a regular school day. she seemed to have enjoyed the screening too, which the child psychologist did by pulling out one child at a time.

since the screening, i've talked with many other mums and gathered even more information about the public school system. having gone to school in Kenya, i have no idea what the system is like here, and boy, it really is this big system that i'm going to have to be vigilant about. one mum told me how her child was tagged for ESL - her child is Chinese by birth, but is above her grade level in reading and writing. the school told her her daughter would require 70 hours of testing. needless to say, this mother was furious. she managed to get out of it, but warned me that Skye would be tagged for ESL. this issue, along with some other placement questions i had, prompted me to call the headmistress at Franklin, the school Skye will attend in the fall. fortunately, the headmistress was very helpful. she did agree that Skye would be tagged, but we can decline ESL "services". it made me think about where Skye would be placed also because she said certain classrooms are designated for ESL students. another mother told me that there is a difference between ESL and ELL and that Skye is clearly a dual language student, NOT ESL nor ELL. No, i wouldn't want Skye in a classroom full of children who are learning to speak English for the first time that the teacher's energies would all go to those children, but at the same time, i don't think it would be terrible for Skye to be with other children who speak another language. i would like her to learn to appreciate speaking another language. i remember when i first went to school in Kenya, there was a girl i was placed next to and she was so helpful to me, especially those first few scary weeks when i couldn't understand a word anyone said.

it's been a busy few weeks - i'm getting a crash course on the public school system! on top of that, Skye's birthday is coming up and we're going to have a party. Skye wanted to invite 15 kids, and i foolishly agreed. and guess what? all 15 kids are coming! i've decided that next year, i'm going to limit Skye's guest list to 6. i've been busy planning and now, i'll be busy baking and getting things ready for the party! let's hope we have great weather because i'm not sure i could handle all those kids running around inside the house!