3 weeks ago, I learned that Keira was going to have an assessment before she started kindergarten. This made me very nervous, because Keira wouldn't cooperate with any attempt I made to teach her preschool things. She would not answer questions, she would not color, draw, or write on request. I knew she possessed a certain amount of knowledge because she would do things on her own, but if I asked her to, she'd completely shut down, clam up, or downright refuse to cooperate. I had a good idea of what they would be testing for and I wanted her to test well, so I thought it would be a good idea to sit down with her each day for the few days leading up to her appointment to practice and review. I'll admit, it took a bit of bribery to coax her cooperation, but I was pleasantly surprised by her sudden participation and interest in learning. She had never written her name in completion, and by her assessment was writing her uppercase name- on command. I couldn't have been more proud of her at her assessment. My biggest fear was that she wouldn't answer their questions at all, but she answered everything and wrote her name, although, did not get credit for it because she wrote in all uppercase instead of lower case.
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| Keira's first day of school |
Keira's first day of school was pretty rough for her. None of the other kids seemed upset when they walked into the classroom, but Keira was pretty distraught. I knew I had to stay strong for her so I put on my poker face and heart of stone and told her many times, "Be brave. You can do this." But as much as I was talking to her, I was telling it to myself. It is said that being a mom is like having a piece of your heart walking around outside of your body. Well, now that piece of my heart was going to be in the care of strangers, in a new place, doing things she had never done before. Her teacher had to hold on to her as I left the class to keep her from following me. I felt like my heart was going to explode. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, leaving her there so scared, but I stayed strong and trusted in the Lord to care for her while I could not.
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| My Little Pony Backpack |
As much as I was unsure of how Keira was going to adjust to being in school, I was equally unsure of myself. Can I be the mom I need to be? Can I get up at 6:00 every morning? Can I get her to school every day on time and be there to pick her up on time? Can I be responsible for her school work? Can I be brave enough to talk to her teacher when there's a problem? I used to think that I was as "adult" as I was ever going to be after I had kids, but I have learned now that there are going to be stages of life that require a lot more responsibility and effort than before. It's intimidating... entering the world of being a school mom... becoming more of an adult than I used to be. And just like I am growing and changing for Keira, she is already growing and changing in school.
During Keira's first week, she got in trouble a couple of times for not doing her work in her class. I asked her teacher why she thought Keira didn't want to do it and she said, "Honestly, I'd call it passive defiance." That definitely sounds like Keira. She had expressed being unhappy with her teacher telling her what to do, and was aggravated that they made her stay in one spot and not get up whenever she wants to. Classic Keira. She hates being told what to do. She is getting used to it now that she has realized she doesn't have a choice and that's just the way things are at school. Despite her couple incidents of reluctance, she has done surprisingly well. Now that she has put her mind to it, she is learning so FAST. She is soaking it up like a sponge. If you show her something once or twice, she's got it. I think she is going to be ahead of her class in no time.
After school started, I began teaching her to write her name with lower case letters, and she caught on immediately. I was going to have her trace in on her tracing light one day and she turned the light off instead and wrote it on her own from memory. She wrote her uppercase K, then did a perfect lower case e. So I told her, "Wow! That e is perfect!" She glared at me menacingly. "Don't tell me that!" So I said, "Fine, it's the ugliest, worst e I have ever seen." She smiled and nodded contently. Then she wrote her lower case i. "Great!" I said. GLARE. "Oh, I mean that's the worst i, don't ever write an i like that again." Smile and nod. Same thing with her perfect letter r, then she finished with a capital A, which I am almost certain she did on purpose because that's exactly the kind of thing she would do to be a turkey. She is such a character. So quirky and unpredictable.
Kindergarten has recently changed and become much more advanced than it used to be. Among other things, they are required to know 2D shapes (including hexagon) and 3D shapes such as cone, sphere, cylinder, and cube. I taught her all of that this summer except for the shape hexagon, so I cut out a set of shapes from cardstock and asked her to pick out the one she doesn't know. She found the hexagon and asked me what it was called, and I explained to her how a hexagon has 6 sides. She walked away and came back with a piece of paper and pair of scissors and started cutting. I had no idea what she was doing. Moments later, she held up her paper and said, "I made my own hexagon!" Sure as day, she was holding as perfect of a hexagon as I could freehand myself. I was blown away.
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| Second day of school with her friend Elisa |
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| After Keira's first day of school. I bought her flowers to cheer her up. |
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