Kindergarten Conference

Last night we had Bailey's first conference and I left near tears.

Happy tears.

See, back in August when they did the original school testing Bailey was placed in the all day program, and I was shocked.  All day kindergarten, from what I knew, was for the kids who were behind.  Those who needed extra help.  At orientation, the principal stressed that full-dayers needed to be diligent about not missing much school because they needed it.  I thought for sure that Bailey would be in the half-day program.  Like any mother, I thought my kid was a genius, and she was too smart to need the extra help that the principal was talking about.

Friends of mine were posting pictures on Facebook of their kids holding up the letter from the school district with the caption "Kiddo is so excited to be in so-and-so's AM Kindergarten class!"  I couldn't wait to get our letter and post a cute picture of Bailey, too.  That is, until we got the letter in the mail telling us how happy the administration was to have Bailey in their full-day Kindergarten program.  I read the letter and I cried.  Then I emailed the teacher and the principal.  After that, I called the guidance counselor and demanded to know what exactly my daughter had been tested on for the all of 10 minutes that she was gone that determined her kindergarten placement.

A few of my mom friends started texting and messaging me when the letters came in the mail, asking if I knew Bailey's placement yet.  When I told them she was in full-day, I got a lot of "I'm sorry to hear that" responses, and one "Really?  How do you feel about that?" .  The truth is, I was embarrassed.  Bailey had been at home with me her whole life and I felt like her "poor" testing was a direct reflection on my parenting skills.  For days, I walked around berating myself internally, thinking If I had worked with her more, maybe she'd be in half-day.  I was angry at myself and at the school, and I felt like I had failed my daughter.

Turns out, I ended up eating all my angry words.  Because she really did need the help.  And she really was behind other kids in her age group in terms of what she should have known before entering Kindergarten.  And a big part of my anger at her being placed in the full-day program was because I wasn't ready for her to be in school all day.  Not just yet. There was still so much more I wanted to do with her before sending her off all day long.  But she was thrilled to be in school and so, so excited to be making friends.  And her friends are awesome...they really are sweet and intelligent and funny kids, and I'm ashamed that I let myself worry as much as I did.

So...all that to say that I was nervous about her conference.  Her report card had gotten sent home the day before, and it was great,  All 4s and 5s (5 is the highest "grade" they give), except for her specials (Gym, Art, Music, etc. where she got mostly 3s), and I was so proud of her...but worried about what her teacher would have to say.

A great report card = a sweet treat!

I was so pleasantly surprised and so damn proud of her after sitting down with her teacher.

Turns out, not only is she "on par" with her peers, but she's advanced in certain areas.  She can recognize and write all of her letters and most numbers to 20.  As of the testing two weeks ago, she could count to 49 without missing any numbers and she knows what sound each letter of the alphabet makes. She's sounding out words on her own, and is able to write both her first and last name correctly without help.  The class has been taught 7 high frequency sight words...Bailey can recognize and correctly identify 9.  She's doing simple math (one and one is two...two and three is five, etc) and she's beginning to correctly identify non-sight words by sounding them out on her own.  Her teacher is recommending that she be moved up to the more challenging reading group this next quarter.  I can't believe the progress she's made in just 3 months!

Academics aside, I was concerned about her behavior while at school.  At home, Bailey tends to be bossy and lately she gets angry about everything.  She comes home from school and immediately goes into "boss lady" mode, ordering the kids around and trying to run the show, and God help us all if Gerry interferes with anything she's trying to do.  The tiniest little thing not going her way sends her into a tailspin complete with screaming, stomping feet, and sometimes thrown objects.  So, it's been fun.

I want my daughter to be intelligent and eager to learn.  But, right now, it's more important to me that she is kind and compassionate toward others.  So I was nervous about asking this question, and worried that her teacher was going to tell me that we needed to work on behavior and being nice to others at home.

Turns out she's pretty much a different kid at school.  "Quiet and shy" was a phrase I saw written on her progress report, and the teacher confirmed it.  She's not one to call out or to be mean to someone else, and she has lots of friends in school.  Her teacher also mentioned that Bailey is starting to take on more of a leadership role.  She was amused by it, and said that it was nice to see her come out of her shell a bit and that she does it without being mean or bossy.

Cue my exaggerated sigh of relief.

So, she's doing awesome!  Better than I could have imagined, and I'm so, so proud.  Bring on the next round of learning!

Homework!  It's the first thing she does when she gets home each day.