Bailey's Mid-Year Kindergarten Conference

WARNING:  I'm a ridiculously proud mom right now, so I'm going to spend this post gushing about my daughter and how amazing she is.  Read at your own risk.  ;-)

I had Bailey's conference this morning and I'm blown away by how well she's doing.  Her teacher describes her as quiet and shy (the complete opposite of what she's like at home), and as an example for the class.  She can recognize and write all 26 letters of the alphabet (uppercase and lowercase), numbers 0-30, can count to 100 and beyond without help.  She can recognize rhyming words, though she has a hard time producing them, which we've noticed at home, too.  Her handwriting is getting better and better, and she's gotten the hang of starting sentences with a capital letter and ending them with some form of punctuation.  She's reading short books with small words on her own, can sound out and spell random words, recognizes all 14 sight words they've learned so far and then some, can write both her first and last name without help, and is just doing great all-around.

When she started Kindergarten back in August, she was placed in the full day program, based on how she tested.  The full day program is available for kids who tested lower than their peers and/or who needed more help.  The goal is to bridge the gap between what the full day Kindergarteners and their half day peers are able to do in terms of education, so that when they all move on to first grade next year everyone is on or near the same level.  Bailey's teacher told me that she's already bridged that gap and will do perfectly fine in first grade next year.  

As far as being with other kids, she says Bailey is a good friend and gets along well with everyone.  I already knew she would, but it's nice to hear it from someone who is unbiased.  Especially since Bailey has been something of an over-emotional diva at home since school started.  My only concern, and one that the teacher noted she'd look into, is Bailey's speech.  Not all of it; she's been speaking pretty clearly since she was around 2.  She has trouble with her "th-" blend.  Instead of making the blend sound, she pronounces it like an "s" {"Sank you!"} or a "d" {"dem" instead of "them"; "dey" instead of "they"}.  And when she writes, she sounds out her words the same way, and she writes them they way they sound to her.  There's a note on her bedroom door that says:

"Bailey's Room.

Sanc you"

I had to ask her what the bottom part of it said..."Sank you, mom.  Like, sank you for not coming into my room."  Her teacher says it's fairly normal and may be attributed to the fact that she's got a missing tooth front and center, but that she'll mention it to the speech teacher and see if she has any tips for working on it with her.  Other than that, though, she's doing amazingly well, and we couldn't be prouder!

Wacky Wednesday at school...dress wacky!