The Joys of Motherhood
Thursday, we had to go to a meeting with my son’s future principal, future kindegarten teacher and his current teacher to discuss an evaluation they had done to test for his readiness to enter kindegarten.
Matt, his stepmother and I all went to hear the good news. I had no doubt that he would be totally ready to go to kindegarten. It turns out, it is a little more complicated than that.
They showed us the test results and it turns out that his particular results showed that he was a little different from most kids. Most kids score at a consistent age level in all areas of the test. Mine, however, scored at a 5 1/2 age in multiple categories, (he was 4 and 3/4 when he took the test) 5 in some, 4 1/2 in a couple and 4 on one area of the test. Initially the principal told us that this kind of result on a test makes them question the child’s readiness for kindegarten. Needless to say, I was a little shocked. I have always viewed him as a fairly bright child and couldn’t believe that they would suggest he might be held back for any reason.
Luckily, his current teacher stepped in with her own personal evaluation. It seems that he is considered a self-motivated learner. Meaning, he is quick to learn things as long as he has an interest in them. He hasn’t had an interest in writing or drawing until recently. Now that he does have an interest, he is quickly making up for lost time. His current teacher used the word “gifted” a couple of times, which is nice to hear on the one hand, but scary to hear such a label placed on him on the other. She let us know that she feels he is ready and the kindegarten teacher and principal agreed with her evaluation.
His teacher related a story that he wanted to build a church out of blocks based on a picture he had found in a book. He insisted on having different blocks to use to copy the arches and different architectural characteristics of the church in the picture. She told us that he built the windows and the spacing between the windows very meticulously. Apparently, he worked on this project for three hours throughout the day. She let us know that in her experience, it is very rare for a student of his age to spend this much time on a project or to pay that much attention to detail. I was left a little speechless.
We all left with a much better understanding of his strengths and weaknesses and we all have agreed that this school will be a great place for him to attend kindegarten next year.
Sometimes it amazes me how hard parenting is and yet how rewarding it can be.