Going all mommy blog for a moment...
I completed the kiddo's Kindergarten registration form today. Hold me. OMG. She's growing up way too fast and I never feel like I get time to really savor the moment. My husband and I sometimes ask each other, "Do you remember when she was little?"
Neither of us does. Me, because the sleep deprivation was so intense it scrambled my brain and gave me a heart arrhythmia. Add in the mental impact of high dose steroids, and I'm lucky I remember my name. And my husband has a memory that makes people worry there's some kind of pathology. He can't remember jack. Must be all the radiation from Chernobyl because he slept just fine that first year of parenting.
(Oh yeah, I totally remember him snoring away as I woke up every hour on the hour to nurse--the seething resentment burned it into my brain. This is why my husband gets to clean up all the puke forever.)
I do have memories...when she had RSV and was throwing up every time she ate...I remember I often had puke running down my bra. The joys of nursing a sick baby that no one tells you about! I don't think the La Leche League will be inviting me to be a guest speaker any time soon. (Plus, breastfeeding is free MY ASS. Only if you can get someone else to pay for the pump and all the little working parts you need to run the damn thing. If you pump, formula is not as expensive as you think. I did the math once. NOT advocating formula, but I will so poke holes in crappy propaganda used to heap on the mommy guilt.)
I remember reading to her the second her vision would let her see the pictures. Around 8 weeks. My husband made bookcases for her, which are stuffed with books. Right now we are reading James and the Giant Peach.
Of course I edit it as I read because Dahl has very weak sentence structure. Proof that craft is not what sells books, story does.
Anyway, getting back to the gifted thing I started to write about yesterday before my special little snowflake erupted into an epic tantrum like a two-year-old (ha!)...there's some talk of having the kiddo skip Kindergarten. I am not pushing for this, but I am wringing my hands about the best thing to do. She'll be an old 5 when she starts and she's ahead enough that academically she would be fine in first grade. However, the motor stuff and social skills are areas where I think she needs more time to develop.
The Kindergarten curriculum will be challenging for her not necessarily in content, but in motor skills. She'll know the answer, but writing it out or coloring it in will keep her on her toes. And she's a bit of an innocent...a nice kid with a tender heart...the first graders would eat her up and be gnawing on her bones by lunch time.
So we'll see. She still might end up back in OT. I want to see solid motor mastery from her as well as some social facility before I throw her into the deep end of the pool.
There, I feel better now that I organized my thoughts on the topic. Hope it wasn't too boorish for you to read!
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I've had three girls. I will take an "old" child for the grade over a "young" advanced child any day of the week. My first was "young" for the grade, and altho she could keep up and surpass academically, the emotional turmoil once she hit 4-5th grades was difficult and impacted the academic. The second was "old" for starting school, but skipped 4th grade and was forever "youngest in the grade". Again, devastating emotionally and probably wasn't as ready as she could have been when she went to college. Third child was perfect. :-) My point is - even if the child is capable of academically skipping a grade, look ahead to the consequences later in life. I would rather have my child be older in a class and learn how to be a leader, than to be the youngest and forever be a follower. Hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteMy little brother was old for his grade. His birthday is in late November, and my parents were told he could go into 1st grade at 5 the Fall he would turn six. They made one of the few good calls of my childhood when they decided to put him in Kindergarten instead. Instead of being a gifted child, with some language and social development issues, whose gifts were spent trying to keep up with kids who were a year or more older than him, he ended up being the shining star of nearly every class he was in. He excelled academically, did much better than my sister or I. I really think that being a little older rather than a lot younger was of great benefit to him.
ReplyDeleteI think that is an excellent point, Dyspatient. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteM