How quickly the year went by! It was a busy year, learning all the ins and outs of the kindergarten world. Our little boy grew up quite a bit! Not only did he become a big brother for the second time during this school year, but he also spent the whole year immersed in a new language. I am so proud of his courage, it was hard for him to be in a brand new environment and not know any Spanish when he started. He barely ever spoke in class and told me that he wished he went to an English school instead.
As the year went by, he made friends with his classmates. Every day they played soccer, basketball or raced each other around the kinder yard. Even though his school day was only 3 hours long, he made such improvements. At his first reading assessment, his teacher had to mark him in a pre-reader level because he couldn't answer any comprehension questions in Spanish. At the end of the year, his teacher told me that she went all the way up to a second grade level reader in his assessment and had to stop (due to time). I was shocked when she explained to me that he was completely reading and answering all the questions in Spanish. What amazing progress! This is all due to the program, since we still don't speak much Spanish at home (we are trying!). On the last day of school, as we were leaving, my son asked me if we could speak only Spanish all the time at home.
We have seen our son grow a lot academically, from not wanting to write or draw at the beginning of the year, to writing several sentences and drawing a picture to go with them in his journal at school. His handwriting has improved a lot too. He has also matured socially, making friends and engaging with his peers a lot easier than last year.
We appreciate all the work his teacher put in during the year. He got lucky to have such a positive and nurturing teacher. We are also so happy that our son got to have a "real" kindergarten experience: from a teddy bear picnic, to Cowboy Day, to an Easter Egg hunt & a gingerbread man hunt around the school. There was great literature and the thematic teaching approach reinforced everything so well. They sang so many songs and did a lot of art projects too.
Here are some photos from his Kindergarten promotion. It was a precious time for us to celebrate all the accomplishments our kids have made. He did this mama proud!
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| All the kindergarteners performed some songs for us |
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| Receiving his promotion certificate |
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| J & his buddies, standing at attention : ) |
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| Chowing down on refreshments after the ceremony |
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| Thanks Sra. Chavez for a great year! |
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| Grammy also came to celebrate with us |
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| One last spin around the Kindergarten playground |
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| From the looks of it, little sister can't wait until she's a kindergartener! |
I have to say here, that we really are raising a child with a melancholy temperament. On the last day of school, I actually made arrangements so I could pick him up by myself, without little sisters. When he got in the car, he just kept saying to himself, "I can't believe I'm never going back to kindergarten again" and "I'm never going to be a kindergartener again." He also expressed some concern about not really wanting to be a first grader. I tried to just encourage him that we had a whole summer to enjoy together before we had to start first grade. (I'm trying not to think about that). Our son is definitely a little nostalgic and apprehensive of change. I know he had a great school year this year, and hope and pray that next year will go just as well. Congratulations, son. We are so proud of you!!
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