K-K-Kindergarten

I had a parent-teacher conference regarding Mallory's kindergarten progress last week. Mrs. F said that on the whole Mallory is doing very well, and that in fact sometimes she's surprised at how well Mallory is doing because it often appears that Mallory is off in outer space instead of paying attention. She said that Mallory consistently answers very hard questions correctly (regarding things like sequences and logic -- yeah, logic, in kindergarten!) but that sometimes still misses easy things like rhyming. She said Mallory is a mystery to her. I said to join the club. Oh, and Mallory is also consistently the slowest child in the class to accomplish tasks such as putting away crayons and packing up at the end of the day and often forgets things such as where to find her math workbook, which is in the exact same location every day. She asked if Mallory were this way at home and I said yes but I thought all 5-year-olds were that way. Apparently they are not and we need to work with Mallory on "timeliness" and "task completion." I wanted to say I would be happy to address those concerns once Mallory gets over "losing her temper when rushed" and "snotty comebacks to constructive criticism," but felt that would be inappropriate.

Anyway, Mallory is constantly displaying her kindergarten knowledge and I can tell that she really has soaked up a lot. She's always spelling out, and trying to sound out, words we see. "C - o - w. Is that c like k-k-clicking cameras or like s-s-sizzling sausages?" she'll ask. Or she'll sings songs about the animals assigned to the letters they're learning, like Sammy Seal and Tiggy Tiger and Mimi Mouse (who minds her manners in the house. When she drinks her milk she never makes a mess, mudpies never stain her dress!). She informed me that not everyone knows this, but when you count you should start with 0, not 1. "I know that because I'm in school," she said. The other day she suddenly exclaimed to me, "This doesn't make any sense! How can Phoebe's name start with the P and make the F sound?" When asked, in preparation to doing a "thankfulness project" for homework, what she was most thankful for, she answered, "Being able to go to school." (She later changed her answer to, "Being bigger than Phoebe.") She can write the words I, see, Friday, red, and my.

Mrs F asked if I had any concerns and I said not really. I am pleased with her education thus far. I think what I want most in respects to my kids' educations is that they never get tired of learning. It's early days of course but so far we're doing okay.