Meet Luke, Kindergartener

Luke began the school year in pre-kindergarten. Though he seemed contented enough, he never came home excited about anything except the park. He made some friends in his class, though, and we were very glad to hear about them. All parents in his class were asked to schedule a time to come observe the class. Jason and I went to observe in early October. Within five minutes of being in the classroom, it was clear that Luke was in the wrong class.

First of all, he is four, and he'll turn five in March. There are a few children in his pre-K class who were three at the beginning of the year and turned four in September. There is quite a gap between almost five and barely four, and that gap gapes when Luke is the four-and-a-half-year-old in question. In addition to the maturity difference, the language fluency difference made it difficult for the teacher to differentiate for Luke. Kids in our school's early childhood program don't come with much English, so the teacher has to translate a lot during the day. It meant that Luke was getting a decent amount of Spanish, but having to wait a lot for the teachers to instruct the kids in two languages. Ever patient, Luke never complained or said a word. Watching him with the kids, bored, broke our hearts. We met with the school counselor and his teachers that week.

The counselor did a pre-K/Kinder screening on Luke. There was a set of questions she asked him, and based on his responses he either fell into the pre-K or Kinder category. On every question he answered the Kinder way. Everyone agreed he was ready to move up.

His crash-course in Pre-K ended at the end of October. We had planned for his last day with his class to be on the 30th, so that he could be at the Halloween party with his pre-K friends. He got sick, however, and missed school that day and the following Monday! Very bad timing! So he began kindergarten the following Tuesday.

The first week he was hesitant, but excited. On Wednesday he came home excited about the science class he'd been to. On Friday he came home with pirate books from the library and told us all about his trip to the computer lab. When I asked him that first week if he'd made any friends, he said, "Hmm...not yet, I am still working on that."

Within another week or two he'd made a few little friends and seemed to fit in a bit better with his new class. His teachers compliment his good behavior and manners, and the kids seem to enjoy being around him. He is still shy with them, I think, because I think they speak a lot of Spanish on the playground and that intimidates him. He's learning, though, and his Spanish accent is native Venezuelan!

He has homework every night. Most nights it's a guided reading book, which he reads to me with a little help. He's a reading machine! His teachers have also made up these neat little homework cases that have different activities in them. We've had a few with math activities and one with fine motor practice.

Luke's class performed at the Red Shirt Assembly last week. They sang a song in Spanish and a Hanukkah song (in English).

Today was Luke's Show and Tell day. He was asked to speak for TEN MINUTES!! We brought a whole shipload of pirate gear for him to talk about. He rehearsed his presentation several times and even practiced with Fisher and his mama for an audience. He was still pretty shy when the moment came, though. I have some video I'll upload and post later.

One month into kindergarten, I am glad we made the move. I have had some reservations about it, mostly about the long-term impact of him being a year younger than his peers, but I think he will be just fine. He loves to learn, and now he loves school. That's the biggest difference I see. He gets what he needs academically and comes home wiped out at the end of the day!