A few weeks ago, Scot attended her preschool conference with Ms. Terri. She got high marks across the board and the teacher noted especially how advanced she is at art. She LOVES to draw, color and do crafts. They have been doing "journal" time all year and her drawings are all quite a bit more detailed than most of the other kids in her class. The teacher also noted that she focuses on the process and not necessarily the product - meaning she is very meticulous about the steps that she thinks are required to get what she wants out of the project.
Here is a recent drawing that she did that I especially love.
Other things that the teacher wrote down in various categories:
• Enjoys word games (emergent reading)
• Likes to make connections with story to self (attitude towards literacy)
• Helps other if they need it (Fine motor - cutting, coloring, buttoning/zipping)
• Loves to be creative
• Curious and excited about new things (New learning/risk taking)
• Overall comments: Ava is such a bright and enthusiastic little girl. She always has good questions and comments. An area she does continue to struggle with is voice and body control: knowing the rules and following them, following directions and working at the group pace. Knowing that she isn't always going to be able to share her thoughts and be ok with that.
This last bit of feedback is not surprising - obviously she struggles with these things at home too! Hopefully she will mature more over the summer and be a more respectful participant in the fall when she is in kindegarten. I'm glad she is so enthusiastic about school and learning - she is a such a different kid than I was. While I loved school, I was so painfully shy that I rarely wanted to participate. I just hope she can find a good balance and tone it down a little. Ah, I can hope.
The teacher shared with Scot a bunch of things that Ava has done over the past few months - a sample where she colored in the lines very well, recognition tests of numbers, shapes and letters. She also completed this survey:
My favorite thing at school this year is ..... the large muscle room.
I am good at .... the monkey bars, making a sand castle, putting on my stuff.
These are my friends at school .... everybody!
My friends think I am .... pretty when I come to school.
So, I think it's safe to say she doesn't lack any confidence at this point.
At home we've been working on tying - she can now tie shoelaces! It only took a day or two of coaching and she nailed it. I still haven't bought her any lace up shoes but she is always offering to tie my coat and my tennis shoes.
She is also really beginning to read! This is so exciting to watch. It just seems like it has really started to click in the last week. She can read many of her shorter books and it's noticeably different that when she would just have books memorized. She is very excited to read to me and it is just so neat to see her finally make the connections.
We're still trying to figure out our daycare situation. I think we have decided on a New Horizon center near our house - it seems like a really nice place, the teachers have all been there for several years, and they have a summer camp program that I think Ava will love - they take a field trip almost every day. It will be hard to leave Vicki's, but I'm also looking forward to the girls having more stimulation and more friends their own ages to play with during the day. I think Ava will still get on the big yellow school bus near our house and then the daycare center will pick her up from school in the afternoon. She will go to full day kindegarten every day, which runs from about 8:10 to 2:30. It's hard to believe she is really going to be in school!
Oh, and this past Sunday we took the girls to the Mall of America for rides at Nickelodeon Universe. Ava has NO FEAR. She went on some of the bigger rollercoasters - she barely passed the height limit but could still go on with one of us. She loved them! It's fun to see that she shares our love of rides - it will be even better when she grows a few more inches! Reese liked the rides a lot too!
Here is my big 5 1/2 year old. LOVE HER.
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