Yea for Karianna!

Karianna had her kindergarten assessment about a week ago. I wasn't too worried about it before the event actually occurred. After was a different story. We attended the testing session that included the school's accelarated preschool program. These kids are doing stuff I rarely saw from beginning first graders. I didn't know what to think about Karianna's future at this charter school after comparing her assessment responses with theirs. I hate these types of assessments all around. I do not understand how someone can get a full awareness of Karianna's readiness for school in one hour, simply by giving her a paper and pencil and asking her to "write all the letters you know". I could gripe about the actual assessment for a long time, so if you want the details you can call me. Lets just suffice it to say I did not think the assessment was age appropriate, accelarated curriculum or not. Anyhow.

Regardless of how I thought the assessment went, I was so proud of Karianna for sticking to it and trying her best! I was also ready to go to battle with the school and request that they retest her one-on-one instead of in a AIMS situation. However, I called the school and got Karianna's results-overall, they said she did absolutely great and she is just fine to continue at their kindergarten in the Fall. Yea!!!! I just figured after seeing their preschoolers that the baseline for admittance would be unattainablely high. I couldn't quite figure out how I would tell Karianna that she couldn't go to kindergarten after all; she would be disappointed about not getting to use a lunchbox. Thankfully I don't have to consider that any longer, rather I can now get excited with Karianna about the official start of school in the fall! Working with her thus far from the mom perspective rather than the teacher perspective has been awesome and I'm excited to support Karianna in her schooling.

So in commemoration of Karianna, here's a great skill she learned a few weeks ago that I finally caught on film-she can take Jordan out of his bed on her own. Very useful on mornings where I don't want to get out of bed. I can just call for the two older kids to come out of their rooms and then ask Karianna to get Jordan. Just awesome. Not sure if Jordan agrees with the awesome factor, but you win some, you lose some. :) Click on the picture to see Jordan's true reaction.