Getting ready for Kindergarten

We're anxiously awaiting that tearful day for me . . . . kindergarten for my oldest child. (weep, weep) LOL! :) Actually, I'm more apprehensive about who his teacher will be and what will come from the year. And the more and more that we talk to people before school, especially strangers, I am more nervous than ever.

You see, it's this whole NCLB (blah!) crap (excuse the language, but that's the mildest word I could think of for it). Zachary has taken his love for reading everywhere we go and the other day was a realization for me. He was reading one of his Junie B. books as we waited our turn in line and a lady started talking to him about that. "Wow, you like Junie B.? Does your mom read that with you?" And Zachary responded that, yes- his mom reads it with him, but he also reads it. And almost on cue, he opens his book to the chapter he was working on and started reading. After just a little bit, the lady looks at me and asks what grade he's in at school. Zachary, not liking being talked about and not too interjects that he's 4 years old, his birthday is July 30th, and soon he will be in kindergarten.

That's when the phrase that many people have said to us that comes to haunt me in the middle of the night: "Well, the teacher that gets you is certainly lucky. They will love having you as their student." Hmmmm. . . . you think???? UGH! Just repeating that phrase makes my blood get a bit hotter. You see, NCLB has put this thought in not only teacher's heads, but obviously the publics brains, that children just need to reach a certain bar by a certain time and that's all a teacher needs to do.

Well, Zachary knows his ABCs, and he knows his basic sight words, as well as the sounds the letters make. Does that make his kindergarten teacher exempt from teaching him???? I certainly hope not! And, I really hope I can stand back and allow them to work with him and help him progress, but the teacher & mother in me is battling back and forth, wondering how it can and will be done. Will he be sitting through lessons where letters are drilled or will he be allowed to expand his reading skills in a structured and scaffolded environment, condusive to his learning needs? And, I'm not trying to say that he'll be the only child in his kindergarten classroom and all his needs should be met all the time. I'm just wondering what he will do and how lessons might be differentiated to match his needs as well as those of the child with no letter knowledge.

This is one reason we have chosen to take him to the school that we've chosen for this particular school-year. As much as I do not want my child hopping schools, I also don't want him to suffer 180 days with an ineffective teacher, when I have many options open to me as far as where I can take him. So, the drama, worrying, and anxiety is setting in, but my goodness, he's never been so excited in his life. He's incredibly anxious to meet his new friends, play at recess and go to school.