I met with Lauren's teacher at a very early hour this morning.
"Wow. It's funny to see you without any kids," she said.
I understand what she means. I am so used to being out wearing a snugli-full of Lindsay, that I feel unbalanced when I'm not wearing those extra 13 pounds.
None of what her teacher had to say was surprising. Lauren is extremely bright, and is doing well on all the work they're doing. Her teacher showed me the progress of her writing which is truly amazing from week 1 with essentially chicken scratches to week 7 or wherever we are now to recognizable upper and lowercase letters. Her coloring and drawing skills have improved as well. She can now color mostly within the lines and fills the space fully when using crayons. She understands new words of sequence (eg, first, second, third, etc.) and can count to 30. She tries to count to 40 by adding numbers like "thirty-twelve".
We spoke about reading, because I wasn't sure how to encourage her. We have reading time every night before bed when we read between 2-4 stories depending on how quickly the rest of the bedtime routine (bath, teeth brushing, getting "jammied up") happens. Lauren wants to "read" one of the stories and I wasn't sure if we should just let her make up a story or help her to memorize it so she knows what the words say. Her teacher said that they are learning that Pre-K reading is about telling a story from a book, so to allow her to be creative.
She mentioned that Lauren has difficulty not talking, particularly to her new school friend Natalie. She said that they've tried to allow them to talk quietly or a little, but Lauren doesn't do either well, so this week she's been told that she cannot talk while they're working. The teacher was apologetic about it, and said she was trying not to have to separate them, but their behavior is distracting. I replied that she hadn't mentioned it, and Lauren is often told at home that she has to stop talking because she's being distracting. She's adorable and creative with an impressive vocabularly, but the kid will talk to her own socks. She talks in her sleep. I replied that it was something we were also working on at home.
3 comments:
If her only big problem is motor mouth that's pretty good. She could be eating glue.
When I was 8 I was taken to a party apparently (and I don't remember this) I wouldn't shut up. Surprising, I know.
Eventually she will understand that people will pay more attention to what she has to say if she isn't constantly speaking. And you're completely correct in your "come on, is that ALL?!" reaction ;)
I've noticed she uses the word "expert" a lot lately. I hope to avoid the [probably inadvertant] "you must be perfect at everything" message that came from my mother. It's an impossibility and constantly sets goals out of reach.
I hope "eventually" means you won't be terribly disappointed if she doesn't figure that out until she's maybe 28? Or 30?
Ross can't stop speaking, either. If he does manage to squelch words for a moment, he'll fill the void with song, tongue clicks, or humming. I will probably think he's dead the day he figures out how not to make constant noise.
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