August 30, 2007

Zeke had his kindergarten assessment today.  That's where they have the kindergarteners show up in small groups so that the teacher can meet them and evaluate their abilities.  They showed us the checklist of stuff they look for.  Zeke's already doing most of it, e.g. recognizing all the letters in the alphabet, knowing his address and phone number, drawing a person with recognizable features like arms and legs, etc.  About the only thing he has trouble with is holding a pencil correctly.  He stubbornly insists on holding it with his fist wrapped around it.  But I figure they'll work on that. 

We had to fill out this little info card and bring it with us to assessment. I assumed that it was just a bunch of name and address and phone number stuff, so I waited until the last minute this morning before leaving to fill it out.  It turns out they wanted some additional information, also.  I kind of wish I could have saved a copy so I could show Zeke when he's 18 and graduating from high school.  I just wrote down the first things that came into my head:

Your child's interests: trains, Curious George, Legos

Your child's strengths:  Figuring things out, being kind to others

Your child's weaknesses:  Controlling his behavior when around other kids

(And seriously, who asks the parent of a 5-year-old to describe their child's weaknesses?  I had to spend a couple of minutes on that one, because frankly the thing I wrote down seems pretty normal and not like a weakness for your average kindergartener.)

Zeke's teacher told me that it was lovely to meet him, and that he sure does like to talk (no kidding) and that he seems very bright.  I asked Zeke if he had fun, and he said, "Yeah."  I asked him if he met any new people and he said, "Yeah."  I asked him if they seemed nice, and he said, "Yeah."  Then he spent twenty minutes discussing the presence of a Starbucks cup in his drink holder and where that cup had come from and whether he, Zeke, would be getting a steamed milk from Starbucks, and if not, why not?

I did finally get him to tell me a couple things about his day, namely that he played with Legos and played with the "car mat".  And that his teacher seems "nice".

He starts for real next Thursday.  I think he will do fine.

Posted at 12:28 PM | Comments (807)