Almost done with First Grade!!

I have been totally delinquent in posting lately! With mom's surgery (she is doing great!), Daniel's birthday, Derby, Mother's Day - who has time for a blog!! Daniel only has 3 weeks of school left and then he will be out for the summer. I was trying to explain to him last night about having the summer off school. He doesn't remember last summer and totally didn't realize he will get 2 1/2 months of NO SCHOOL!!! Maybe I shouldn't have explained it so well - now he is totally excited!





We are so proud of all he has done and accomplished in just 2 short years! We put him in Kindergarten just to learn English thinking he would repeat, but they said he was too smart so we sent him on to First grade. So we let him to to first grade this year, thinking he would just repeat if needed. Now here we are at the end of the year and the school says he is too smart to repeat first grade, so he is going on to 2nd grade next year. WOW! We are so amazed at how great he is doing. He is behind his peers on his reading level so we are going to get some tutoring this summer, but overall it is really hard to believe. Part of his reading problems still stem from having a limited vocabulary. Case in point - a couple weeks ago, we were driving to church and I was going to give Daniel a quarter for the offering. I said to him, 'Do those pants have a pocket in them?'



What mom?



Do your pants have a pocket in them?



What mom??



I have your offering here, do you have a pocket in those pants?



I don't know what you mean mom?



I have a quarter, do you have a pocket you can put it in so you don't lose it?



I don't understand?



Finally, I said, 'Look at mama' and I put my hand in my own pocket. 'See, I can put money in my pocket.' Then he said, 'Oh! I get it. Yes, I have a pocket.'



He totally didn't understand what I was asking him. I think because he is so smart and because he has picked things up so quickly, I often assume he knows things that he might not. This was a really eye opening exchange for me because it highlighted how much he doesn't know still and made me think about how much goes on during the day that probably flies right over his head. It's not like we have never used the word 'pocket' before, but in a given day there is just so much he has to figure out and remember. Poor kid! How stressful and exhausting that must be!