Kindergarten

Zuri started kindergarten at the beginning of September.  She was really excited for her first day, but she had a rough transition.  She got out of class excited, but didn't seem enthusiastic about returning to school the next day.

When I talked with her teacher after school the first day, her teacher said that Zuri kept saying she was tired.  When I talked to Zuri, she said that she doesn't know how to write and that she didn't listen.  She also said her teacher got upset.

I couldn't clarify if her teacher got upset with her, or with other kids in the class.  Even still, it made me wary since this is her teacher's very first class, and to get upset on the first day?  That  doesn't seem to bode well for the rest of the school year.

The second day seemed to go a little better.  She came home with a smile on her face.  She said she met the principal, though.  I don't know what that is about--if the principle came into her classroom to meet all the kids, or if she didn't listen and was sent to his office.  For several days she talked about meeting the principle.  She also asked for a new school.

I also haven't been able to ask her teacher about it because there are some wonderful neighbors who are carpooling Zuri to and from school for me.  I scheduled respite hours for Zuri's first day of school, and the carpool has taken over from there, which has been wonderful.  I just feel a little out of the loop with Zuri's school performance.  Catch-22.

Since we live just inside the mile boundary from the school, we had to receive special permission to have the kids ride.  The permission form was sent the second week of school, and the kids were told whether or not they could ride by the last week of September.  The kindergartners only get picked up or taken home depending on if they have morning or afternoon kindergarten. 

Zuri and I were both really nervous about her riding the bus the first time.  I was nervous that she wouldn't know where to go, and she was nervous about the change.  When her carpool came to get her in the morning (my wonderful neighbor is still picking her up and taking her to the bus stop), she still seemed nervous (I tried very hard not to show how her that I was nervous as well).  I had asked an older girl who knows Zuri pretty well to make sure that Zuri got to the kindergarten area.  The older girl felt so grown up with the responsibility. 

The first few days of school we worked on Zuri's grip with the pencil (she wants to grasp it with all her fingers which leads to less control so she can't form the letters as easily), and a few other things.  Zuri and I also went over the importance of listening to her teacher and asking for help when she doesn't know something.  After that, she seems to have settled in to her class and is much happier.  She reports that she is listening to her teacher now and that she keeps her owl up during the day--it is a system where the kids put a paper owl on a paper tree and if they listen and follow directions, their owl stays up.  If they don't listen then they take their owl down, and then a note or a call home if further misbehaving occurs.  It seems like a good system and Zuri is always excited to tell me how she didn't have to take her owl down because she listened. 



Along with her first day of school came her first day of dance.  She went to a dance camp during the summer (I have a post on that coming) and ever since has been asking to dance again.  I looked around at a lot of dance schools in the area and found one that I am really impressed with.  The dance school is a little ways away from us (about a 20 minute drive) but I think it is worth it.  Her class size is small--there are five dancers--and she is doing a combination jazz, tap, and ballet.  Zuri loves it.  They get a sticker and a treat after every class and they have cameras in the studio so that the parents can watch comfortably in the waiting room.  I have also been really impressed with their teaching methods.  In one class they had little mats that they spread out on the floor and had the kids leap from mat to mat (the floor was water with alligators and the mats were the safety rocks).  When they took the mats away they had the kids perform the leap again and told them the corresponding ballet term with it.  Zuri executed the move perfectly.  It was so neat.  She is even repeating her dance terms and showing us the moves after her class.

This was after her first day of dance.  They were given two stickers and a tiara.  How cute!