No...TODAY I owe you two.

Whew...somehow in a short 48 hours, my resolution has evaporated into a memory.  I am trying.  I even set an alarm on my phone for this.  :-)

I am in total amazement when I look at the things our little ones know.  I cannot believe how far the kids come in Kindergarten!  Bella read me a book with several lines per page and at least 20 pages.  I cannot believe that!!!  I know that saying, "It's not like it was when I was in Kindergarten" seems a little overused, but it is so true.  For starters, I only went to parttime kindergarten!  Half days, in the afternoon in fact.  So, now our kids are going full time, 5 days a week, and learning so much.  We are adding and subtracting; even gym class seems like it is farther ahead of where we were.

In preschool, Mae is writing (well, she's improving her technique), she can count concrete objects to 60+, she knows all of the basic skills:  colors, shapes, numbers, etc.  The basic skills don't even seem that exciting anymore, because Nolan knows all of his colors, shapes, numbers, etc.  Thanks to the Tupperware shape sorter, he knows hexagon and pentagon. 

I hope this isn't coming across as a brag session, because it isn't.  I am just amazed at what we push our kids to do.  Let me expand on that statement.  Because of all the new standards, Bella's class will soon be taking a timed standardized test that is supposed to assess their knowledge of language arts, I assume.  All it is really assessing (in my mind) is the fact that your kid is good at timed trials or not.  So, here's the drill.  Your kids have to name letters, as many as they can in 60 sec.  Then, they have to name the sounds of the letters, as fast as they can, in 60 sec.  Then they have to read as many 3-letter nonsense words as they can in 60 sec. (e.g., nim, fec, pib, etc.).  What breaks my heart is that there is at least one child who got all of the words correct, but only would have had 8 words in 60 sec.  Does that indicate that he is a poor reader?  No, I think it just indicates that he needs more time to get his reading done.  This test is going to say that he is not at his grade level.  Grrr...anyway.  I am stepping off the soapbox now, but I am frustrated.  Why do I have to be working on this stuff with my kid when we could be snuggling up with a book instead?