For the past few months, we’ve been wondering whether Danny is ready for Kindergarten (KG – the year before 1st grade) next year. KG is pretty different now than it was back when we were kids, and that’s not even taking into account the fact that I grew up in a different country… For the most part, KG in the US is what 1st grade used to be and most kids now learn to read in KG. Additionally, the birthday cut-off is September 1st in Carmel, so Danny, with his May birthday, would automatically be one of the youngest kids in his class.
After discussing this with Danny’s teachers at both Smoky Row and Talking Time, it became apparent that while he is ready academically for KG, he might not be ready from a maturity standpoint. We don’t really love the idea of holding him back another year, even though that is somewhat popular here, especially with boys, so we’ve decided to send him to a private KG. There is a little school next to our development (we could walk there) that goes from infants to KG. One of our neighbors has had children there for the past couple of years and has been very happy with it. We toured the school last week and really liked it, both for Mikey & Danny. The advantage of private KG is that the student/teacher ratio is smaller. We’re hoping that the extra attention that Danny would get there would ease the transitions, both from preschool to KG & from KG to 1st grade.
Mikey is another tough nut to crack. He is absolutely obsessed with letters & numbers. It’s almost like he spends every waking hour focusing on them. He can now spell probably a couple dozen words and is learning more every day. While he’s only 3, he’s academically ready for KG (but isn’t ready in other areas). Of course, with his October birthday, he’s two years away from KG. The preschool we visited is open to the possibility of switching him from a preschool class (for 3-year-olds) to a pre-KG class (for 4-year-olds) next school year. Mikey does have a lot of self-confidence, so I think that it will help him if he’s the youngest in his class.
Both boys visited the school later last week and both liked it, especially Mikey. He didn’t even want to leave! So… I think we’ll submit all of the paperwork this week. They should start at that school in June sometime, if everything goes according to plan. Wish us luck!
Last week, and for the first time in over 3 years, Grandpa Gil came to the US! The last time he came over, Mikey was barely 2 months old and Danny was about 1.5 years old. How time flies! The boys now walk, run, talk, sing, jump, bike, shovel snow, know all of their letters, can count to 29, and more!
I was lucky enough to be able to take most of the week off. I did have a conference to attend on Tuesday (I was presenting), but that was about it. Grandpa Gil got to see the kids’ current school, tour the kids’ future school (more on that later), go to the library, visit the Children’s museum, and, of course, just hang out with us. We’re such an entertaining bunch .
The boys immediately connected. It was “Grandpa Gil” left & right. As a matter of fact, last Tuesday, as my dad & I came back from the conference, the boys ran over to say hi to him but completely ignored me!
We had a really great time and hope that it won’t take another 3 years before we’re all together again!
A year or two ago, Mike bought a wireless keyboard to use with my old laptop, which is connected to our tv. Danny wasn’t quite ready to use it back then, but in the past week or so, Danny has figured out how to use it, especially the integrated mouse, and figured out YouTube. He will now spend hours (if we let him) looking at Thomas the Train videos on YouTube. It’s really quite a sight! Below are his two favorite ones:
For this one, he always starts out by saying “in this one, we’ll hear Michael Jackson”.
After a bad day Tuesday, Mikey started doing much better on Wednesday. He’s now back to being himself, being just as picky with his food as he was before he got sick!
Danny is also doing better, although he has a lingering cough and is still a little stuffy. We wish we could give him something for that, but there isn’t anything available anymore for his age group (what was available last year has been pulled off the market). He’s been milking “not feeling well” as much as possible though and we’ve learned that he will probably respond very well to placebos in the future. He’s becoming quite a little hypochondriac.
The boys are sick. Danny woke up with a cough on Saturday, and he still has it. Although now he also has a stuffy nose. Mikey, on the other hand, started throwing up Sunday night and is still at it. It looked like he was better during the day Monday, but then he started getting sick again in the evening and was a bit worse today. He just wanted to be held all day . Hopefully tomorrow will be better for both boys.
I don’t remember the last time it wasn’t freezing! And to think, winter has only just begun. On the bright side, it’s snowing today, which means snowmen!
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. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for both boys.
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