Kindergarten readiness report

This past Wednesday Drew and I met with Teacher Joe, one of Rachel's preschool teachers, who wanted to discuss with us a few things about Rachel before she starts kindergarten. Nothing major, he assured us, just a few things we should work on with her before she moves up.

"Rachel is amazing," his opening words were. "She's amazing to have in class. I can use adult language when I talk to her, and she understands what I'm saying."

(Well, yes. From birth, I've never believed in baby talk and this is why she has such a rich vocabulary and it sometimes feels like I'm talking to an adult when we have conversations together).

Joe says Rachel is "definitely classroom-ready," (she wants us to give her homework) and that the one thing she needs to work on is to not get so upset when her friends want to do things that she doesn't want to do. He tells her to "make agreements" with them (Rachel and another girl, Sloane, are the only kids who understand what an agreement is, without Joe having to explain it to them) so she can play the games that they want to play first, and then hold them to the agreement to play the games she wants to next.

Drew immediately said he'd have a talk with her on the way home from school, which he did, and I said I'd incorporate that concept into a story I'll make up at bedtime, or when we're in the car on the way home from school and she says, "Mommy, can you please tell me a story?" Drew pointed out that it's so interesting how we have different approaches to teaching -- I do it through stories, he does it through patient lectures. As long as both methods stick, I guess we're doing the right thing.