Small Girl in a Big World

Elena is loving being five, and loving going to school. Shortly after her birthday I went in for my first parent-teacher conference and her teacher tells me "Let's cut straight to the point. Elena is so far ahead of the rest of her classmates, she really needs more than what I can provide her." The rest of the Pre-K kids are doing things like "this is the letter M," while Elena is somewhere around "that says 'the penguin climbed up the mountain to see the ocean better." Mrs. Sr had been trying to get her some old workbooks from the other teachers, to provide Elena a good challenge, but wasn't having any luck. Special arrangements were made, though, and Elena now spends her mornings in 1st grade with Ms. St. When we toured Ms. St's room, I talked to her about what Elena will be doing there, and it all looks so exciting. They're doing reading, a bit of writing, some math, telling time, and reading a calendar. She won't be getting much chance to practice forming letters and other more basic levels of writing, though, since one class is below that level and the other above, so we got her a few workbooks at the local teachers' store, and she loves doing those, too. I know she's going to have a great time in her Big Kid Class, and I love hearing about how they are taking to her and really treating her well. There's a possibility that she'll skip a grade, in a few years, but the teachers don't want to address that, yet, because no one's sure of the legality of that, what with the age requirements for the Pre-K and Kinder classes.

She's such a mischievous girl, always giggling and acting silly, but so sweet with her brothers. She's a great helper, too, and loves doing jobs around the house. She's trying to save up for a bike, though I'm not sure where we'll keep it. We'll figure something out, I'm sure. I love how her birthday pictures came out. The middle one is for the wall.