realistic evaluations

I registered J for JK a few days ago. A very cold and windy morning, a prelude to the blizzard that hit us that evening. I filled out the form, which had a surprising number of questions on it. Besides the contact information and phone numbers, there were questions about physical development, sharing, how your child behaves when angry or frustrated, how you as a parent respond, language development, and so on. J's language is pretty advanced, so I checked off 'yes' to every question. Does she speak to adults? Do adults understand her speech? Do peers understand her speech?

I felt like I was taking a test, as though my ability to fill out the form properly was a measure of how good a parent I am. Do you remember when she said her first word? Before 12 months, 12-18 months, 18-24 months? Her first sentence? When did she first properly use the conditional perfect continuous verb tense? Ok, I'm kidding about the last one. Well, I mean, about them asking that on the form, anyway.

Our concern is that J will be bored in JK. However, I'm sure she'll find lots of fun things to do, and we know there's more to learning than the 3 R's. To some extent, we expect the increased socialization and being involved in a structured routine will be good for her. And as much as I think she's a wunderkind, I often have to remind myself to allow her just to be four years old, and not to push advanced things on her even though she can handle it. I don't want to rob her of the simple pleasure of being a kid by making things really pressured and academic. So I relax, I stop worrying about whether she should really be in Grade 1, or if she's going to be some pre-teen university grad, or wonder what her IQ is. I take a deep breath. I look at the snow outside and do NOT think about how now would be a good time to teach her about the different kinds of snow, or remind her that water has three forms depending on temperature, or blah blah blah. Instead, and to her delight, I ask, "Hey. You wanna make a snow angel?" :)

technorati tags:parenting, kids, kindergarten, IQ, school

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