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DD loves her kindergarten! And, we do too. It is challenging her in just the right ways.

Update: summer reading clubs. She is down to reading about 1.5 hours a day since school started. Over the summer I'd say her reading level has improved a few levels. (At the beginning of summer she was reading rainbow magic.) She is currently reading the Wrinkle in Time series with DH, and in the middle of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory after only two nights of independent reading. I think that is about a mid fourth grade level. For some reason we are still surprised by her comprehension. She correctly predicted the end of A Wrinkle in Time, unprompted, and she is still remembering more details than DH.

We were worried about summer reading clubs messing with her motivation and love of reading, and it just did not happen. Phew.

These are great stories, folks! Keep them coming!

I fell asleep reading Charlotte's Web to DD last night and we were at the very beginning of Wilbur's attempted escape. She woke me up apparently about 15 minutes later and said with tears in her eyes, "Mommy, Wilbur didn't make it. I wanted him to go back to Fern and live happily ever after." We're putting the book away for now. She sees Wilbur as Fern's baby and their separation is giving her nightmares.

On her ballet front, both her teacher and I told her that she'd be able to skip in a year or so (or later) and it's okay that she cannot skip for now. Well, she decided that that won't do and willed herself to learn to skip over the weekend. She asked me to talk her through the process. She thought about it, practiced it for a few minutes, then she was skipping.

Why is it that everything she does makes me happy and worried at the same time?

that's awesome about the skipping, Mana! it's amazing how it's possible for kids to mentally break down physical skills like that - DD5's dance teacher has always said that's where talent really lives - in their minds. congratulations to your DD!

and my thing today is that DD5 just drew a very realistic sketch of her stuffed rabbit sitting on a fully 3-dimensional chair. my jaw literally dropped when she brought it in - the legs even show perspective and depth and sit in front of a horizon line! it's especially cool because she has spontaneously implemented our homeschool exploration of 3D shapes directly into her artwork without a single prompt from me. woot!

My DD10 came home with her 6th grade midquarter grades (after skipping 5th). I suppose the school can stop being worried about if she will be able to handle the jump. Her lowest average was a 95.9 in handwriting and her next lowest was a 98 in Grammar. She had the highest grades in the class.

It's a pity that so many schools won't allow kids to skip even when it would clearly be beneficial.

Fabulous! Talk about a smooth integration.

Mana, I think your daughter's determination is terrific.

Doubtfulguest, isn't it neat how your daughter absorbed your lessons by osmosis? If art becomes a passion of hers, I hope you'll treat us to a sample picture down the road. I'd enjoy seeing something from her perspective.

ha - i think "perspective" is the operative word, here, aquinas!

i'm not sure DD really has any particular artistic talent - her command of the pencil is pretty typical for her age, i think. but that said, her artwork has had some odd quirks pretty much from the get-go: for instance, she never, ever drew that line kids put at the top of pictures for the sky - her skies were always filled in down to the ground. she's always depicted background objects smaller than foreground ones. when she draws pictures of people from a bird's eye view - their bodies are foreshortened.

but all of these things feel like they're related to observation (and math?), rather than actual artistic ability, you know? i'd love to start an art thread - to hear all the other stories like this.

so here's the rabbit - you can just see the places where DD has erased the cube she drew to plan the seat and the back of the chair. it's kind of neat!

Doubtfulguest, thanks so much for sharing your DD's picture! That kind of perspective (ha!) is really unusual at her age. She's obviously a perceptive girl. I agree that the picture probably belies her math savvy. The chair is so realistically positioned, and her rabbit looks quite charmed to have his portrait drawn.

You definitely should start that thread!

FYI, just want to confirm that you're OK with your DD's name (or her rabbit's) on the file.