Acceleration (is change in velocity over time)
Today was Lia's third first day of school.
The first first day of school was back in June when she started in her Old School and we still lived in Makati. The second first day was last month when we chose a New School now that we're in Merville. They put her in the Nursery Class because this was the age group she is part of. After a few days, the teacher conducted a baseline assessment to see how far along Lia is developmentally. I guess she noticed that Lia was a little bit ahead of her classmates so she used to Kinder assessment tool and found that Lia already knows most of the things the Kinder kids are supposed to learn. She then told me that she proposed to the school that Lia be accelerated to the Junior Kinder class in the beginning of the second semester, which starts in November.
While I'm really proud that Lia is smart enough to get accelerated, I had a few reservations about this decision. One is that the kids in the Junior Kinder class seem so much bigger than her. I was afraid their size would intimidate her and she would be too shy to make new friends. Another was that, although she can already read, I thought perhaps the kids in the Kinder class are expected to already know how to write, color and draw, and when we started in the Old School, she didn't know how to do these things yet. So I asked for a meeting with her teacher so we can discuss her acceleration, and she showed me her assessment. While the Nursery kids are still learning which letters are which, Lia can already read big words (no surprise there. she can read whole books). The Nursery kids are still learning what are the colors and shapes, and Lia had mastered all these years ago, including unusual shapes like Hexagon and Octagon. They noticed also that sometimes she wasn't listening to the teacher anymore and would just stare at the signs on the wall and read them.
The teacher also showed me that Lia can indeed write her name LIA, can draw simple figures like a diamond and a cross, and if presented with a shape in dotted lines, she can adequately trace it with a pencil. Of all the the skills that Kinder kids are expected to learn, Lia can do more than 80% so clearly, even if she's the same size and age as the kids in Nursery class, developmentally, she doesn't belong there anymore.
I expressed my concern about her ability to socialize so the teachers allowed Lia to sit in with the Junior Kinder class for about 30 minutes one day to see how she does, and while she didn't exactly start making friends right away, she wasn't distressed or nervous, she barely noticed I was there observing, and she confidently explored the new classroom in her typical serious fun way. I noticed also the the kids in the Junior Kinder class, while most were bigger, they were more like Lia in that they talk A LOT, they sing along with the teacher, and they open books to read on their own. It seems I really had nothing to worry about, and I agreed to let her be accelerated beginning November.
Today I sat in with Lia in her third first day of school and just as i the first two first days, she virtually ignored my presence in the classroom. She quietly did everything the teacher asked (including smile and wave at your new classmates). She wrote her own name on her activity sheet without help (some of other kids needed a guide) and ate all her snacks. She was still a bit slow in the songs that everyone else already knew, and she needed help in coloring, but on the whole I think she had fun. When her Nursery teacher saw her in the common room and asked her how her new class was, she offhandedly said, "Oh, it's easy," Talaga naman. Mana kay Lolo Dan.
It's the first class she's in that's more than 10 kids, and the first class where she's not noticeably smarter than everyone else. To me, she seemed small and a little bit lost in the sea of noisy NOISY children (today's class convinced me that I CANNOT be a preschool teacher), and as a mom, I want her to always be the BEST in her class. But hopefully being with them challenges her to shine and be even better than she is now. I don't think there's anything those other kids can do that she can't, except maybe beat them up, which doesn't count. So here's hoping we made the right decision.
And knowing Lia, she's just going to come up with new ways to impress us, every step of the way.
The first first day of school was back in June when she started in her Old School and we still lived in Makati. The second first day was last month when we chose a New School now that we're in Merville. They put her in the Nursery Class because this was the age group she is part of. After a few days, the teacher conducted a baseline assessment to see how far along Lia is developmentally. I guess she noticed that Lia was a little bit ahead of her classmates so she used to Kinder assessment tool and found that Lia already knows most of the things the Kinder kids are supposed to learn. She then told me that she proposed to the school that Lia be accelerated to the Junior Kinder class in the beginning of the second semester, which starts in November.
While I'm really proud that Lia is smart enough to get accelerated, I had a few reservations about this decision. One is that the kids in the Junior Kinder class seem so much bigger than her. I was afraid their size would intimidate her and she would be too shy to make new friends. Another was that, although she can already read, I thought perhaps the kids in the Kinder class are expected to already know how to write, color and draw, and when we started in the Old School, she didn't know how to do these things yet. So I asked for a meeting with her teacher so we can discuss her acceleration, and she showed me her assessment. While the Nursery kids are still learning which letters are which, Lia can already read big words (no surprise there. she can read whole books). The Nursery kids are still learning what are the colors and shapes, and Lia had mastered all these years ago, including unusual shapes like Hexagon and Octagon. They noticed also that sometimes she wasn't listening to the teacher anymore and would just stare at the signs on the wall and read them.
The teacher also showed me that Lia can indeed write her name LIA, can draw simple figures like a diamond and a cross, and if presented with a shape in dotted lines, she can adequately trace it with a pencil. Of all the the skills that Kinder kids are expected to learn, Lia can do more than 80% so clearly, even if she's the same size and age as the kids in Nursery class, developmentally, she doesn't belong there anymore.
I expressed my concern about her ability to socialize so the teachers allowed Lia to sit in with the Junior Kinder class for about 30 minutes one day to see how she does, and while she didn't exactly start making friends right away, she wasn't distressed or nervous, she barely noticed I was there observing, and she confidently explored the new classroom in her typical serious fun way. I noticed also the the kids in the Junior Kinder class, while most were bigger, they were more like Lia in that they talk A LOT, they sing along with the teacher, and they open books to read on their own. It seems I really had nothing to worry about, and I agreed to let her be accelerated beginning November.
Today I sat in with Lia in her third first day of school and just as i the first two first days, she virtually ignored my presence in the classroom. She quietly did everything the teacher asked (including smile and wave at your new classmates). She wrote her own name on her activity sheet without help (some of other kids needed a guide) and ate all her snacks. She was still a bit slow in the songs that everyone else already knew, and she needed help in coloring, but on the whole I think she had fun. When her Nursery teacher saw her in the common room and asked her how her new class was, she offhandedly said, "Oh, it's easy," Talaga naman. Mana kay Lolo Dan.
It's the first class she's in that's more than 10 kids, and the first class where she's not noticeably smarter than everyone else. To me, she seemed small and a little bit lost in the sea of noisy NOISY children (today's class convinced me that I CANNOT be a preschool teacher), and as a mom, I want her to always be the BEST in her class. But hopefully being with them challenges her to shine and be even better than she is now. I don't think there's anything those other kids can do that she can't, except maybe beat them up, which doesn't count. So here's hoping we made the right decision.
And knowing Lia, she's just going to come up with new ways to impress us, every step of the way.