Kindergarten.
Such a magical time. I have loved reliving the beginning of school experience with my children. Perhaps my love for that first year traces back to my own kindergarten experience. I can still picture Ms. Ratchford's kind face and hear Ms. Burgess's reassuring voice. They were instrumental in my positive school experience.
The only thing I recall not loving about that year was how we learned about letters. Back when I was in kindergarten the phonics program "du jour" was The Letter People. I don't remember much about them beyond that only the vowels were female and I didn't think that was cool because "my letter" was a boy.
Fast forward a few decades and my kids are beginning their school careers. It has been so fun to watch their little minds soak up information like sponges. They have increased their way of thinking with numbers, changed their huge, shaky penmanship to something more legible, and started to learn to read. Considering my disappointment with the Letter People, I guess you could say I wasn't crushed to learn that current phonics programs have changed.
Our school uses Letterland. While K is still a boy character, at least now they are about 50/50, so I guess that's okay. Besides, they love going on secret adventures to Letterland to visit Annie Apple, Clever Cat, Kicking King, and one of our favorites, FiX it MaX.
Once the kindergarten students begin to slow down their visits to Letterland, (you know, because they get it already) they have a parade around the school. Each child comes up with a way to represent their character and the five classes proudly make two laps around the building, often with the other grades sitting in the hallway cheering them on.
Of course Nat and I had to attend to smile for our FiX it MaX.
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| Clever Cat, FiX it MaX and Firefighter Fred |
It's the simple joys.
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| even now, barely six months later i can hardly believe how much he's grown... |
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