Countdown to Kindergarten
This morning, while Madeleine and Josephine enjoyed a playdate at Drew's house, I registered Madeleine for kindergarten. I think that Madeleine will do great in kindergarten - she's doing fine academically and knows how to understand instructions well (though she doesn't necessarily always do so) thanks in great part to the instruction of Ms. Rosemary. That said, Madeleine seems to have inherited some of my propensity for worrying. Two days ago on the way home, she was in tears after announcing that she doesn't want to go kindergarten. She decided that kindergarten is boring, and is upset that it means that she'll have to leave her current school. I can actually understand her concern about changing schools - she's been at her current school since she started there in the infant room 5 years ago. Several parents have told me that their kids missed the school after the excitement of kindergarten wore off, with one kid summing it up that "they don't love me at my new school like they loved me at my old school." In the end though, I think the outgoing and adventurous parts of her personality will take over and she'll have a whole new gang of friends in no time.
As Madeleine mulls the implications of kindergarten, she's also recognizing more music and remembering more lyrics. She's been learning some basics of classical music at school and occasionally mentions what she’s learned about Mozart, Beethoven, and Pachbel (which Madeleine pronouces Pach-O-Bel to rhyme with Taco Bell). At home, Michael’s been listening The Police a bit lately and Madeleine’s picked up the tune to Roxanne. She started singing it at the dinner table the other night, so Michael and I began working on some substitute lyrics. We’d rather our five year old didn’t sing “Roxanne – you don’t have to put on the red light. Roxanne – you don’t have to sell your body to the night” and are working on an alternate version that goes something like “Roxanne – you don’t have to put on the night light. Roxanne – you don’t have to sell your comics in the night.” Last week, I changed the radio station suddenly when I realized that she was singing along to the Garth Brooks Song “Papa Loved Mama” and was heading into the lyric “Papa loved mama, mama loved men…”
Josephine continues to master walking – it seems like she adds a new step to the sequence every day or two. Crawling though continues to be her primary method of locomotion. When she needs to get somewhere, she’ll take a few lurching steps to get going, but will then hit her bottom to go into crawl mode and really zip. Josie’s also increasingly a mimic. In the bathtub this morning, she practically wrestled Madeleine to get to hold a small plastic pony hairbrush. Once she had it, she alternately chewed it, and tried to comb the nearest pony’s mane. Josephine also loves to hoist her fat body up onto child-size chairs – her favorites are the pink wicker armchair in her sister’s room from which she’ll beam with pride at anyone watching, and the small chairs in the infant room where the babies eat. If Josie thinks it is mealtime, she heads right for the table, gets in a chair, and looks around for the food.
As Madeleine mulls the implications of kindergarten, she's also recognizing more music and remembering more lyrics. She's been learning some basics of classical music at school and occasionally mentions what she’s learned about Mozart, Beethoven, and Pachbel (which Madeleine pronouces Pach-O-Bel to rhyme with Taco Bell). At home, Michael’s been listening The Police a bit lately and Madeleine’s picked up the tune to Roxanne. She started singing it at the dinner table the other night, so Michael and I began working on some substitute lyrics. We’d rather our five year old didn’t sing “Roxanne – you don’t have to put on the red light. Roxanne – you don’t have to sell your body to the night” and are working on an alternate version that goes something like “Roxanne – you don’t have to put on the night light. Roxanne – you don’t have to sell your comics in the night.” Last week, I changed the radio station suddenly when I realized that she was singing along to the Garth Brooks Song “Papa Loved Mama” and was heading into the lyric “Papa loved mama, mama loved men…”
Josephine continues to master walking – it seems like she adds a new step to the sequence every day or two. Crawling though continues to be her primary method of locomotion. When she needs to get somewhere, she’ll take a few lurching steps to get going, but will then hit her bottom to go into crawl mode and really zip. Josie’s also increasingly a mimic. In the bathtub this morning, she practically wrestled Madeleine to get to hold a small plastic pony hairbrush. Once she had it, she alternately chewed it, and tried to comb the nearest pony’s mane. Josephine also loves to hoist her fat body up onto child-size chairs – her favorites are the pink wicker armchair in her sister’s room from which she’ll beam with pride at anyone watching, and the small chairs in the infant room where the babies eat. If Josie thinks it is mealtime, she heads right for the table, gets in a chair, and looks around for the food.
posted by Laura at 3/09/2007 03:31:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home