Kindergarten Readiness

Today, Maggie had her first assessment for kindergarten readiness. While I never doubted Maggie's readiness to attend kindergarten I was worried about her willingness to perform for a teacher she had never met. At the end of the assessment I recognized that it felt more like me taking the test rather than Maggie.


This is Maggie's story -:


The night before Maggie's kindergarten assessment I told her that we would be visiting a kindergarten school where a teacher would like to meet her and ask her a few questions. She accepted the news just fine and may have said something like, "You mean where five year olds go? Will I be five tomorrow?"


Over breakfast the following morning I remind Maggie of our scheduled day. Laundry, shower, gymnastics, lunch and then kindergarten. She happily accepts all the details and asks if she can watch a movie while I take my morning shower. I oblige her with a yes and breath a sigh of relief that Maggie seems to be taking the kindergarten meeting in her stride. I briefly wonder what questions might be on the assessment and worry a little if they'll ask her to write her name, as we are still working together on that skill but, but decide there's nothing to do about it and that it is not worth the worry. I know she'll be ready by the time fall 2008 rolls around.


On the way to her gymnastics class Maggie starts in with the questions about kindergarten, "Will other kids be there for me to play with? When will I be five? Is it the school with the tiger (school mascot of another neighborhood school)?" Then she said, "But I'll be shy. I won't want to answer their questions."

I feigned ignorance and made out that being shy and not answering the questions the teacher asked was okay, "Maggie, that's okay. You'll be fine. Just know that the teacher really wants to meet you and just wants ask you a few questions. You only need to answer the questions you want to. The teacher will like you Maggie."

"Why?" Maggie asks. "She'll like you because she's a teacher and all teachers like children and they know just how to talk to children, especially if they're feeling shy." We exchange dialogues for a little longer. She reinstated that she would not be wanting to say anything and I did my best to keep the tempo low and reassure her that I thought she would do just fine.


Well, arriving at the school Maggie was not shy. She was not quiet. In fact, she did not stop talking. Eager to show the teacher just how much she knew, she elaborated on every detail at every opportunity she saw. Her opening comment upon entering the classroom was, "This chair is bigger than the chairs at my pre-school and darker too. My pre-school has chairs which are light blue and you have chairs which are dark blue."


After being tested for her recognition of basic shapes she said, "I know all sorts of shapes. I know oval too." When she was asked to count to 10 she made it all the way up to 21 before being asked to stop by the teacher. When asked about the colour of several crayons she explained how the black crayon was black but had grey paper wrapped around it. When asked to write her name she began with the letter "M" and then announced that this time she did the "M" a little differently, each successive letter she sounded out phonetically and narrated how each letter should be drawn, "... g. ga-ga. I have two gees in my name. g. ga-ga. first you draw a circle and then the tail. down and then whoop..."

I was hearing my very own words play themselves back to me. I dared a glance up at her and she had a huge - I mean a HUGE grin on her face. This was the first time she had written and spelled out her name without any help. She missed one letter out in writing her name, but I didn't care. She was performing and was so proud of herself. She was gorgeous.

When the assessment came to an end she saw the teacher circle "no" on an assessment sheet. Maggie was very prompt in asking the teacher, "Why did you circle that one 'no' ?" to which the teacher replied, "Oh. You can read too! I can tell you've been to pre-school. You know so much. Very bright." At which point, I couldn't resist but say, "Well, erh. Most of what she knows comes from me. Her pre-school focuses on social skills, and we're working together on writing her name. She wants to get it just perfect."

Which is true by the way. Practically any new task Maggie takes on, she wants to do just perfectly.