Starting Kindergarten

It is a new season of life in the Thagard family! Abby started kindergarten at the end of September. She has been doing great! We look forward to her coming home and sharing any adventures of the day. I’m not gonna lie, it is tough to let her go for a full morning. (Class starts at 7:30 and ends at 11 AM.) Both Roy and I wish that we could just be a fly on the wall and watch to see how well she is doing, but it has been really good for her to be brave and go without mom and dad.

The school she goes to is a Christian school and has mostly missionary kids like Abby, but also a few national kids, and children of diplomatic parents from other countries. It is taught in English. After doing a couple months of summer school in French, Abby is so happy that she gets to hear English at school! There are a total of 10 kids in her class. The original kindergarten teacher wasn’t able to return this year, so Abby has two teachers who trade off throughout the week. The first (Mrs. A) is a mom whose son is in the class. She is a trained teacher. The second (Miss K) is a younger gal who is teaching for the first time. Abby has already drawn Miss K a picture for a present.

One way we get a snapshot of Abby’s day is by hearing how Abby did on the clip chart. Each child has a clothespin with their name on it and they all start at "ready to learn." They get to move their clip up to a “good day,” “great day” or “outstanding” according to how well they are doing in class. Most days Abby gives reports of getting a good or great day! Each morning all the kids start in the middle at “Ready to Learn” and there are steps to go down if they get a warning or have to go in timeout. The bottom level is “contact parents”. At first Abby told me that she wanted to get the bottom one because it had a telephone on it. I had to tell her that she didn’t want that one because it meant that she’d gotten in trouble and that she should try to get the top ones like great day with the stars and caterpillars on it!

Abby loves music and so she tells us that music is one of her favorite classes. She also gets to check out 2 books each week at the library. The first week she came home with 2 Curious George books and the 2^nd week 2 Clifford the big red dog books. She is so excited to read them together throughout the week! She also enjoys playing outside at the playground. One week she brought home a brown paper lunch bag with instructions to bring 3 things that show what she likes. It was a challenge to find small things, but she did a great job and got up in front of the class to show off her treasures (one of which was her stuffed caterpillar--her favorite animal). Her teacher was nice enough to send a picture of her doing show and tell.

Abby showing caterpillar

Abby is already a great reader after doing a year of Hooked on Phonics at home. We know that she will continue to improve. We can already see her improving in her writing and getting more socialization with friends! She has a couple girls who are her age she is becoming friends with. One is in her class and another is doing kindergarten at the French school where Abby went to summer school. Abby is the youngest in her class and so we thought a lot about whether this was the right time to start school or if she should do English or French school. After a couple weeks of school we are confident that this is the right time and the right place for Abby to be learning and we thank God for the opportunity she has to get good instruction in a Christian environment.

Recess!!!

 

Abby loves that Cali greets her every morning when she returns from school. 

Kindergarten open house was her birthday!