Tiffany just got back from a meeting with Kylie’s teacher about her progress so far this year, and the results are exactly what we have come to expect from Kylie. 🙂 In November Kylie was reading at level 8 and now she is reading at level 14! Only one other student in her class improved in their reading level that much. To put the reading level in perspective in order to advance to 2nd grade she needs to be reading at level 16 by the end of the year. Her teacher said she “will be reading at a 2nd grade level well before she is in 2nd grade!” She is also on track with her math skills, and the class will be starting science next week. Overall she is doing very well and “she is a pleasure to have in class.”

Kylie’s first parent teacher conference of her first grade year was today and we are very happy to report that she is doing very well. Kylie is currently reading at level 8 and she needs to reading at level 16 by the end of the year. Her teacher thinks that at the rate Kylie is learning and picking up this necessary skill she will be reading at between a level 20 and 22 by the end of year. This of course makes Mommy and I very happy, as we both enjoy reading and are trying to install that joy in Kylie as well. Seeing as she already enjoys going to the library and picking out books, we think we are on the right track. Additionally she is doing well in math but she needs help with money, mainly what each coin is worth. Mommy and I are trying to figure out a good way to help her with this, as the times have changed so much from when we were kids. See when Mommy and I were young it was still very common for our parents to pay for purchases with cash and coins, which means we could handle them everyday and help in making purchases. This constant handling of money made it a lot easier for us to pick up on money and each pieces value. However now it is less common to use cash and more common to use debit or credit cards, in fact it is so common that Daddy almost never has any cash on him at all. I am sure we will figure out a way to help her in this, as it is still a very important piece of information she needs to learn. Speaking of important skills, Kylie is also doing really well with writing and sounding out words, spelling them phonetically and learning how the actually spelling of words differ from the way they sound. She often asks us how to spell words while writing little notes and even more often will say to someone “Guess what. I know how to spell…wanna see?” and then she will spell a word. Sometimes she correct to the true spelling of the word and sometimes she makes a very good attempt by spelling the word the way it sounds. When she spells the word incorrectly we tell her the correct spelling and why it differs from what she gave, and more often than not she only needs to be told the correct spelling once. We are confident that the rest of the year, academically speaking, will go by without an issue and she will continue to learn and expand her knowledge ahead of the curve. Now if we can just do something about these boys Daddy will be even happier. 🙂

It looks the my “problems” are going to not only continue but worsen a lot sooner than I had anticipated! I mean, she’s 6 and in 1st grade, a Father shouldn’t have to deal with this yet! Don’t get me wrong, I knew it was coming, I knew I would eventually have to deal with these situations. I just thought I had more time! What am I talking about you ask? Boys, as in boyfriends! -sigh- Let me explain… About a month ago Kylie came home from school with a rose from Lestat. Admittedly I wondered what I was going to do about it, but only for a few minutes and it soon passed. I figured I didn’t have anything to worry about and that this was a one time thing. Seems reasonable, right? Wrong! Kylie came home today with not one, not two, not even three roses. She came home with a FULL DOZEN!! That’s right, Lestat brought her in  TWELVE roses! This is the picture that Tiffany sent me tonight. What am I going to do about this? The kids not old enough for me to play the “big scary Dad” role. I’m not ready for this…

Looks like the “problems” that started last year with Kylie and her boyfriends are going to continue this year as well. Of course these are only “problems” for Daddy and they are likely to get worse as she gets older, I guess I’ll need to find a way to deal with this eventually. So what am I talking about? Well today when Kylie came home from school she was toting along a long stemmed red rose that she got from Lestat. Not sure what I am going to do about this…

Update 9/18
Here is a picture of the rose in question. Clicking on it will bring you to the larger image in the gallery.

Today was Kylie’s first day of 1st grade, and as we had hoped, she woke up excited and had a great day. She completely forgot about how nervous she was last night and when Mommy got her to school she went right up to the “big doors” and found her friends. Today was a half day as well, so when Mommy picked her up after school Kylie was a bundle of excitement, talking about all the friends from last year she saw and all the new friends she made today by meeting all the new kids in her class. It would appear that the night before jitters have all been forgotten and we are in store for a wonderful year of first grade!

Tomorrow is Kylie’s first day of 1st grade! Unlike last year, I wont be able to take the day off to head down and see her off in the morning. However Kylie and I have been talking about the upcoming start to the school year and she has been pretty excited about going back and seeing all of her friends, so imagine my surprise when Kylie called tonight to talk to me because she is nervous about starting first grade. Through talking with her and Mommy we found out that she is worried the older kids might pick on her or bump her when they go in through the “big doors” or when they are standing outside. This is a new experience for her, going in through the “big doors,” because last year the kindergarten classes had there own door into and out of the building that basically went into the school right on the kindergarten wing. This year though, because she is in first grade, she will stand out at the main doors to the school with all of the other students, except the kindergartners. She has obviously had interaction with kids in grades above her and knows some of them through peer mentoring programs and such that the school utilizes, but the thought of being with all the older kids at one time in one common spot has her feeling a bit apprehensive. Mommy and I explained to her that even though all the older kids will be there as well they will still be in their own line based on who their teacher is. Also that the teachers themselves will also be there to make sure that no pushing or shoving goes on and that everyone is being nice. After a few minutes Kylie said she felt better but was still a little nervous. We told her that it is okay to be nervous and reminded her that in addition to all the older kids that will be there, all of her friends from last year will also be there and they will have lots to talk about, telling each other all about what they did over the summer. She agreed that would be fun and then decided she should get some rest, but insisted she was still nervous. Hopefully when she wakes up tomorrow she will be to excited to remember that she is nervous.