Mommy had Kylie’s second parent teacher conference today (like with the first meeting, Mommy and Daddy decided it would be silly for Daddy to make the 2 hour round trip drive for a 10 minute meeting) and she filled me in on all the good news. At this point in the school year Kylie has already surpassed all of the end of year criteria for promotion to the first grade! That criteria includes reading at a level 2, and counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s to 100 without issue. The teacher did say that Kylie has begun to be a little more disruptive. Well, maybe not disruptive, but when it is time to stop talking for instance she now finds that she sometimes has to remind Kylie that it is time to settle down. Mommy and I are wondering if this might be because Kylie has already mastered what they are currently learning, and the teacher seems to think so too because after telling us about this she said she thinks this will change shortly because next week they are going to begin their science course and will be learning about new things, which she thinks will re-engage Kylie and help pull her back to her normal behaviour. Either way we are very proud of how well Kylie is doing and are certain she will continue to excel and be a great student.

This morning Mommy went to Kylie’s first kindergarten parent teacher conference with Miss Rader, Kylie’s kindergarten teacher, about Kylie’s progress for this marking period (Daddy was going to go too, but it was a 10 minute meeting, so Mommy told Daddy not to make the 2 hour round trip when she could easily fill him in). Miss Rader started off saying that she LOVES having Kylie in her class, she said she wished she had 20 more just like her. She said that Kylie was progressing a bit ahead of the class and that she even knew some things that she needed to know by the end of the school year already. She said that Kylie will more than likely be reading by February at the latest due to how much Kylie already knows of the alphabet and how she is already sounding out many words. She told me most of the kids want to sit next to her in class all the time, so she’s pretty popular too. When Mommy asked if Kylie behaved herself and didn’t have to be told things over and over, Miss Rader said that Kylie did much better than most of the children. She said that there are sometimes that she has to ask Kylie twice, but it never has to be said more than two times. Miss Rader told Mommy that Kylie had a couple of boyfriends, to which Mommy laughed. Miss Rader said that she told Kylie that she needed to find some better boyfriends, but between the two of them they figured out the reason Kylie likes the so called “bad boys” was because she had empathy for them because they didn’t have a lot of friends. Miss Rader also told Mommy that Kylie asks questions that seem so adult (which we have always knows). She said one of the questions that stand out in her mind is when someone from the school board came for a visit. He was making his rounds when he stopped by the kindergarten room, he said “hi” to the class and said where he worked. At this point, Kylie raised her hand and asked, “So, are you an educator or a builder?” The man didn’t know how to respond to that question, the cool thing is he came back to the classroom after he had an answer. He proceeded to tell the class for the next 20 minutes about what he did. We (Mommy and Daddy) think it was cool that he did that because of a question Kylie asked, but even better that someone in the school board came back to respond to a 5 year old. It showed Kylie and the rest of the class that it is good to ask questions and if you don’t have an answer, to follow up later when you do. Over all Miss Rader gave Kylie a great report and confirmed that Kylie is ahead of schedule and doing great!

Today was a day full of special happenings at Kylie’s school, and she had a ton of fun participating in all of the activities with her friends. It started off with all the kids being allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to school for the day, so Kylie was very excited to be able to wear the witch costume that Mimi had made for her. Then when she got to school she was able to take part in the Halloween parade! Mommy was able to go and see Kylie and all of her classmates and friends wearing their costumes and watch as the school put on the parade. Then tonight was Kylie’s School’s Halloween Party and apparently everyone at school was talking about it all week, so Kylie was really excited about it and looking forward to going, so that was what we (Kylie, Daddy and Melissa) did. Now, before I mention how cool it was that the school puts this on every year, and all the neat stuff they have for the kids, let me just say this place was packed! There must have been around 700 people here; parents, kids, teachers it was crazy. They had trick-or-treat bag decorating, dancing, food, a haunted hayride, pumpkin decorating, and pictures. There was even an entire hallway decorated with the lights dimmed and stations set up for the kids to trick-or-treat at with teachers in costume giving out candy. We didn’t get to do everything, but Kylie had a lot of fun dancing and trick-or-treating, also after waiting in a long line we got to go on the hayride, which was a whole lot of fun. All the pictures from the day can be found in the October gallery under today’s date.

We got Kylie’s kindergarten class photo today, and she looks amazing. Here it is:

You can click the picture to go to her October gallery and see all the pictures from October 2010.

Today, as Mommy and Kylie were standing outside waiting for school to start, Kylie wanted to go stand next to a group of girls (which Mommy is not particularly fond of to begin with due to the way the act and how they are typically rude) but not wanting to influence Kylie, Mommy said she could. Mommy and Kylie walked over and all the girls said “hi” but then they started to walk away towards a bench. When Kylie started to walk with them, they turned and said, “No more people can follow” in a very rude tone. Kylie responded by saying, “It’s not nice to be a mean girl. Mean girls are not my friends. When you are mean, you are ugly on the inside and the outside.” Mommy was very proud of her and told Kylie that she handled that very well! Then Mommy and Kylie walked over to where they usually stand and waited for the doors to open and school to begin. Mommy and Daddy both hope that Kylie continues to stand up for herself and to be beautiful on the inside as well as the outside.

I can’t believe this day has come already, Kylie’s first day of kindergarten; before I know it she will be graduating and heading off to college. Today was only a half day, just so the kids could all get to know the lay of the school and where their room is, also to meet their classmates and teacher. It was great to see how excited Kylie was about going to school and meeting new friends. Mommy, Daddy, and Aunt Sissy all had a great time taking Kylie to school for her first day; Mommy and Sissy had fun remembering about when they went to elementary school at the same school. After school was over we all went out to Red Robin for lunch and ask Kylie about her first day. Kylie said she had lots of fun and met lots of new friends, she is already excited about going back tomorrow! Pictures from the morning are up and can be seen in the September 2010 gallery.