This is Mallory’s last week of kindergarten. My sweet girl’s last week of kindergarten. You know, the kindergarten I wrote about nine months ago, before she started?
She canNOT be going to first grade next year, but she assures me that she is, because she is so smart from everything she learned this year, because she learned like from here to grandma’s house in Ohio much. And next year in first grade she will learn as much from here to Florida, and in second grade – from here to HAWAII!
I don’t know that I knew what Hawaii was in kindergarten. Or that it was really far away.
They had a party in her classroom yesterday. I started to get tears in her eyes when I walked in her classroom. I had flashbacks to her open house night, when I walked into her classroom for the first time. When I wondered which of the other little new kindergarteners would become her friends. When I wondered how she’d do being the youngest. When I wondered what she would learn.
Turns out I had nothing to worry about.
She made wonderful friends with her whole class, which eases some of the fear of first grade, since at least some of them will be in her class next year, even if her close friends aren’t.
She did fine being the youngest, except her competitiveness comes out a little when she realizes a lot of the other kids are already six years old.
And never in a million years did I think we’d be where we are with what she learned. I remember last year, when Nathan (across the street) finished kindergarten and his mom said he was reading books to his little sister. I truly remember wondering if Mallory would be able to do that. And as the school year started, I had my doubts. Not because she wasn’t learning things, but because it seemed at at the pace they were going, it wouldn’t happen by the end of the year. But then right around February or so, things clicked with her. She started reading EVERYTHING – books, magazines, texts on my phone, billboards, signs at the softball games, advertisements on TV, etc. And I’m not ashamed to say that there are nights that I ask Mallory to read Carson a bedtime story.
Looking back on that post from last September…she still doesn’t like her curly blonde hair, but somehow, amazingly, she quit biting her nails (we now have to file them down because they get ridiculously long!).
She’s two teeth lighter (her second tooth fell out in February), and can ride a bike with no training wheels (as of a month ago). She still wants to wear dresses all day every day, but her teacher said she appreciates that Mallory wears “sensible shoes” (which I’m guessing is because we don’t let her wear flip flops, etc, to school).
Her teacher also told me that Mallory asked if she (her teacher) could maybe sometime wear a fancy dress and fancy shoes, like maybe on the last day of school. So, Mrs Sellman did…for the Garden Party yesterday.
So sweet. I can not believe the year is over!!! Wow.