We had to apply and receive approval to take Bean out of school for our Edinburgh trip this weekend, since we are leaving on Friday morning and not coming home until Monday night. Now...I am not normally someone who approves of taking my children out of school for vacations. However, there can and should be exceptions. After all, it is for this Friday -which happens to be July- and Bean has been going to Kindergarten/Reception since the end of August 2009. She has not had the two week long half term breaks that her England friends have had all year long and she did not get out of school at the end of May like her American friends did. I believe my daughter got what you would call the shaft this year. This has been the LONGEST year of Kindergarten in the history of Kindergarten, so I think the poor girl deserves a two day break before she keeps going for the next three weeks (school officially ends July 16). When we look back at this past year we have seen how much Bean has grown. It is hard to believe that she technically would not have been eligible for Kindergarten until this coming school year because of her late fall birthday. But Bean has always met her milestones early and her Pre-K teachers assured us that she was ready for Kindergarten in 2009. After all, she really only missed the deadline by 2 months. We had some trepidation about it, but enrolled her in a private Kindergarten and assumed that worst case scenario she would just have to repeat Kindergarten this coming fall. It is very obvious now that repeating Kindergarten will not be necessary -Bean continues to amaze and surprise us and she has really thrived this past year. She tested 98th percentile nationwide in her American school Kindergarten testing, she has been reading chapter books for 6-8 year olds since the beginning of this year and writes full paragraphs without asking us how to spell anything – and gets all the spelling and punctuation correct. She loves math and is doing well with her French lessons at school. She is so creative – she is constantly making up stories and songs. Bean has been fearless, determined and independent since she started walking at 9 months old- there is nothing that scares this girl. She still has some control issues – once she gets emotional, it is really hard to get her to calm down but I think that is normal for 5 year olds- and, I am emotional myself, so she may get some of that honestly. We are so proud of our little girl! Yes, I think she deserves to have a little summer fun and be out of school, even if it is only for two days. She is looking forward to our trip to Edinburgh – after all, our hotel has a swimming pool. In the picture at the bottom she is not drinking coffee - don't worry, we realize she is 5, even though she has the teenage attitude perfected already. It is a bambinoccino-frothy milk with coco sprinkled on top that a local restaurant does here for kids.
Posts
