Alex and Alisha got a call from the school in which they want to enroll Kael for kindergarten. It's a private school -- a Christian school -- affiliated with a large Baptist church not far from their house. Some of the folks at our church have sent or are sending their kids to that school.
Anyway, they've been in contact with these folks for a couple of months, but on Friday they were told that Kael might not be able to attend this fall. Why? Because he can't read.
This blows my mind on SO MANY LEVELS. The boy is ENTERING kindergarten. They require that he be able to read "one-vowel words." I did not know how to read a lick until first grade and I think I turned out just fine. I'm really speechless. Plus, they never mentioned this to Alex and Alisha until last Friday. Alisha works with Kael a LOT. He knows his alphabet, how to write almost all of his letters, and how to write his name. He can count up to thirty or forty, knows all of his colors, and has a very teachable attitude. If they had told her about this requirement, she could have been working with him toward this goal. (He also has to be able to count to 100, which I don't think will be a problem, and he has to be able to write his name with correct capitalization -- right now he writes it in all capital letters.)
Anyway, they did say that he is ahead of the game for public school kindergarten (duh). I just think that requiring a child to read before kindergarten is ludicrous.
Sigh.
Today is an odd day: nothing on my schedule and I feel kind of at loose ends (and it's not even 11:00 yet). Mel is on vacation, so I have a week without her (I did drive her hither and yon yesterday; most of her errands were accomplished without me getting out of the car). My big goal today is to cook dinner, which will require a trip to the grocery store. I'm making Thai Black Pepper and Garlic Tofu and I have everything but some vegetables.
Today is also an exercise day, so I have that to look forward to.
Bruce and I did a very logical thing two nights ago. We swapped sides of the bed. He has been on the side that is closest to the bathroom and by switching he cuts my trip almost in half. Considering that the jaunt to the bathroom is very painful, especially in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning, this is very helpful. However -- our bed is just horrible. We each sleep in a valley and it's starting to bug me. Our mattress is not one of those that you can flip over -- it has a little "mattress topper" thingamajig on top of it, so I ordered a gel-foam topper (it will be delivered tomorrow) and we'll flip the mattress, put that on top of it, and see if it's an improvement. It cannot be worse. Another weird thing: Bruce is VERY active at night. It's not like I've slept in the same bed with very many people, but in my experience he is really, really rowdy when he's supposed to be peacefully slumbering. He kicked me once the first night we switched sides and last night he kicked me twice. I have this really super-firm yoga pillow that I think I'm going to put on the bed between us -- so far he's just kicked my shin but I don't want him to kick my knee. (I'd rather him not kick my shin, too, of course.) Maybe the new mattress topper will help, too.
More later...
Are there any montessori schools in your neck of the woods? They might be a little more flexible and accepting. I don't have firsthand experience with Christian schools, but I have seen and heard that the structure they provide can be a bit excessive for young children. Not a lot of room for individuality. It is all about conformity to strict (some may say overly strict) rules and expectations.
ReplyDeleteWe had the same problem with our mattress which we paid BIG bucks for last year. Fortunately, it came with a warranty and we were able to exchange it for a new one which we like much better. We had to take pictures of the old one showing an indent of 1 1/2 inches. So we had to lay a straight edge over the mattress and put the tape measure from the level straight edge down to the bottom of the "valley" and show that it was at least 1 1/2 inches. Then we submitted the pictures and heard back that we were approved. This all just happened last month. May want to check the warranty tag on your mattress. Maybe you are eligible, too.
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