CREATE

Being creative is who we are. It's what we do! I think it's in our blood. My mom was always into crafts and sewing and things and my brother was a fairly decent artist. I enjoyed art class when I was younger and then crafts as I got older. When Morgan was a baby I started scrapbooking, which then really got me interested into photography. Once again, I am pretty sure photography is in my blood. My dad use to dabble in photography (the old fashioned way) and actually learned how to develop film in a black room. My mom and brother also enjoy taking pictures (and do quite well). Of course we are all digital now and can do neat things with our photos on the computer! Morgan LOVES to create! She can spend hours sitting at the table just making things. She makes houses out of boxes for her stuffed animals, noise makers for her sister and wraps toys around the house in pretty paper for us to unwrap as presents. Below is the most recent drawing she did. Ava got a booklet of drawing paper for her birthday and on the book was a picture of a Macaw. Morgan decided to copy that picture on her own. Amazing how close it looks to the real thing! I am amazed at how talented she is!



And here is my beautiful girl - almost a first grader! Spring pictures were taken a few weeks ago. It's unbelievable how much she has grown over the year.

Some of you know that I have not been real happy with Kindergarten. Being an early childhood teacher I know what is developmentally appropriate for young children. The standards keep getting more and more difficult and the expectations higher and higher. Morgan has experienced some frustration throughout the year (and Mommy too) related to academics. First it started out with her writing and literacy skills. She wrote backwards most of the time. Now the teacher is concerned with her math skills and says she might need to go to summer school. How frustrating. Why would a Kindergartner need to go to summer school? Especially when her mom is a teacher. I know what to do to teach her these skills. So basically, what I have figured out is she needs to be able to correctly identify 11, 12 and 20 correctly (those are the hardest numbers) and then write her numbers from 1-20 without reversals. Based on what I have done with her she can do everything else - unless she is not showing her teacher she can do these things in school. Why would we send a child to summer school for 3 numbers and a few reversals, which really isn't a math skill at all, but a developmentally appropriate writing skill? We will always have our above average kids and our below average kids and our middle of the road kids and we don't know where Morgan is going to fall yet. Only time will tell. But why not just let our kids be kids? Being a teacher I know schools have standards to follow, but as a parent I have to take care of the emotional well being of my children and I am not sure that pushing them is the best choice either. BUT......I can say that Morgan HAS done more than I would have ever expected her as a Kindergartner. She is READING! And she can identify most of her numbers 0-100! So, my question for you is should we have high expectations and stress our kids out or should we let our kids be kids? How do we find that happy medium?