Jack had his kindergarten testing Monday. I had picked up at the spring Kindergarten Round Up they would be testing him on the basics ... address, phone number, last name, alphabet, numbers ...
So we've been working on it.
And it paid off.
He kicked serious butt.
In fact, I have to say his teacher seemed impressed.
Maybe it was when he swept reading a full page of numbers to only drop two. And when he reached 15, then 17 he told us there was something "tricky" about them. Turns out, he was right. They're called "Tricky Teens" according to his teacher. These are the only numbers you read right to left. Once she reminded him the trick, he got the rest. Both Joe and I were thrilled. (I had no idea he even knew how to read numbers to be completely honest.)
Or maybe when they reviewed phonics. He had to recognize the letter (they were in no particular order), then reveal its phonics and then come up with a word that starts with that letter. He missed few. U, O, E, Z. Remember, he's 5. There are 26 letters. And when she
mis-marked the sheet, he pointed it out to her.
F ---
ffff --- fantastic
w ---
waaa --- wow
k -- karate (with the the accent he heard Jack Black once use)
She
quizzed him on his address. Check.
She
quizzed him on his birthday ... little nervous, knew season forgot month. (He later thought of it but it didn't count.)
She quizzed him on days of the week. (He got them all, minus Thursday. He knew as soon as he did.)
She had him count as high as he could go -- 29. He stumbled on 30 and then wasn't sure. So she cut him off at 29.
The she asked him his phone number.
"I will give you my dad's number. It's really the best one."
Yes. He really said that.
At the end, we were all smiles and she asked him if he had any questions or anything he wanted to talk about ... so my son decided to take this opportunity to let her know Mama wasn't buying him a new backpack but he was hoping Santa would hook him up with a Star Wars bag. (Sweet.)
He leaned back and scanned the room and sighed with a smile.
"Yeah, this is gonna be fun. Now can I go play with those toys?"
And being the sideline mom I suddenly am, I had to push her to tell us what she thought. I was looking for the two little words ... "gifted and talented" but I got: VERY well prepared.
I am going to assume its the PC way teachers say: Hellya, he's smart.
I asked her if we'd get an accessment of her findings. She seemed surprised and said ...
"Well this is the start of his file. It stays here and will be with him through his senior year."
Wow. My kid officially has a permanent record. Creepy. (Immediate flashbacks to high school, btw.)
Wonder what else show up in there in the next 13 years?
Maybe I don't want to know.
