Kindergarten Testing

Titus had his testing this morning for kindergarten at Providence Academy next year. When Ms. Bowen called to set up his appointment, she said that it would not be a big deal, "just letters, numbers, colors, and things like that." I spent several days this past week reviewing these with him, just so he wouldn't go in there and forget the name of a triangle or something. We also continued working on his reading, in case she asked him to read. (I'm so proud of him for how well he is doing in this area and really enjoy the time we spend reading together. It is nearly as difficult as I imagined it would be. It actually seems to be coming pretty naturally to him. It certainly isn't because I'm an expert at teaching reading. I do recommend the Hooked On Phonics program, though. It seems to make things simple. The Leapfrog "Talking Words Factory" video is really helpful for phonics, too.)

I thought we'd work on writing a little, because that is where he has the least practice. He's just never been interested in it. He's never even liked to color. As a toddler, when I gave him crayons he would either eat them or launch them across the kitchen from his high chair. Even now, I typically receive blank coloring pages from his teachers at Bible Study or Kids' Day Out. Here are some pictures of my attempt at fun writing activities earlier this week:
Audra loves her spiral notebook and writes on her pages over and over again. I got this idea from my friend, Sara Neufeld, a couple weeks ago and it is such a hit.

The kids love to do these Kumon Tracing and Maze books. Titus definitely prefers these over writing or coloring. They are suppose to help with pencil-control skills and reasoning, which leads to writing numbers and letters. I've also noticed that Titus switches back and forth between his right and left hand. You can see this in the pictures above.

At any rate, this morning I took Titus to his testing at Providence. It lasted about 30 minutes and I was curious what they could have talked about for that long. While Justus and I waited in the lobby, I met the family that was testing after Titus. The mom's name was also Ashley and she had three little kids almost the exact ages of ours. When I asked her son his name, he answered, "Luke Skywalker Bear." I felt so relieved that someone else lets their 5-year-old son watch Star Wars. (This has been a source of inner turmoil for me because I thought Titus was too young, but I've deferred to Scott on this one.) I also felt comforted that he might be a good friend for Titus next year.

(This next part is so I'll have it recorded in our book. You blog readers will have to bear with me.) When Titus and Ms. Bowen came out of the room she told me that she would go over all of his results at the family interview in a few weeks. She did say "he did great" and that she doesn't have any concerns. She also mentioned that he "is ready for kindergarten." She laughed and said that she asked him how high he could count and he said, "About 40." Then he counted to over 100 and she finally stopped him! (That is mainly due to his interest in race cars this time last year. He kept asking me to read the numbers to him so I thought I should take advantage of his interest in it at the time. He learned them in two evenings.) I think numbers and math are probably his greatest strength academically so far.

Ms. Bowen also said that Titus was "delightful" and that she could have visited with him all afternoon. She told me that she asked him what his favorite thing is to do and he answered, "playing Lego Star Wars video game with my Dad." She laughed and said that she has two boys who love it, too. I daydreamed of having children that loved nature walks and building things out of rocks and sticks. Oh, well. I guess we haven't done as much of that as I daydreamed that we would.

On the way home, I could tell that Titus was processing everything about his day visiting his potential kindergarten: "I am so excited about kindergarten, Mommy." (pause) "I had so much fun in there. I hope I get to go back there someday." (pause) "Why are some 5-year-olds already in kindergarten?"

We chatted about the morning and I asked him what types of things she asked. He answered, "You got a smiley face for doing a great job. I got lots of smiley faces, but I didn't know how to spell 'rainbow' and I didn't know a word that rhymed with bunny."

I was thinking, "No kidding...and you knew the other answers?!?!" I'm really curious to find out what types of things she asked now. Sounds a little harder than colors and shapes. I was especially proud of him because when Ms. Bowen introduced herself to Titus she said, "Hi, Titus. How are you?"

He smiled and answered, "I'm fine. How are you?" (Then he looked at me and gave me a subtle "I did it" smile.) That may seem insignificant, but I've been working with him for weeks on answering people when they ask him a question. We've actually role-played this exact hypothetical conversation. In the car I told him how proud I was of him and he answered casually, "Yeah. I was just doing the 'right thing'."

Wow! Yes, you were. That is the first time I've ever heard him say that. We have talked so much about "doing the right thing" even when it is difficult or we don't want to do it. This precious morning was enough to fill my "weary from refereeing between Titus and Audra for arguing and being unkind to each other" tank for two weeks!