First report card!

Dylan got his first report card. I am SO glad that we decided to go ahead and put him in Kindergarten (even though his pre-k teacher tried to talk us into another year of pre-k because Dylan didn't speak in school). He is doing fantastic is school! It amazes me how he's reading, writing and spelling. He'll read words off of restaurant menus and he can read sentences in books. Didn't we just play and sing ABC's in Kindergarten? He can write full sentences on his own - even using the correct punctuation and spacing. He can tell you how many syllables are in words and is doing great at addition. For his report card they base their writing on a number scale and Dylan got a 3. At first I wasn't sure what a 3 meant, but then his teacher said that the goal for Kindergartners to be at by the end of the school year is a 4 (he's almost there!) and that he expects that Dylan will be at a 6 or 7 by the end of the year! He said that Dylan's handwriting is "Perfect" for a boy of his age. This time last year Dylan's speech was evaluated at 65% clarity - his new speech teacher did a first marking period evaluation and he is now at 90% clarity! He is doing great with his speech! His speech teacher even said that Dylan is "Extremely" talkative when he is alone with her. In class he speaks when spoken to by other children, but doesn't start conversations. At least we know that he'll never be a classroom troublemaker! :) Dylan raises his hand in class and talks in front of his class, but he doesn't go out of his way to start conversations with other kids. His teacher said that he sometimes sees Dylan's mouth moving at his table, so he must be talking to the kids, but he's quiet. He also said that he "Loves Dylan's voice" and that it's "So cute." He said that he doesn't allow a lot of talking in class, but if he sees Dylan talking he lets him keep going since it's rare that he talks to the other kids. So, the parent/teacher conference went great! He's not only keeping up, but he's excelling! I can't imagine if we would have kept him in pre-k, he'd be miserable.

Dylan's friend Cora came over the other day for a play date. She's very shy. Dylan talked and talked and talked and talked and Cora was very quiet. After about an hour she came out of her shell and they ran around the yard playing, see-sawing together, playing on the swing set and riding bikes. She's coming over again on Tuesday and her brother Lucas will be joining them. Lucas is also 5.