Awesome Readers

Jon, Maddie, and Ben had a kindergarten awards ceremony at the end of the school year. It was one of those ceremonies where every child gets an award of some type. Jon's teacher had emailed me ahead of time asking for permission to change his a bit. She wanted to award him an outstanding reader award. He and a little girl in his class are far beyond their peers' reading levels; however, Mrs. Sprague really wanted each child to have an award that was different than the other kids' awards. She couldn't think of another award for the little girl and asked if I though Jon would be happy with "Outstanding Author and Illustrator" award since he was so good at writing and drawing accompanying pictures. I figured he would be happy with any award, so I told her to go ahead with that plan. He was proud of his award... until...

Maddie got the Top Reader award for her class,

and Ben got the "Radiant Reader" in his class.

In the end, Jon wasn't TOO disappointed, but when he compared himself to his siblings, he said he wished he had gotten the reader award, too.

From a mama's perspective, it is interesting that all three kids are several reading levels ahead of the crowd. Maddie and Jon each had one classmate that was reading at the same rate, but Ben left his class in the dust. Though I'm proud of my strong readers, that is the number one reason I'm concerned about them being in first grade at the same school they were in -- they are pretty far ahead of their peers in reading and math, and I don't want them slowed by the crowd. I talked with all three kindergarten teachers, asking each who they recommended for the child they taught. All three suggested the same teacher. We considered putting them all with the same teacher since the teacher had two classes (morning/afternoon), but that still meant that at least two would be in the same classroom at the same time. We even considered that part, but Ben's teacher gave me several compelling reasons not to do that. I loved having a teacher willing to tell me to reconsider, but then giving me the knowledge I didn't have without her input. LOVED IT! We decided to keep the trio apart again, but that means one of them will have the other teacher who is not as experienced at keeping them all challenged. We are going with the same school again next year, but if the kids aren't being challenged enough, we may change our minds for the spring semester. Again, just like with Will, these are the parental challenges we never expected, but at least we have a bit more know-how under our belts.