It is difficult for me to organize my thoughts for this post. I have revisited and revised this post several times. My emotions and my fears always get the best of me when I am writing it. I have so many thoughts about my daughter attending kindergarten in 2 years. Like many parents, I want my daughter to be very well prepared. I want her to excel at everything she does and most importantly I want her to be confident. Confidence will help her overcoming any adversity she may face while at school. I apologize for the choppiness and random thoughts in my writing. And even though kindergarten is 2 years away, I know the clock is ticking and it is my responsibility to prepare my daughter. I am responsible to give her the tools she needs to feel comfortable in a school setting. I am posting it because two years from now I would like to use this to reflect on Maya’s growth.
It is that time of year again, the start of a new school year. In a few weeks, Maya will begin her second year of preschool. Maya will continue to attend preschool for the next two years and then she will enter kindergarten. For a mother with an elementary education background, the thought of kindergarten scares the (insert swear word) out of me.
I have two short years to prepare Maya for kindergarten. I have two short years for her to find her voice. Compared to her peers, Maya still has difficulty articulating many of her words. When Maya is conversing with others, I’d say she is understood 65% of the time. At times, I step in and translate her speech and if I am not available she will do her best to show the listener what she is trying to say.
I know her expressive language will grow, but we still have a lot of work to do. I want her to enter kindergarten feeling comfortable with her speech. I expect her to be able to interact with her peers and communicate with her teachers and other adults. By the time she is in kindergarten, I hope I will not have to translate what she is saying. I want her to be able to articulate what she is thinking with fluency and confidence.
This is a great website to help understand expressive language milestones in children. http://www.speechtreeidaho.com/resources/typical-speech-and-language-development/
Over the next year, I’d also like to work on improving Maya’s reading readiness. Nemours Reading BrightStart is a great website to help parents understand their child’s reading readiness milestones. These are the milestones a four-year old child should have:
http://www.readingbrightstart.org/reading-skills-by-age/4-year-olds/
In addition to practicing speech at home we will begin to visit many of these concepts. However, I will introduce them to Maya through games, play and reading.
Maya is continuing to work very hard at each of her therapy sessions. Recently, I have noticed a change in Maya. She has been more outgoing and she is starting to take more risks. She doesn’t allow her CAS to stop her from interacting with others. She shares her thoughts, ideas, and opinions with the many people in her life. I thank God that she is happy and very strong-willed and she likes to remind me…
Maya: “Mommy, I’m 4, I’m a big girl now.”
Me: “I know, but you will always be my baby.”
Maya: “Stop mom.”
Me thinking to myself: “So it starts, and yes Maya no matter what you say you will always be my baby girl.”
casmommy 