Life in Texas: Caden's Pre-K Graduation!

Friday, May 9, 2014

Caden's Pre-K Graduation!

Tuesday Caden's preschool had a mother's day luncheon for the mom's of the 4 year old classes. The kids sang a cute song and gave us a few gifts. Last night was their graduation. We got to see a cute puppet show by Uncle Lauren and Jake the puppet, who does their chapel. The kids sang I think 5 songs in English and then a few songs in Spanish. They were given their certificate and then had some refreshments in the fellowship hall. My dad came and Caden loved seeing him there.

Caden has really enjoyed this spring semester at his preschool. I wish I would have known about this school earlier. He's made some sweet friends and has enjoyed playing with them and likes his teacher, Ms. Debbie. His favorites friends were John, Jack, and Cade from his class. He also liked Shelby and they've known each other for a few years. I think Caden's energy level is a little high for her so they didn't play that much at school. He ended up running around more with the boys. In the other class, they ate lunch together and had recess together were Zeaven and Lainey. Caden is a very, very social kid. He loves people and after Gracie was born this was a great place for him to go twice a week. Last night his teacher was talking to me about homeschooling, since that's what we're planning on doing. She said he is incredibly smart, already reading (which we knew), and has a fantastic memory. She recommended a few homeschool curriculums and then said not to bother with kindergarten. She said he is ready for 1st grade and the kindergarten curriculums would be too easy for him. It was nice hearing her perspective on things. We believe Caden is very intelligent and quickly gets things but I don't want to push too hard nor do I want to hold him back. At his 4-year appointment with his pediatrician, she recommended if we didn't homeschool to send him to one of the private schools near us that have a lot of intelligent children. The public schools have too many kids in a class and he would get bored. We can't afford private school on one income at this point so that's not an option right now. Thankfully there are some fantastic co-ops and he'll be attending a school once a week for science, art, and Spanish. I've considered museum school but his preschool teacher thought that would be too easy for him as well but he might like it for the social aspects. We'll just have to see.

Ms. Debbie said some of Caden's favorite things at school are science experiments. He enjoyed those last year in Ms. Susan's class. He loved any letter/word game and playing with the kids. Caden loved the Buzz game Ms. Debbie created and playing outside on the playground. He also liked gymnastics, music, and chapel. I think we can easily find his favorite electives with other kids while teaching him at home.

We have several weeks left doing My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum at home. Then we'll probably go through his kindergarten math book I bought for fun over the summer so I can make sure he knows everything in it. I was looking through it after I bought it and realized it was too easy. However, I don't want to miss any building steps in his education. We'll also continue reading daily. Then sometime in August or September we'll officially start his kindergarten year. I don't feel like we can move him up to 1st grade since he is not even 5 yet. But I'm fine with going at the pace that's good for him. He loves learning and is very creative.

Here are some pictures from his special night.