getting ready!!!

In the B home lately it has been all about getting ready to go to school for J! She is so excited to start Kindergarten this fall it is unbelievable. However, since I have been in a Kindergarten classroom quite a bit, I know that there are a lot of things that she needs to work on and learn before she is ready. Here are a few…
*eating: with utensils, without a bib, cleaning her hands and face when she is done
*bathroom: wiping her bottom when she is done with #2, consistent hand washing
*playing: not crying when she doesn’t get her way, being patient when she doesn’t do something perfect the first time.
… and the list goes on. So (the inner teacher that I was educated to be) decided it would be important to work on these things now instead of throwing her into school this fall blind. We also felt that it would be ideal to get her up-to-date on some of the things that will be expected of her by the end of Kindergarten so she can perfect these things during the year. I printed off the standards and benchmarks for K from the public school website and she can do over half of them! Her weaknesses are in reading and writing; which makes sense to me because we have not really worked on these areas with her too much. I found some Kindergarten workbooks online and the kids LOVE them. Every day after I put N down for a nap we do a few pages. They feel so smart and enjoy showing T what they learned that day. E is enjoying the workbooks too although he is not too big on the writing yet. I don’t know if it is his age or if he just doesn’t care. J on the other hand loves learning how to write all the letters, UPPER and LOWER Case! The other day she wrote her name all by herself! No help from me or even looking at her name anywhere else. Some of the letters were backwards and spread out but hey SHE DID IT! I was so proud of our *little* girl! I absolutely can NOT believe she is going to be FIVE at the end of the month. Wowzers!!!! Some of the reasons I am trying so hard to get her a little ahead is because 1) she is easily frustrated and will shut-down resulting in a crying fit 2) she is pretty shy (probably since she did not go to daycare too long) and 3) she is a tad emotional sometimes and will be heartbroken if kids make fun or tease her. And let’s face it: kids are mean, regardless of how old they are. : ( We feel that school is sooooo important and want her to have a positive experience her first year. We want her to LOVE school!