A new school year

Rebecca's transition from the 4-year old class to Pre-K seems to have gone smoothly.  We went to the Transition Party at her old class and to meet her teachers on the Friday before she started in her new classroom.  The kids enjoyed pizza and all kinds of other snacks. 

Rebecca followed her friend Nicholas around, batted her eyes at him, and said in a sweet and coy voice, "Hiiiiiiiiii, Nicholas.....!"  Lord, give us strength. 

 

 

Rebecca was very sad to say goodbye to her teachers, Mrs. E and Mrs. Flores.  Mrs. Flores said about Rebecca, "I'm so going to miss talking to her every morning!  It's like having a conversation with an adult!"

The next week, Rebecca marched into Room 9 like she owned the place.  We checked out her cubby and looked at the names of the other friends in her class (alas, there is a Nicholas in her class but not the one who lets her pretend he is her puppy).  She had time for Mama to snap a couple of quick pictures, but that was it.  She was ready to make friends! 

 So far, it looks like we are off to a good start.  Occasionally, Rebecca seems to worry that she isn't smart enough.  She does't like to try things that are hard unless she knows she can show that she can do them.  For example, she refused to draw an "S" until she had mastered it.  Now, this is hard to accomplish, since practice really does make perfect! 

Recently, there has been a commercial on that she has seen about teaching kids math.  Rebecca points out that those kids aren't yet in kindergarten and they know math.  This prompted her to be concerned that she didn't know math.  Since then, we have had to point out all the things that she does with numbers that are, indeed, math! 

Rebecca has also become very aware of the fact that she is much smaller than most of the children in her class.  She remarks about being "small" and tends to frown if people incorrectly assume that she is three.  We have to talk a lot about how God makes people in different sizes and that it doesn't have anything to do with how good they are or how smart they are.

Then there are other days when we have to put her ego in check.  For example, she announced the other evening, "Well, I'm the smartest one in my class!" 

It's a fine line to walk!