Raelin

I realize that I have lots of Ryker stories and even more Alaina stories, but not very many Raelin stories. There are a couple of reasons for this. Raelin is more serious, more obedient, and more independent. We have fewer interactions. It makes for an easy child, but not a whole lot of stories. She's also gone most of the day at school and I see her less. When she is around, she prefers to play/fight with Ryker or read or do some sort of craft. Also, most everything I would have to say about her would pretty much be bragging rather than story-telling. She's my easiest kid and my hardest kid at the same time. She's emotional and sensitive and easy to damage, so she needs less direction, correction, and coaching, but a lot more care and thought from me in the ways I interact with her. So I'd better make sure she gets some recognition on the blog before I hurt her feelings! Get ready for some bragging!

I took some pictures of Raelin the other day and have been meaning to create a post about this since. I'm glad I didn't get to it until today because now there is more to tell.

First, some background. Raelin's birthday is in November. In California, the school cutoff is in December, so she would have started kindergarten last year if we lived there. But here, the cutoff is in September so she was supposed to wait until this year and she should be in kindergarten right now. Well, that just didn't seem right to me. Raelin has always been such a smart cookie and a bit of an old soul and she's been ready for school for a LONG time. And if we go back to California like I hope we will, she would be a year older than all her peers. One of the things I learned in college was that, for girls, this is generally bad. Typically, girls who are older than their peers have a higher risk of negative outcomes (like early promiscuity, low self-esteem, running with the wrong crowd, drug use, etc.) while being a late bloomer is associated with more positive teenage outcomes (confidence, ambition, better grades, safer sex practices, etc.). The opposite is true for boys--being older and/or an early bloomer is better for them typically. Anyway, I worried that being SO much older if we ended up in California would really be hard for her later on. So I did some homework and figured out that I could put her in any grade I wanted for the school year that started after her 5th birthday. So she skipped kindergarten and went right into first grade this year (incidentally, if you are going to do this with your kid, don't talk about it in terms of skipping kindergarten--just say to the child and everyone else that you homeschooled kindergarten. It gets a lot less grief from adults and peers alike. We learned that the hard way).

We really didn't do all the prep I'd hoped we would. I planned to get her reading some and to teach her all the basic things you learn in kindergarten. Well, life got kinda crazy and she wasn't really reading when school started and we hadn't covered all the math concepts or much of anything really. Fortunately, Brice naturally does a lot of math stuff with the kids and Raelin had a good foundation for that. Also, even though Raelin wasn't reading, she had been read to a ton by Brice and me (she and Ryker have an uncanny ability to memorize books--I have to keep good learning-to-read books separate and hidden so they don't memorize them before they are ready to try reading them on their own) and she loved books, so she had a good foundation there too. But still quite behind where I'd hoped she would be at the start of the year. But like I said, she's a smart cookie and she was reading almost as soon as school started, pretty much just taking the time to figure it out and not wanting to be left behind. Her math skills turned out to be well ahead of the game (good job, Brice!) and everything else has been coming along nicely. Her teacher was a little worried at the beginning of the year, but I wasn't because I'd seen how much she had learned in such a short time. So it's been a good fit; challenging but doable.

On to the main story. The other day Raelin got ready for school pretty early (before the time change--she's not much of a morning person and has barely made it to the bus on time this week. I wonder where she gets that?) and told me that she wanted to go out to the bus stop early to read. I told her that she had 20 minutes and she could read in the house where it was warm for a while first. She said, "But I don't want to have to stop in the middle to go out there and then start again!" So out she went. She sat on the curb at the bus stop for 20 minutes in the cold by herself reading "Matilda" by Roald Dahl!
Now, if you know this book, you know that this is the kind of book that a third-grade teacher might read TO the class for story time, but it certainly isn't the kind of book anyone would suggest to a first-grader to read on their own. When Raelin picked it out of the closet, I almost discouraged her, but then I remembered that I always wanted to master the hardest thing and not waste my time with the stuff that was more appropriate for my skill levels. So I gave her the book. And she's been cruising right along! So impressive, especially considering she wasn't reading much at all 5 months ago! She's also reading another "chapter book" at the same time. The fact that they are "chapter books" is extraordinarily important--just ask Raelin and she'll tell you all about it.
Now, the reason I'm glad I waited to create this post is because today was parent-teacher conferences. When I met with Raelin's teacher, she had nothing but praise for smart little Raelin! She said that she had been a little worried around the time of the first p-t conferences when I'd told her how young Raelin was and because Raelin's reading was below average at that time, but now she's caught up and passed the expected skill level! Mrs. C said good for me for getting her into school early; she's such a smart girl! She's ahead on her reading, ahead on her math and right on par for everything else. First grade is definitely where she should be! Go Raelin! I'm so proud of her for working so hard and loving to learn! I love to see her reading and enjoying books so much and I'm so impressed with how fast she is picking up new skills and developing old ones.

And here's a cute picture of the other two at Grammie's house. We've been there a lot lately helping my sister refinish some dressers in preparation for her new baby, Russell, who could come at any time!
Sorry for the lack of pictures and the excessive writing, but like I said, Raelin isn't around as much as the other kids; I don't have as many pictures of her. This summer I promise to get LOTS though!