Kindergarten Update

I've had many people ask me how Rory is liking kindergarten so I thought I would just write an update here. It's probably going to include more information that you want, but I plan to just copy and paste right on over to a scrapbook page.

Multi-tasking. It's good for the soul.

So Rory loves school like we all knew she would. She seems to have narrowed friends down to 2 very specific girls, and from what I can tell, the 3 of them spend their days playing spy girls. And trying to learn, of course.

I always knew the actual learning part of school was going to take second place to all the socialization, and that has most certainly proven to be true. In fact, I'm a little concerned she's not learning at all. For instance, just this week she told me that the following words start with B: considerate, quiet, recess, and Bella.

In addition to recess spy girl stories, she also comes home full of what she's learned, like how to spell colors, new memory verses, etc. However, getting her to actually tell me how to spell those colors or recite the verses is like pulling teeth. "But, mama, I don't remember what green starts with." "Now what numbers go with the verse again? And what does it start with? And where is it found?" It completely cracks me up that the way they learn things in kindergarten is with little rhymes and songs because Rory cannot remember a rhyme or song lyrics to save her little life!

So she might not be able to spell green after working on it for 2 weeks, but she spent 20 minutes on the way to soccer practice Tuesday night giving "her class" in the back seat an exact lecture complete with hand motions and voice inflection word for word that I am fairly certain her teacher had given earlier this week.

Yesterday, we received our first packet of graded papers, and she made 100's on almost all of them. She also had a note attached to one paper that said she was caught looking at someone else's paper for answers. So my sweet juvenile delinquent is a cheater. Actually, when I thought about it, the whole looking at someone else's paper made alot of sense because she mimics everything. Everything! From "cop-u-wing" her big brother, to watching the cheerleaders, to picking up on little nuances from TV. So why wouldn't she look at someone else's paper? Obviously, we had a talk with her about why that's actually cheating/stealing, and I hope she'll think twice before she does it again.

The other major thing I should point out about these first few weeks of kindergarten is all the crying. I'm sure I've mentioned that Rory is quite emotional, sensitive, tenderhearted. In fact, she has more compassion in her little finger than I do in my whole body, and while she is a super happy kid, she cries really easily.

Unfortunately, all that emotion has shown itself in insane bouts of crying morning and night. Nothing at school that I'm aware of, which is good. It's as if she's bottling up all the emotion, anxiety, excitement of school and then letting it out when she gets in the car after school. We've had tears because she has a cold, because she might give someone else a cold if she touches them, because she thinks she made Addison sick because she saw her in the hallway at school, because everyone else had better show and tell than she did, because she's soooooo sorry she didn't finish her water at lunch, etc. Oh, my stars, all the crying!

But all in all, kindergarten is going well. In Brian's professional teacher opinion, we're going to have some academic issues because she just doesn't seem to learn in a traditional way, but maybe if she follows through on her plan to tell her teacher every morning "that I love her berry, berry much" Mrs. L will fudge on her grades. ;)

Because, seriously,  who could resist this face (and those pigtails)?

So my platelets took another hit yesterday, which most definitely means no chemo for me. They are right above the critical level so I'm still good, just not good enough for chemo. (woohoo!) Everyone keeps asking how I'm feeling, and the answer is pretty good! This has actually been the easiest chemo round so far, and with the exception of extra fatigue and alot of sleep, I'm good. This has been a busy week with extra soccer games, unexpected dentist appointments, haircuts, etc. so I'm trying to just stay afloat with the most basic housework and laundry and make time for rest. I walked for almost an hour with a friend this morning, and while I may feel physically tired, it was lovely to walk in the cool, fall-like weather and talk. Just no one unexpectedly visit me and look at my un-mopped floors!