Progress - A Boast

This is Tate's progress report from pre-school this year thus far.  I'm pretty darn proud of him!  And I'm also absolutely amazed by how much my little boy has learned in the 3 years and 7 months he's been on this earth.  It's absolutely amazing to me what a little sponge he is!

So, this post is going to be all about me bragging about my son.  I want to remember as much as I can about him and all that he learns as he grows up to be a Christ-loving, successful young man and hopefully father.

He started in Ms. JoAnn's class in mid August with 4 of his closest little friends.  I think that this extremely small class size has been instrumental in his growth and development this year.  Last year's class was small as well with about 10 kids in the class, but they put the younger set in a different class this year, so four of the kids in Tate's class (including Tate) turned 3 in June/July 2012 with one who turned 3 in October (his parents didn't want Tate, Leo and their son separated;  the other 2 are girls) moved into this 'older' preschool class.

By the time he moved out of the toddler room, he recognized all the letters of the alphabet, numbers up to 10, could tell you the first letter of his name and the first letter of the names of the kids in that class.  He also recognized all 10 of their names.  He could also tell you what letter many, many words started with if you were very clear with your pronunciation.  One of his favorite pasttimes was starting to become 'reading' out loud.  His memory was and still is unbelievable.  I'm assuming that most 2 and 3 year olds can do this though;  he'd pick up a book and 'read' it from memory getting most of the words correct.

This year he's been taking soccer on Monday mornings, dance class on Tuesday mornings and gymnastics on Thursday mornings...all at school!  It's so very great!  Then of course I take him to swim lessons on Friday mornings.  I'm so thrilled that he has all of these extra-curricular activities available to him at school.  The fees are extra, but nominal.  It makes it so nice for us working parents who can then spend our weekends with our kids not racing around to all these activities...you can just play with your kids, run errands and just do the family thing.  (I am considering signing him up for regular soccer on the weekends though when he turns 4)  

AND he's still learning!  Learning, learning, learning.  All while he's having fun.  And with teachers who care about him and will hug him when he's hurt or sad and rejoice with him when he's happy.  All the teachers know all the kids which I find just fantastic.  It's such a small school with 14 teachers including the director that all the teachers overlap at some point to keep ratios.  I've been so happy with his care.

Plus my little guy is just doing great.  I did initially wonder if all the kids' progress reports looked the same, you know...great, great, great.  But as I was walking out of the classroom the evening I picked up Tate and his little progress report, C's mom (the younger boy in the class) was coming to get something she'd forgotten.  She saw me with Tate's little progress note, and said C was having a hard time listening and following directions and the he got several 'needs to work on' phrases on his little paper.  And I realized it wouldn't help anyone to gloss over a child's needs, so I'm pretty proud of sweet Tate.

In addition to his progress noted above, he can count to 50 (with a little help transitioning 29 to 30...he doesn't remember always that the next number is 30 and the same 39 to 40, but once I tell him 30 or 40 he can say the numbers).  He writes his name really, really well.  Initially the letter 'A' was difficult, and he would make it look like an egg with a line drawn across the middle.  Now, though 'A' is his favorite letter and he is constantly saying for no particular reason 'A is up, down, ACROSS!' I'm pretty sure that's how Ms. JoAnn got him to write it correctly! :)  If I say a word and ask what it starts with he can usually tell me and then will rattle off a few other words that start with that letter.  Obviously 'C' and 'K' are difficult as are words that start with vowels since they can have such different sounds.

He can match matching objects on a piece of paper as well as distinguishing which two objects look alike in a set of 4 or 5.  He can trace with decent accuracy most letters of the alphabet.  His memory though, his memory...he sees or hears something once, maybe twice and he remembers it.  The beauty of youth.

We're still working on being able to take a shirt on and off.  He's had pants/underwear/shoes/socks down for over a year.  But I'm in no rush.  He still has absolutely no interest in what he wears, and is more than happy to let me put his clothes on him every single time.  It's much much faster this way, so I'm not pushing the getting dressed yourself business.  Ever.

He has two chores in the house thus far. He must remove his plate from the table and put it on the kitchen counter, and he must put his silverware in the sink.  He also must take his pants, underwear and socks off in the evening and put them in the laundry basket in the laundry room or if the clothes are going to be washed, into the washing machine.

We need to work on coloring inside the lines, but he's come really far as at the beginning of the school year his writing was incredibly light.  He was barely touching the paper with the crayons or markers.  He is now pressing with the appropriate strength, so now to work on being a tiny bit more precise.  I'm hoping to also help him learn to tie his shoes this summer.  I'm not sure when kids are supposed to be able to do this, but goodness with the 'invention' of velcro shoes I'm appalled by how many 8, 9 and 10 year olds cannot tie their shoes.  So, we'll see how that goes.  I'm not the most patient of 'teachers', so this might not go well. :)

Most importantly of all, he has learned almost all the names and numbers associated with Thomas the Tank Engine and all his friends as well as what color each train is.  I meant what else does a train-loving 3 year old need to know?

Except how to ride a horse...