Last Friday, we had our first Parents As Teachers Meeting. PATS is a great program ran by the school districts here in Missouri. In fact, it is now mandatory that each district have the program. So our PATS rep came over and did an evaluation of the girls. Emmy was sleeping and continued to sleep through the entire meeting. Izabel however performed wonders and impressed our rep beyond her imagination. First off, the Rep had never had a meeting where the child's father was present. Wow, that shocked me! Really? Greg is very much a part of Izzy and Emmy's lives, even if he does work. Anything I plan, or have the girls participate in, is always scheduled so that Daddy can be a part of the action. Greg always wants to participate.
So onto Izabel's evaluation. **Warning: Bragging Mommy Starts Here**
Our Rep was very impressed with Izabel. In her words, Izabel is functioning well into that of a 3-4 year age range. That was an awesome moment for Greg and I. I've always been concerned that not sending the kids to daycare and having to reply on myself and Daddy to do the teaching would prove to be slightly difficult. However, it seems as though Izzy is as smart as a whistle. The Rep was literally in awe of Izabel's knowledge of colors, numbers, letters, sounds and matching abilities. She was also very pleased to see how well Izabel's word pronunciation was. Izabel's vocabulary is unlimited at this point. She can pretty much say anything you ask her to and she pronounces her words very well.
We were excited and yet relieved to know that we are doing what we should be doing to prepare Izabel for preschool in the fall. A few things I learned about Kindergarten were kind of scary to both Greg and I. I am not sure if the guidelines are the same everywhere, but here in order for Izabel to be able to enter Kindergarten she must be able to do the following as well as a few I forgot:
- Count and be able to identify her numbers.
- Sing the ABC song to the tune of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and be able to recognize each letter of the alphabet as well as know it's sound.*They do not teach it to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle" anymore due to the slurring of the pronunciation of the letters LMNOP. Strange huh?
- Be able to read simple books on her own such as "See Spot Run".
So needless to say, I was a little shocked by those things and have already put into play a few extra activities to help prepare Izzy for Kindergarten.
We will have a PATS rep come to our house every week for a couple of months and then we break for Summer. Our first play group meeting is this Friday morning. We are anxious to go and the Rep is curious to see how well Izabel will share as she isn't used to sharing with anyone. And for those of you wondering...Daddy will be in attendance too.
Emily has been quite the chatter box these past few days. She goes on and on and loves blowing bubbles! I even got her laughing pretty good last night. She's such a happy little girl. Izabel gets Emily's attention very quickly these days. No matter what she's doing, Emily always turns toward her or wants to see her. It's so cute! Emily is also doing really well at sitting up and holding her head. Last night she sat on the bed all by herself for about a minute. Such a big girl!! She hasn't rolled yet but she can almost get on her side by herself. Izabel was just shy of 4 months when she rolled, so if Emily takes suit, it should be soon. Emily is growing up so fast. She's not so little anymore and even carrying her around proves that. Sometimes my arms feel as though they will go numb and fall off.
One final note worth mentioning is that Greg and I finally agreed and purchased a double stroller. It's very cute and cozy. It's a side by side stroller and appears to be the only one on the market that allows a carrier to be in the side by side. It's pink (of course) and silver. It is a COMBI stroller. I love the look and feel and so does Izzy. I promise to get a picture of them in it this week and post it, in the meantime, here is the stock photo.
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