Tuesday, August 30, 2011

From Teenage Mom to Responsible Parent


Now that my daughter is back in college, I am wearing the primary caregiver hat for her son/my grandson.

It has been so amazing to see my once "I can't believe you got pregnant teenage daughter!" develop into a responsible, loving and nurturing mother.

Instead of using her summer to work full-time to save for college expenses, she chose to spend it preparing her four-year-old for a big test he would have to take as an "early entry" into kindergarten. (He missed the cutoff date by 6 days).

Everyday they went to the library--including Saturdays. She taught him to identify and spell more than 200 words, spell and write his name so it was legible, tell time and do math. Oh, did I tell you he had to learn to read?

Day in and day out, she challenged him and herself to accomplish the goal of scoring in the 98 percentile (what the state law REQUIRES in order to be admitted into kindergarten). It was frustrating at times---even for me and I was just an assistant teacher.

On Wednesday, August 31, my grandson will be a part of the 2011-2012 kindergarten class.

My daughter's hard work and tenacity paid BIG DIVIDENDS. Grandma is so proud!

3 comments:

Val said...

Good heavens, Beverley, I didn't know children had to pass an exam to get into Kindergarten, that's ridiculous! (I think it should be a right, but that's just me).

Your daughter's doing so well, and I love that she's spending so much time and giving so much attention to her son. Applause from me. Great! :)

Anonymous said...

I think that's great that Janie worked so hard with Jarod, but I also think it's ridiculous that he has to be able to read, do math, write his name and tell time to get into KINDERGARTEN! What will he be doing in the second grade - calculus? Physics?

WorkingBoomer said...

Great Blog! I learned today that I will be a Grandmother to a baby girl. It is exciting. Daughters, grandchildren and Grandmothers are special.

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