Milestone upon milestone

Last week, I took Maggie to get her very own library card! This wasn't a necessity, of course ... I could have always checked books out for her using my card. It was symbolic, more than anything else, but I'm glad I did it. She's been to the library before, but it had been a while for us both. Going together was a good reminder for me - and a new lesson for her - that there are millions of great books availble to everyone FOR FREE!

I had to fill out some paperwork for her card, and when the librarian handed me Maggie's actual card, I assumed I'd have to sign that too. The librarian said she could sign for herself if she wanted to, and she did.

She was very proud when she finished!!

Once we had the paperwork out of the way, it was on to the books! Maggie wanted to check out nearly everything she pulled off the shelf. The limit is 30 books at a time, but a dozen was all I could carry! Maggie discovered fun new characters such as Rotten Ralph, Ramona Quimby (whom I used to love too!), and a new favorite author, Mark Ezra, who uses animals as his main characters.

She couldn't even wait for a table ... she just spread out on the library floor and started reading!

The library card came at a good time, too, because on Friday we had parent-teacher conferences at her school. I communicate with Maggie's K4 teacher a lot via email, so I wasn't worried about anything related to K4. But I'd never officially met either of the K5 teachers (K5 is kindergarten, and it's where Maggie goes for reading and math). I specifically asked for a conference with the K5 reading teacher to discuss Maggie's reading progress since over the Christmas break she was reading quite easily on her own. Mrs. Aytes and I must have been on the same wavelength, because the day I emailed her about the conference, she wrote back saying that she'd just taken Maggie to the computer lab to do a STAR reading test.

The test consisted of Maggie reading a sentence with a word missing, and then choosing the correct word from a list of choices to complete the sentence. So not only did she have to just read the words, she had to read all of the multiple choices and figure out which was the right answer. Mrs. Aytes said she did great! We talked about the results at the conference; Maggie scored a level 1.8 which is equivalent to the eighth month of first grade. Mrs. Aytes said this might even be a little low, since it was Maggie's first time ever taking a test on the computer, which takes some time to get used to. She's going to test her again at the beginning of the next nine weeks, and in the meantime, Maggie will start reading more on her own at school (and was given an opportunity to read a story to her class, which she did - with the stipulation that she get to sit in the teacher's lap while she read!). Her teacher will also start Maggie in the Accelerated Reader program, where she'll read stories, take computer quizzes about the stories, and earn points for each successful quiz she completes.

The teachers noted that Maggie doesn't seem as interested in math as she is in reading, though they both said she is capable of doing the work. Mrs. Aytes also said Maggie seems disinterested when the class completes phonics worksheets - she'll write her name at the top and then doodle on the page instead of doing what she's supposed to. Mrs. Aytes suspected they were boring for Maggie, which Maggie confirmed to me later (all on her own: "Mama, they're SO boring!"), so the teacher is going to try to find things that are more on her level.

We are so proud of the progress she's making, and we're thankful she's at a school that is small enough to work closely with her to give her what she needs academically. Yay for good milestones!