Samuel, Vol. 1

Samuel was evaluated a year ago for speech and other developmental delays. He definitely needed speech therapy, specifically articulation. The therapist made a few other observations: he hadn't decided on being left- or right-handed yet, was easily distracted and unusually fidgety. Since he was only 4 years old, we decided to focus on speech and let the other things work themselves out. He made huge progress in articulation and I was immensely relieved. You know it's bad when a child's mother cannot understand 75% of what he says.

Here we are a year later and it appears that Samuel still hasn't determined his handedness and is still very easily distracted. (The fidgeting has improved some, probably because he's matured a bit.) His teacher and I have talked about this to some degree on several occasions. I agreed to have an occupational therapy evaluation done. He can't hold a pencil firmly enough to write letters on a page. The teacher has also mentioned that he cannot stay focused on one task to finish it.

I'm fully on board with the OT evaluation; I really think Samuel could benefit from some exercises in that area. What rubs me the wrong way is the push to get 5-year-olds to Focus. I think school has become so competitive that kids aren't getting to be kids any more. (For example, I referenced parts of speech in Samuel's homework in a recent post here and I wasn't kidding. More about that in a minute.)

I was scheduled to have a conference with Samuel's teacher this morning but we had to postpone it because her child is sick today. I hope I'm wrong about how the classroom is set up and how much work the students are expected to complete independently. I guess I will find out when we do get to meet.

Now, about the parts of speech. Samuel brought home a sentence diagram a few weeks ago. It consisted of a piece of paper with words glued onto it. The sentence read "The baby eats yogurt." Each word was cut in a different shape: circle, square, moon and triangle. The instructions were to review article, subject, verb and object. I asked Samuel about it and he correctly explained it all to me. I was very impressed and so proud but thought to myself that he wouldn't retain the information.

Two weeks later, Miriam's homework assignment was to change verbs from present tense to past tense. I was working on it with her and asked her what a verb was. She stared blankly at me for a few seconds and then Samuel piped up, "A verb is what the subject does!" I almost fell on the floor. (For the record, Miriam caught on very quickly once she remembered what a verb is.)

Since then, Samuel has demonstrated that he really does know his grammar. Obviously, he can retain information that he hears at school. I'm not concerned about that. What concerns me is that if this kind of thing is being taught in kindergarten, what will next year be? Will he be able to keep up then? What other subjects are advanced past a kindergarten level? I know I'm probably borrowing trouble from the future and I know I have to chill out on that. But he's already showing problems in the aforementioned areas so I can't help but be a bit worried.

Bleh. If you made it through that, bless you. I know I'm a tad paranoid. I'm also making what may be unfair assumptions about what is expected of my kindergartner. If I'm wrong -- and I so hope I am! -- I'll be happy to admit it.