Screening

Jayne had his preschool screening yesterday. He got to play a game where you put on giant headphones and listen to beeps and a game where you read letters from far away. Meanwhile we started to get a little nervous waiting in the entry. He was not done for 1 1/2 hours and it was a little past lunch time when they were ready to give us our results. Now, as we were waiting we saw them putting the pressure on the parents to get their kids in preschool and not many of the parents left feeling very good about their trip. Plus some of the parents got called back to be with their kids and we never did. We found out while we were waiting that the parents were called back to help convince their child to do the activities.
The results were in and we nervously stepped up to the table. For me this was a chance to see how well my teaching skills have gone over the last year and a half. She showed us the things he did well at and he rated as a 4 year old for some of the things, a 5 year old for a larger portion, and 6 year old for block abilities and 1 other thing. He is a little "wiggly" as she told us, and we noticed at Cubbies later that night. His eyesight is fine right now but in an area where he may need glasses later on in life. He is also not so good at articulation, not a surprise, and we will be doing some other things for that later. I said I was glad to hear he is doing good and she stopped me and said he is not doing good, he is doing very well. He has a huge head start for kindergarten already and he wouldn't even be able to go for 2 more years if he was going public.

Then came the question I was dreading after watching all the other parents..."Is he in preschool right now?" "No" "Are you putting him in preschool next year" This is where I felt hesitant but confidently said, "We are homeschooling". The woman just beamed at me and said that's great and wrote it down. It was not the reaction I expected, but it was almost like she was saying "you could not have done a better job at it". I felt SO proud of myself and Jayne too. I always wonder how I am doing at homeschooling and now I can see that I am doing a great job and will keep up all the hard work. It also made me feel really good about starting Jayne in Kindergarten next year. I wasn't entirely sure it was a good idea, but now that I know he is already ready for kindergarten, I feel confident about starting next year after finishing the whole rest of the year of preschool. It feels great having a little confirmation!