Why is it that being the mother of a six year old sounds so different to me than being the mother of a five year old does?
I'd better get used to it, though, because today Connery turns six. The last year with him has been truly amazing--watching him start reading and rapidly learn to do it well and love it, seeing him interact with his baby sister, enjoying his downright hilarious sense of humor. I know that all mothers think their kids are wonderful and bright and sweet, but with Connery, I know it. Look at this face!
That's not to say that the year hasn't been without its challenges. Most of them seem to have started recently, coinciding with his start in public school Kindergarten. A victim of the classic September birthday dilemma--he missed last year's cutoff by 13 days--he is now one of the oldest kids in class and, basically, has already been through Kindergarten. His Montessori school let him take their Kindergarten last year because he was so close, and their program was unbelievably good. He was reading by October and doing addition and subtraction by the end of the year. When his new public school assessed him in math this year, he had already hit all of the benchmarks for the end of the year. *ulp* I've been told to expect the reading level to come back much higher than that.
(He always did like to read.)
How to keep him engaged with material he already knows, while preventing him from becoming bored or mouthy or both is the question of the day. Yesterday, he asked me to homeschool him. It was like a knife in my heart. Still, as one of his Montessori teachers reminded me, we're lucky to have this problem. He could be struggling or worse.
My mom always says that she's only ever as happy as her unhappiest child (Sorry, Mom, for not doing better on that score lately!), and now that I'm a mom, I get that. I love the new adventures we're having with Connery, but there's just that little bit of me that wishes I could solve his problems with a fresh diaper, a nap, and a big plastic bib.
Happy Birthday, Con-Man. We love you.