Keep moving forward!

That's one of my favorite lines from the Disney movie "Meet the Robinsons." It didn't get much attention, but TRUST ME...great for kids but also enough adult innuendo to keep it funny.

Laura and I met with Anyssa’s teacher yesterday just to get an idea of how she’s doing. I guess the short answer is “pretty well”…especially when you consider that only a mere 11 weeks ago, she was still in an orphanage in China. Mrs. Knizek commented that she is surprised at how Anyssa holds her pencil. Since we don’t know what to expect from other 5 year olds, we can’t be good judges of exactly how well she is doing. When we saw examples of other children in her class (most of who were born here) I can say that her writing is extremely good. She knows the alphabet song, but not the letters yet. We are also working on colors. I’m sure she knows the CHINESE words for them, but when I hold up a red crayon, she just kind of shrugs and says “pink.” Her motor skills are good. She happily joins in the class and tries her best to communicate. She also has 2 friends that she hangs out with…one named “Izzy” (Isabel) and I think the other little girl is Lily. That was GREAT to hear. All of the kids are good with her and want to help. Mrs. Knizek told us that before Anyssa’s first day, she got in front of the class and began teaching in Spanish. After a few minutes, she stopped and asked the class if they understood what she had said. They all looked puzzled and said “no.” She then told them about Anyssa and how SHE would feel so they should try and understand that and work with her. Apparently, that worked…the word is that they are all very helpful.

Mrs. Knizek also told us to be prepared in case she needs to repeat kindergarten. That is a question I had been pondering for awhile. I don’t want to hold her back, but I also don’t want to push her if she’s not ready. She had (has?) enough stress and I don’t want to put undo pressure on her. I would like to her to move on so she can stay with this group of kids, and also to take the pressure off of Laura so she can be more flexible in her work hours. However, if it looks like she could benefit from repeating this class, I respect that observation and will support her. Only time will tell.

Now, let’s work on those colors…