Kyra Moon

Today, I visited the school Jim is mostly likely going to go to if the odds work out in our favor. I felt pretty reassured by my visit -- it seems like a cute place with reasonable policies (a whole half hour for recess after a half hour lunch, for example). As we saw the halls filled with 100th day of school pictures and Dr. Seuss birthday decorations and Valentines and shamrocks, I got really, really excited about him going there. (If the lottery works out :D) This whole process has given me lots of flashbacks from my kindergarten days. As far as I can remember, it was just 180 days of nonstop fun with my energetic teacher, Mrs. Cooley. As I recall snippets about Thanksgiving plays and Valentine teas and chicks in incubators, I think, "Oh, I hope my kids get to do this fun stuff too!" My kindergarten picture. Still not sure where it falls on the spectrum between darling and creepy doll.  Although I can't remember all the specifics (I couldn't say, for exam...

There's been something on my mind for the past little while that I've wanted to blog about. I think the best way to introduce it is to start at the beginning. When I was 7, I went straight from 1st grade to 3rd grade with only a summer in between. I skipped 2nd grade entirely. It wasn't really that uncommon in our district, come to think of it. I remember off the top of my head that Jessame, Dani, Leslie, Brooke, Mandy, Becca, and Ishmaal also skipped a grade. Possibly other kids as well. My mom and at least one of her siblings did, too. When there's no gifted and talented program, and not even Accelerated Reader at your school, that's kind of what you have to do to keep the smart kids from getting bored out of their minds. I think the possibility of me skipping a grade had been open for a while. I was an early reader and loved to learn about pretty much everything. But I feel like what had cemented it was what I brought for show and tell  one day in 1st grade. Lesl...