Kindergarten screening

Last Friday was Nathan's kindergarten screening. We were allowed to follow him from station to station although we had to stand about eight feet behind him, and I was glad that we were allowed to follow. Some of the questions they asked for general information were tough. They asked where do French Fries come from. Nathan said McDonald's. He got the answer wrong because he should have said potatoes, but I have been telling everyone that they never asked what the French Fries were made from. There is a difference. They also asked how a fish swims. He answered wings. I guess we never thought to go review the biology of a fish, although I can see how he would think that the fins are wings.

When we meet with the teacher, she told us that her kids all have summer birthday's similar to Nathan's and she never even screened them until they were at least five. It just goes to show you that if a teacher is holding her kids, she knows how tough school is.

They told us that they want him to score in between the 20%-80%. There were a few things that he was in the 70% class, there were some where he was in the 40%-50% class and a few where he was in the 20% class. Overall he had a 55%. Just watching him go from station to station, we saw how fidgety he was and he was constantly looking around to see what else was going on. Between his score, and the ants in the pants dance, we have decided not to send him to school this upcoming school year.

His friends at daycare know that he is not going to school this fall and so they are calling him a baby and stupid. When MaryLou was telling Bruce what was going on and telling us that we need to talk to him, she was mad herself. When Nathan started talking about it, I thought my heart was going to break. I reassured him that he was not stupid, it's not nice to make fun of people and to remind him that his friends are 6-9 months older than him.

It would have been good for our pocketbook if he could have went to school this fall as he would be starting school about the time that I would be going back to work. Bruce and I took into consideration the trouble him & his siblings had in school and the learning disability that my brother had that runs in the boys on the Gottemoeller side of the family and decided that while sending him would save money, it would probably end up costing us in the long run.