The Ever-Amazing Emma

I have to take a little space here to brag about Emma.
She is just so amazing in so many big and little ways, but I don't think she always receives the recognition she deserves. This picture doesn't really do her justice: she was impatient about Mommy being on the computer when she wanted to use the Internet to play her games and this is what she looked like, but when I pulled out the camera she immediately brightened up and became a cheesey ham. I told her she needed to be grumpy again, so this is Emma being "grumpy" for the camera.

Emma's talents have been recognized recently at her preschool. I like her school because most of class time is dedicated to learning socialization, manners, safety, hygiene, etc, instead of the ABC's that Emma already knows. She knows most of the other stuff too, but those things can always be reviewed and practiced. Beyond that, the teachers have individuals goals set for each student. They have a list of about a dozen different areas like math skills, reading readiness, physical skills, etc, and under each area they have 3 steps (basic, intermediary, and advanced) plus a fourth that include enrichment options. Each of the steps have 6-12 developmental goals for the kids to pass off. It's a way for the teachers to keep track of where the students are developmentally and to help them advance in the ways they individually need.

The problem for Emma lies in that she's passed off almost everything! Last week Emma showed them that not only could she count and identify the numbers 11-19 (one of her goals), but she wrote them all up through the 30's before it was time to go home (okay, so some of her numbers were backwards, but that's just cute!). She can count through 100 and beyond and knows how to read a digital clock. So her teacher set a goal as a replacement of reading three letter words with picture hints. When her teacher told me, Emma immediately had it passed off because she's reading basic books on her own! The teacher than set a goal of reading phrases and sentences and didn't really want to accept my word that she already could, so that is one of her current goals. Her other two goals are to consistently get left and right placements correctly (which she can do, but mixes up when she isn't trying) and skipping--she kept thinking that galloping was the same as skipping. So you can imagine her absolute joy when at Wal-mart on Saturday, she suddenly figured it out! (The woman at the customer service desk thought she was so cute...) You can also imagine her teacher's reaction (part pride and excitement, part frustration that she suddenly needed another goal) when Emma came skipping in as happy as a lark on Monday morning. So the teacher's decided we need to come up with some for her because their lists (hundreds of things) have been exhausted. If you have any suggestions, I'm open to ideas!

Her primary teacher expressed her astonishment at Emma's reading abilities during church on Sunday. The teacher has a son that will be starting Kindergarten this fall with Emma and he's no where near that point. In fact, that's becoming a little bit of an issue because Emma has four other neighborhood kids (all here on the same street) ready to start Kindergarten with her this fall--but I would like to try to get her into first grade so that her potential isn't limited. Anyway, any thoughts you have on this I'd like to hear, too. (I don't think there are any other kids at church that are currently in Kindergarten.) Anyway, with the good, comes the challenges! (But they're good challenges....) I've only just skimmed the surface of her remarkable abilities, but I've gone on too long as it is!