5/29/2011 Gardening

I was pretty wiped out today despite a great start: meeting my friend Betsy at Rancho San Antonio at the ungodly hour of 7am to run. We ran to the farm, where I peeled off to tackle some hills -- I hated to miss the company of a running partner, but I also couldn't resist my beautiful Rancho and seeing some of the trails I haven't seen for months. It's so hard to park there on weekends, I don't even try anymore at decent hours. At 7am, there are still spaces.

Still, my chronic gastric issues bothered me on the run and had me lying down most of the rest of the day. But I had to get some plants under control today! Also, yesterday Katrina and I had gone to a home store to get some better pruners, but we also came home with some blue flowers, at her request, and it needed to be planted.

So though I really wasn't feeling very energetic, I had a great afternoon working with Katrina on the landscaping. We'd also gotten her some "Katrina-sized" gloves and kid-sized pruners. She was great at pruning, easily following my instructions about snipping something as far down as possible, and only the super-long ones. Not only was she great company, but she really helped! Her nonstop anthropomorphic chatter is delightful: "There, plant, now you can BREATHE again after your haircut!"





On another note --

Usually I don't pay much attention to Katrina's schoolwork, but for some reason I went through some of this Friday's preschool papers, and I was blown away to find this.


Dave said "Oh sure -- also, did you know about her homework file?" She'd put together her own "homework file," with a title page that says "funfile.com," and her own "math homework."


I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that a 4-1/2-year-old preschooler would be doing subtraction workpages, but I can't help but to be really amazed that she then comes home and does it on her own?!

A recent article in the NY Times talked about how Connecticut is considering moving its kindergarten age cutoff date up, so that 4-year-olds don't go to kindergarten. California recently did the same thing, but is phasing it in, so Katrina is still old enough for kindergarten this year (in 3 years, her October birthday would have held her back a year).

I'm definitely on the side of social readiness being far far more important than academic readiness for kindergarten. Fortunately, all agree that Katrina is socially ready for kindergarten too, though she'll be on the young side.

But if she weren't socially ready, we'd have something of a dilemma because though normally I dismiss academic readiness for kindergarten, I think this level of readiness would have to be considered. I can't imagine sending a kid who understands subtraction to another year of pre-K! Unfortunately, if she doesn't get past this "leaking" / accidents problem, that might well be what happens.

Meantime, I'm so glad to have such a pleasant and cheerful gardening companion!

5/29/2011