Spring
March 2008
"Mommy, mommy, I did it! I passed my green cards!" Addison ran out of her school and strait to me, waving a blue piece of cardstock in her hand.
"That's great bug," I say as I hug her. We make our way to the car, Addy telling me how she took her sight words test that day and got to pick a prize when she passed. Now she has a fresh set of words to learn before she can take the next test.
When we got home, after picking up Tess and Kate, I help the five year old cut the flash cards up and watch as she flips through them. I can tell her confidence level is sky high after passing that test, so I decide to see if she knows any of the words.
"What about this one," I ask her holding up one of the cards.
Addy looks at the card for a moment her brow furrows in thought and after a moment she speaks, "would," she says sounding out the word beautifully.
"That's right," I say putting the card aside and holding up another.
"Tomorrow" she asks
"Very good," I say to her. "Are you sure you don't know these words? I ask. Addison smiles at me as she shakes her head. We go through the rest of the pile, every word I hold up she says perfectly. Putting the cards back in the bag Addy's teacher sent with them, I walk into the kitchen to start dinner. I can hear Tess and Kate talking to each other about something that happened at recess that day. When I finally look up Addy is studying Kate's math homework. The little girl looks from the paper to her sister.
"Katie what does this mean?" Addison asks getting to older sister's attention.
"Well little Addy bug, it means I have to make a graph of all of these numbers," Kate says trying to put her homework into words her little sister will understand.
"We did that in school last week. I like making graphs! I'll go get you colors," Addy says scampering off to her room to find the overflowing box filled with crayons. She returns a minute later the box, nearly as big as she is, in her arms. "I'll help you Katie, if you want," the girls says to her sister. Kate nods and continues her homework, the little sister following close behind with different colored crayons.
Two weeks pass, and I'm standing in front of the girl's school once more. As all of the kindergarteners rush out of the school and into the arms of their mom's or dad's, I look at their faces. I see Addy's best friend come out and hug her mother. I smile and wave at them.
"Excuse me, Ms. Hathaway; can I talk to you for a moment?" I look over at Mr. Wade. He had poked his head out of the door and looked serious. I follow him inside and into the brightly colored classroom. Addy is sitting at a table reading a book.
"Please, sit down," Mr. Wade says as he sits behind a half circle shaped table. Obviously I had a worried look on my face otherwise I don't think the teacher would say what he said next. "Nothing is wrong; I just wanted to tell you about Addison's reading. As you know, every quarter we test the kids to see where their reading and math levels are and if they are meeting grade level standards. When we tested Addison yesterday, her reading level was equivalent to a child in their third month of second grade, and her math was equivalent to someone who just begun second grade. My feeling is that next school year we skip her ahead to second grade instead of to first with the rest of her peers." I couldn't believe what this teacher was saying, I mean it was fantastic that she was so smart and all but making her skip a grade was going a bit too far.
"Isn't there something else you could do? I don't want her in a different grade way from all her friends," I told him
"What we could do is put her into the Talented and Gifted program for reading and math class, that way she would still be with her friends but at the same time in a class that gives her opportunities to excel in the areas she's good at," I could see no wrong with this man, he provided an excellent solution to a problem that wasn't even in existence yet.
I turned in the chair I was sitting in and looked at Addison. She was happily engrossed in a book that I knew neither of her older sisters had been able to read when they were five. I smile then turn back to the teacher.
"I'm going to have to talk to my husband first, can I call you later?"
"Of course you can, just let me know as soon as you can." I nod, stand up and smooth out the lines in my jacket.
"Come on Addy, I bet your sisters are waiting," I say to her. She quickly slides the book into her backpack and takes hold of my outstretched hand.
"By Mr. Wade, see you tomorrow," She calls over her shoulder as we exit the classroom. Luckily for me, the girls knew I was picking them up and waited in the spot we choose to meet at. As we get closer I see that both girls are looking back and forth between Addy and I.
"I will tell you later," I say to the older girls. They nod and walk to the car. I almost can't fit behind the wheel, my stomach as gotten so big, but I manage to squeeze in and we finally make it home.
"Why does this have to be so hard? I mean I want her to be pushed in school but I don't want her to leave her friends. It's such a hard decision to make," I say to Doug later that night as we get ready for bed
"My god you sound so selfish," Doug says his tone rising slightly. "All you've been saying for the past ten minutes is how all of this is going to affect you. How you would feel. But did you ever just stop for one minute and ask yourself 'what would my daughter want? What would be best for her"?" Doug asks me
"Oh my god, no I didn't," I say groaning. "I must seem like the world's worst mother,"
"No not the world's worst, but it's a strike against you," Doug says taking my hand in his.
"What are we going to do?" I ask him leaning onto his shoulder.
"We are going to talk to Addison and get her opinion, and then we will make a decision," he says. I look up and smile.
"Thanks," I say kissing Doug and pulling back the covers.
The next night we had just finished dinner and now the whole family was scattered through the house.
"Addy, will you come here please," Doug calls. Addison scampers quickly down the stars, jumping over the last two steps. She's still holding her Barbie doll and she looks scared probably thinking: 'what did I do? Am I in trouble?' "Don't worry kiddo you're not in trouble, you mommy and I just want to ask you something." The girl nods and sits back into the couch. "Do you like school?" Doug asks her.
"Yeah I do. It is really fun and I like the projects we do and music class," Addison says with a smile.
"What about you friends, how are they?"
"They are so cool, Chandini is like my best friend, we sit together at lunch and we get to play together at recess, plus she's my buddy in line."
"Ok, what about the things you learn like math and reading?"
"I like it Mr. Wade is a really good teacher. He makes sure everyone understands before he teachers us something new. But it's really easy, like I'm in the highest reading group and no one in my class can read the book I can. I feel really weird because I'm so much smarter that they are. And math is easy too, I already can count to one hundred and add and subtract, no one else can," I can tell these things have been on her mind for a while. Her fears about not having any friends because she is learning things the other kids in her class wouldn't understand.
"Answer me this, how would you feel about skipping into second grade? The this would be a little harder for you to learn, but you would be in a class better suited for you, or would you rather stay with you friends and move to first grade with them but be pulled out to the gifted class for math and reading?" Addison stares at the floor for a while silently weighing the pros and cons of every option given to her.
"I wanna stay with my friends. I like them and we play good together, I don't wanna leave them." She says looking at me.
"I knew that's what you would say, alright then that's what we will do. You Miss Addison will stay with you friends and get higher level math and reading classes, how does that sound?" I ask her
She smiles at me and nods. I smile too as she hugs both Doug and I. "Go clean up your toys it's almost time for bed," I say to her. She skips off up the stairs and to her bedroom.