Gentle Beginnings

Nico received his permanent kindergarten class assignment on Friday. His teacher is Mrs. Miracle!

For the first few weeks of school, Nico and his kindergarten classmates were kinda pooled together and shuffled between both teachers until everyone got to know each other. Then, the school decided how to divide the students into two balanced classes. I'm not sure what criteria were considered.

It was a bit unnerving not knowing right away who Nico's teacher would be, but other teachers I know tell me that this approach is thought of as an innovative one. One teacher referred to it as a "pilot program"; another told me that at Berkeley public schools, it's called "Gentle Beginnings" (not to be confused with the *other* Gentle Beginnings, a doula service).

So far, kindergarten is going well. Nico doesn't seem to mind that a lot of what they are learning right now is review from what he's already mastered from preschool. Vic and I are supplementing this with workbooks that challenge him a bit more. We're happy that Nico's reading skills are developing nicely. His main academic interest is math, though. Sometimes, we'll hear him in his bedroom randomly reciting addition facts: "2 + 4 = 6!"

I think he's going to take after Vic that way.