The Fallons: TK Camp

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

TK Camp

A few weeks ago Samantha attended TK (Transitional Kindergarten) Camp at Adams Elementary. The camp was designed to get the TK and K students acclimated with their new school before the school year officially started.

Here is Samantha with her new teacher for the school year, Ms. Trainer. She was very sweet and excited to be teaching TK. The students, a combo of Peabody Charter and Adams Elementary, will have their own classroom of just TK students which are children whose 5th birth dates fall between 9/2 and 12/2 of this year (those birth dates that fall between 11/2 and 12/2 do not qualify for K which is where Sam fits in). For the camp, both K and TK were combined in one class so that everyone could get to know each other. It worked out great for Sam because her friend Luke is in the TK class and will also transition to Peabody for K.

It was a bit of a challenge getting to school every day, normally she only goes three days a week. I know that once we get into the routine we will adjust better. I also think that with the longer day at school we might have to drop her nap (gasp!). Somehow my 4 1/2 year old is still taking a daily 3 hour nap while most of her friends her age have scaled back or no longer take one. Heck, her 2-year old brother takes shorter naps and has skipped more naps than she has. This girl loves her sleep!

The camp was filled with lots of art work, games, playtime and story time.

We are still working on getting Samantha to make sure she writes in the correct direction. Mirror writing is common in lefty's. I say she is gifted ;) Don't Google "mirror writing", you get all sorts of crazy explanations as to why she is writing this way..... Again, I say she is gifted ;)

I love that they do worksheets, letters, numbers, etc. While I get that this age should be focused on "play", Samantha has been craving more learning like this. We do it at home, she gets a little of it at preschool but having actual school work at school will keep Samantha interested.

I have kept a spot at Sam's preschool in case she isn't happy (or we are not happy) with TK but I am pretty confidant with what she experienced at the camp, the friends she met and her teacher, that we will be just fine. Samantha is finishing up her last week of preschool as I type this and most of her close friends are no longer there. The summer session has been really quiet. Many of her friends have moved, some opted to take a break during the summer, others did various summer camps and most of her group has graduated. The school is down to just two picnic tables of kids for lunch when normally there are four. I think this has helped Sam with her transition of wanting to move on to something else, something more challenging. She also knows that her brother will be going to the same preschool early next year so she will still get to come visit.