- WE LOVE MRS. SPEAR -

today, i picked kiara up from school & the first thing she had to tell me was that. "mrs spear wasn't at school today, but that they had a 'boy teacher' & he didn't teach them anything!" - she adores mrs spear & although she wasn't there, kiara still seemed to handle it alright (sometimes this isn't the case)
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well, this evening it was all about, "will mrs spear be there tomorrow?" - "do you think mrs spear was sick?" - "i think mrs spear will want to come back tomorrow, don't you mommy?", etc. - this went on all day & into the night

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right before bedtime, she asked me if she could write a letter to mrs spear & i said, "yes" - she was getting VERY frustrated when she'd mess something up, not leave enough room to finish a word & things of this nature

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i suggested she & i go to my desk & she could type a letter the mrs spear - she was very excited, so off we went - she worked so hard on making sure it sounded just as she wanted it to sound too - she was sounding every word out & putting HARD emphasis on every syllable - after she finished it, she wanted to print it off so she could take it to mrs spear in the morning - below's what it looked like - i added the paragraph at the bottom of the page, so mrs spear would know exactly what it said

it was then time to head to bed & as i was going in to pray with kiara, here's what her prayer sounded like (below) - if you can't tell, she loves her teacher (we do too!)

kiara's 5 years old (will be 6 this saturday, may 10) & has been having some 'struggles' for awhile now - we've been in constant contact with her school, principle, teacher, aides, counselors, etc. & have come at this more with 'team effort' than as an individuals

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her classroom at school, as well as at home, at church & even friends of ours that she stays with occasionally, are all VERY structured - even with that, she gets 'lost' sometimes & what i mean by that is: when mrs spear's leading the classroom on tuesdays from their room, down the hallway, making 1 turn & ending at the library (it's an every tuesday routine), she 'veers off' & walks in another classroom, only to be brought back to her classmates by the 'retrieving teacher'

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i went to 'parents day' at school last week & i was the first parent there, but over a short amount of time, the room became FULL (literally) - she did fine when it was just me, then 'ok' when a few more came in, started getting 'antsy' when more showed up & by the time it was overcrowded, she was 'zoned' (ie: sitting, staring blankly, sucking her thumb & as she/i were reading together, she'd not know sight words that she's known for a long time, etc.) - mrs spear even came over & tried to talk & it was like pulling teeth to get her to talk & she seemed 'far away' - we'd even taken the kids outside for recess & it took her quite awhile before she'd really play, but 'zoned' again as soon as we came in - here's a picture (below) of that day on recess as soon as we got outside, before she loosened up (it's the same look we saw, while in the FULL classroom)

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academically, she's doing great, knows what she needs to know, etc., but emotionally (& otherwise), just isn't where she needs to be (in our opinion) - we've weighed it out (ie: holding her back & doing kindergarten 1 more year or moving her on to first grade next year) - we've prayed about it, talked to the school, etc. & we've decided to hold her back & give her that 'catch up' time

since our house's for sale & once it sells, we'll be moving to the other side of town, she'll be attending a different school anyway - with knowing that, we thought it was the best time if we were going to hold her back, to do so, as she really doesn't know that not everyone takes kindergarten 2 years in a row!