McKenna Child Summary: 5.5 Years Old

 

This is a summary for McKenna for ages 5.25-5.5 years old. She spent two months of summer and one month of school during this range.

 

EATING

Eating was normal here. McKenna eats a lot of food. Her preference on food groups is fruits and vegetables.

 

SLEEPING

Sleeping was good for the summer months. During school, she is still sleeping well, but she is also quite tired during the day. Most (if not all) kids get very tired when they start school. Many will need naps in the afternoons. As the school days went on, McKenna got more and more weepy and emotional as she got more and more tired.

 

EAR TUBES

Her ear tubes being out is going well other than the fact that she got an ear infection during the summer. Hopefully she won’t get them constantly now that she doesn’t have tubes. She has only had it once since getting tubes out. 

 

STARTING KINDERGARTEN

McKenna has always been my easy-going child. Pretty much everything rolls off her back. She had no troubles with preschool and loved every minute.

 

The night before Kindergarten started, however, she broke down into tears because she didn’t want to leave me (because she loves me “more than anything but God and Jesus.” Melt my heart!). I hadn’t ever had a child scared to start Kindergarten. McKenna had been counting down the minutes for the last two years until she could start Kindergarten. She knew her teacher and adored her. She had several friends in her class. It made no sense. 

 

We read The Kissing Hand and talked about all of the great things about school. It still didn’t help. She asked why the mama raccoon didn’t just let the baby raccoon stay home. She loved me more than those things at school. Finally I had inspiration to talk to her about how other children would be feeling nervous, also, and to watch for them and help them feel happy. The next day she woke up excited and ready to go. When we got to school, she said, “Bye Mom!” and was ready for me to leave before the bell rang. She has loved it ever since and hasn’t had any anxiety. 

 

I think there were two big things that made her nervous about starting school. One is that she has always said she never wants to grow up and she wants to be a kid forever. Starting Kindergarten is a big step in life toward growing up. The second thing is that on Back-to-School night, they had the assignment of making a new friend. When McKenna approached a girl, she said she already had found a new friend. McKenna felt very sad about that and worried there would be mean kids at school. I am guessing the girl was just a rule follower following instructions to make one new friend. There haven’t been problems during school.

 

McKenna is doing very well in all aspects of school right now. 

 

So far, she doesn’t have a Kindertude. We will see if that lasts.

 

SWIMMING

Swimming update. She is doing so great at lessons! Ever since she got those tubes out, she has been awesome and so good and obedient for her teacher. She has been progressing and passing things off. I really think the tubes were her issue with swimming! She now asks me almost daily if she can go to swimming lessons. 

 

PIANO LESSONS

McKenna’s dreams came true and she started piano lessons just before school started. She has been so excited for piano lessons for years. She wants to play like Brayden and Kaitlyn. For the last year, she has been studying her piano books and has been trying to teach herself. She is flying through her piano books. She loves it. It is everything she wished for. 

 

After starting three kids at age 5, I really, really like it. A lot of people say 7-8 or about second grade. I have loved starting at age 5. They don’t have much else going on at that age and can really focus on it. For us, we have half-day school, so that makes it even more desirable. Starting piano has been a really easy transition. 

 

SCHEDULE
Here is our typical schedule. Most of this time period was during summer, so here is the school schedule:

7:00 AM–wake up. Eat breakfast. Get ready. Do morning chores. Read scriptures. 

Then free play.

12:00 noon–lunch

Then free play.

1:30 PM–SSR

2:00 PM–IPT 

3:00 PM–free play or rest time depending on the need

5:30 PM–Dinner. Then time with family.

7:00 PM Start getting ready for bed.

8:00 PM–in bed 

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