Pre-School

So, Eva is going to start pre-school at Challenger Elementary this fall. She'll be going on M,W & F mornings. She went in for screening last week and I learned something new about her.

Overall, Eva did well on her test. I expected her to, but I did not expect that every single thing, she had to put her own twist on. For example, she was asked to stack about 10 blocks in a straight tower. Eva, took four of them, made a nice little square out of those. Then stacked the remaining 6 in a tower over the "base." She absolutely refused to make the tower without the base. She didn't get any points on that exercise. In another exercise, she was supposed to place two blocks with a space between them, lay a block at an angle in that space, and then add two on the edges. It looked somewhat like a 3-D "W." Eva looked at that... took her blocks and diligently worked at shaping them into an excellent "E." She didn't want to make a "W." She didn't get any points on that exercise either. Then, when she had to repeat a sequence of numbers, she refused to do it unless we preceeded the sequence with the letter "E." For example, if she was told to repeat the numbers 5, 1 & 6, she would not do it unless she was told to repeat E, 5, 1, & 6--which she did just fine. She did get the points for those exercises. Her best skill is drawing of course. She drew her person with the head, facial features (no nose, but including lips and teeth), hair, body (with clothing), arms, legs, feet, hands. She got lots of points for the drawing exercises.

So, I was taking to Eva's pre-school teacher at the Daycare about her testing. And she told me some more stories along those lines about Eva. It turns out, this is typical for her. If she is told to paint a picture using only the tip of her finger, she will use her whole hand because she thinks it looks better. If she is told to color the squares blue and the circles orange, she will color them in any way and any color she wants to. She simply does it her own way.

I understand that Eva will need to learn how to follow directions. Gosh... as a teacher that is a must for me. However, I admit that I love the fact she thinks for herself, and is stubborn about it. There is something intrisically appealing to me about a confident, opinionated woman.