Since her birthday is September 7th and the State of Minnesota requires kindergarteners to be 5 by Sept. 1st, we opted to test Noe for Early Admittance. She passed the assessments and we found out a lot about our munchkin.
She was assessed in 3 areas: Academic, Social and IQ.
Academically: She's reading at a beginning 1st grade level and can do basic adding and subtracting. She can count to 100 and by tens and knows to count by 5's but never wants too. She wants to learn to tell time but doesn't believe me when I tell her she needs to count by 5's then. She can write out her whole name and nickname. She's also starting to write out sentences phonetically.
Socially: Noemi got to spend some time in a kindergarten room to be observed by the kindergarten teacher. We were told she participated in the dance activity and sat still to hear the story, then did the comprehension activity after the story. I believe she had to draw a picture relating to the story. She did all those things well and without much apprehension.
IQ: We found out that Noemi has a nonverbal IQ of 139 (puzzles and such). Her verbal IQ is 111. So her average IQ is 128. We're considering a gifted and talented school for 1st grade but being that she's already the youngest, I don't want her to be the youngest in a group of gifted children. That might be very difficult for her socially or self-esteem wise. We have a year to decide so we'll see how kindergarten goes.
Physically, she's growing! Noemi is now 41" and 40lbs. She's getting tall and lean and looks more and more like a little kid. I love the days when she actually eats a full meal and has a round little belly :). However, those days are few and far between. She still loves her fruit and veggies but is becoming more picky with meats and cheeses. She's a big fan, however, of "spring" cheese ;)
So that's our yearly update I guess ;). We're planning another trip to Springdale in a couple weeks so I hope to post after that to update on any new Marshallese stores or cultural activities we come across.
Until then my friends ~ Yokwe 😃
