Kindergarten assessment

Jack had his kindergarten assessment yesterday.  The school tests all the incoming kindergarteners on their current literacy skills in order to balance the classes.  I guess they don't want one class full of kids who can read and one class full of children who don't even know their letters.

Jack tested at Level G, which I was told is where they should be midway through first grade.  He knew all his letters and most of their sounds.  The lady who was testing him said that he had a little trouble with the vowel sounds, which she said was normal while children first learn to read.  She said that she listed words and that he could identify both the starting and ending sounds.  She said that identifying ending sounds is usually particularly difficult for early readers, so he was ahead in that regard.  She had him write his name and was pleased that he capitalized the first letters and wrote the rest in lower case.  She also had him write out words that she told him: "cat," "baby," played," and "lamp."  He spelled all the words correctly, except "played," which he spelled "playd."  He also had initially written "lamp" with the upper case L backwards, but he corrected himself.

I'm relieved to know that he is ahead of the curve, because he seems so uninterested in learning to read and write.  I've been a little worried that he hasn't made more progress, because the onus of teaching him to learn to read in English will be on the parents once he starts going to the Mandarin-immersion school.  I'm so glad to see that he is learning something somehow.  It takes some of the pressure off us both.