School

My son, who started the year off in a smaller Kindergarten class, is slowly being "mainstreamed," participating in more advanced activities with a larger class. Beginning this week, he'll be working with a group on his reading and writing skills. When school started, I was anxious for him to join his peers in a larger class, but I have come to feel confident that this is the approach that will work best for him.

There have been remarkable changes in him in the months since he started Kindergarten. I've watched him come from struggling to write his own name to writing other words. And he's started to read — I can sense the wheels turning in his head as he follows the letters and they begin to form words. (He's understandably proud, and eager to share his accomplishments with just about anyone who will listen.)

Today, entirely on his own, he built a system of rudimentary gears out of Tinkertoys, the movement of one causing several others to turn. He'll be six years old in August.