Within ten minutes I could see exactly how awesome it was going to be for her, and how much and how well she'd learn.
One idea we brought home was as simple as this:
A box of salt.
It's perfect - for any kid, but especially for Josephine, who loves kinesthetic learning. The ability to erase as if performing a magic trick - a clean slate with just a shake - is brilliant. Making letter shapes with objects then repeating them with her fingers - fanf*ingtastic! She and I were able to sustain a "game" where I wrote a letter and she repeated it. I wrote words, we sounded them out as I did it and she guessed them. We talked about what other things that we could use besides salt, and how some boxes at the school had coarse salt; some fine. And what is salt? And where does it come from? I can't believe that in four years I never once thought of doing something this simple and yet so enthralling for her (and me). That's what good kindergarten teachers are for, I guess.
Then, she decided it was a snowy field for her little plastic reindeer family to play in, and was absorbed for the rest of the night with that, which wasn't as fun for me. So, I quit after a while and moved onto mommy things like the neverending laundry and perpetual kitchen tidying.
But since then I've been thinking: I cannot wait to see what else I'm going to learn in kindergarten.
