Andrea has started 3rd grade

I will write much more soon about Andrea's transition to childhood. But I'd like to share an important milestone that happened this week. Andrea started school in the 3rd grade. She joined 4 other girls in a home schooling class being taught by a Ms Dotson. Ms Dotson is a lovely lady who adores children. She took to Andrea right away.

Andrea is the youngest girl in the class. The other four girls are about 6 to 12 months older. Andrea is also younger both from a maturity level and at a lower grade level. She is still doing 2nd grade work. Plus she reacts much more emotionally to situations than the other girls. Her patience level is much lower. She is apt to start crying or sulking much more than the other girls.
She goes to school 4 days a week from 9 AM to 3 PM. I have asked her to write about her experiences this first week as a little girl in 3rd grade. This is what she wrote for me.

Mommy - I am having so much fun in school. Ms Dotson is very kind and loves teaching us girls. I like the other girls in the class. Their names are Lauren, Becky, Marsha and Erin. The girls are a bit older than I am. They are also better at school work than me. But I hope I can catch up. Most of this week we did reading and writing. I was learning to read the book "Sneakers, The Seaside Cat". It is all about Sneakers (the cat) who goes to the sea and finds so many interesting creatures. I laughed so much. The pictures are wonderful. The other thing is that I wear pretty dresses to school every day. All the other girls wear jeans and sneakers. I was feeling bad about that at first. But Ms Dotson said that I should be happy to be a girly girl. The other girls said I look very pretty in my dresses. I was so happy to hear that.

Andrea defers to the older girls in class. She is quite a follower. it is very interesting to see how they enjoy that she plays the games that they choose. Sometimes she wants to get her way and just pouts. But Ms Dotson catches that and corrects her behavior.

I must tell you that Andrea is such a cute and sweet girl when I drop her off for school. She is very excited that she can spend the day with other girls her age.

Joanne.