I am not sure this is the same child.  To say that Grace loved kindergarten would be an understatement.  At the end of the last day she walked into my classroom and broke down sobbing because school was over.  I attempted to console her by saying that she would see Mr. Hoch and Grandma Linda the next year.  Her response was, "What about all summer?"

We will be forever grateful to Mr. Hoch for his passion and dedication to early childhood education.  Many people think early childhood is just "daycare."  Those people have a lot to learn.  Grace has not only grown academically but socially as well.  In about February Grace's reading took off.  I teach students to read year after year but to watch it happen in your own child is a completely different thing.  One night as I was getting ready to read to Grace she asked if she could read the book.  I said, "Sure" thinking she would burn out after a page or so.  We were about halfway through the book and remember thinking, "Oh my gosh, she can read and she even comprehends it!"  Grace has since become a bookworm.  She is ALWAYS reading and when she doesn't have a book she is looking for signs or pamphlets to read.

Mr. Hoch has repeatedly told us that Grace is what a lot of kids in his classroom needed this year.  I think Grace needed those kids in her class.  She has learned many lifelong lessons from talking with and observing her classmates.  Her little mind and big heart can not fathom the backgrounds of some of her classmates but none the less she loves them and rooting for them in every circumstance.  Grace continues to where her heart on her sleeve, but that is Grace.  She is a giver and lover.

Here she comes 1st grade.... get ready!