School!
September: Maddie has started kindergarten at Glebe Elementary School, a few blocks from home.  Her teacher is Ms. Michael.  She seems to be relatively happy so far.  When I drop her off, she's frequently greeted by a hug from one of her new friends, but she doesn't seem to have settled on any one best pal yet.  Being her father's daughter, she's almost completely mum about what's going on. 

Louise and I are viewing this as the beginning of the slow move from parent-centric worldview to a friends-at-school-worldview.  But we were heartened by an art project we saw on the wall during Parents' Night.  Each of the kindergarteners had drawn their face on a paper plate, with yarn hair and a card below that described their eye color, hair color, and their favorite thing to do.  The names were hidden, so we tried to guess which one was Maddie's. 

The "favorite things to do" were generally:
1) Play with my toys;
2) Play with my dog;
3) Play with my puzzles.
Maddie's was "Hug with my parents."

up to five and one half
       years

 size
      -  44 inches
      -  42 pounds

activities
      - SCHOOL!
      - soccer
      - art renaissance
      - writing
      - friends


 interests
      - writing
      - reading
      - art
maddie diary   fall 2002
  
Art Renaissance
Maddie has really upped the ante on art.  Her characters are better-defined, she's filling in the background more thoroughly, and she's just spending a lot more time drawing and painting.
Writing
This month (October), she started writing a lot more than before.  She'll sit down and cover a whole sheet of paper, usually without asking for spelling help, and usually without a great many errors. 
The Academic Life
The most challenging subject she is studying is Spanish, which is an after-school class where she's (I think) the only kindergartener.   She's learning words, and it doesn't seem to be making her bilingual overnight, but the best part is that they have written tests-- in her kindergarten class they don't do that.  Here's one of her quizzes-  she actually spells pretty well even in Spanish.
Soccer
Weeellll, she's having fun anyway.  Maddie plays for the Arlington Optimists.  She seems to enjoy the whole production, but she's a little timid on the field.  She generally jogs around nearby, and when the ball comes to her, she tends to look at other nearby players instead of kicking it.  But we're hopeful that next spring we can rig some practices so she'll become a bit more assertive.

If not, what the heck.  She's having a good time.

Excellent and rare action shot here. 
School Update
As of Thanksgiving, school is going very, very well.  She loves her teacher, has made some very good friends (Matias, Nora, Jennsy, Jesse, and Kit), and enjoys her days.

This whole experience has been sensational: she goes to school with kids she likes, they live nearby so she can play with them frequently, most of them play on the same soccer team.  It has worked out better than we had hoped for.