jamimom, you hit the nail on the head! What you've described is just what happened. Everyone was bumping along just fine in kindergarten - arts and crafts - practicing letters - writing their names, etc. No reading. Suddenly, first grade starts and I *thought* everyone was on the same page - learning "on" "yes" "cat"........then, all of a sudden...whoooooooosh.......they're all reading chapter books...and the teacher sends home a note in Oct saying that each week 1 student will be "author of the week" and will read in front of the class. And the weekly spelling words started to get harder and harder. And my D says "mommy, so and so came in today and read a whole book to us"....and I wanted to call so and so's mom and tell her that she cheated over the summer, I know she did! And by Nov the teacher was calling me in and giving me the pity look becuase my D wasn't reading the Chapter books. I felt like I was the only one who didn't know the summer secret - have 'em reading by Sept 1.
I'll show 'em. Gonna teach my D some advanced math and ask the teacher why the rest of the class isn't keeping up!
