I'm amazed

Chloe continues to amaze me. I knew it would be an adventure being a parent, but nothing prepares you for it. I am constantly amazed at how quickly Chloe learns and how smarts she is. I think she is the perfect blend of Salvacion’s and my traits. She has my natural curiosity and memory skills, but she has Salvacion’s concentration and focus to go along with it. She loves to read books and is technology savvy. The blend of exposure and curiosity has fostered intelligence beyond all my expectations and beliefs.

After being tops in her class last year in Pre-K, she started Kindergarten this year. Already she is well beyond her peers. She goes to 1st grade for reading and the 1st grade teacher tells us she is in the top reading group in that class. They began testing her this week and Chloe is beyond what we could have imagined. I want to say I’m proud of her, but I’m not really. I’m amazed.

Her spelling came out at a 2nd-3rd grade level (if I read the test results correctly), her word recognition came out at a 4th grade level and they haven’t administered the reading comprehension test yet. They also gave her the math assessment given to 1st graders at the end of the year and she passed it. She missed four (4) problems out of 30. Again, this was a post 1st grade test and she just started kindergarten. I’m blown away by what the teachers have told us so far. Her kindergarten teacher and her 1st grade teacher both think she can move up to 1st grade without any problem. The 1st grade teacher said that she would not only fit in the 1st grade class, she would be in the top group of kids. Wow!

I would maybe feel proud if I thought we had done anything special. I do keep telling Salvacion that Chloe doesn’t live in the average US home either. We don’t have cable television or high speed internet. We don’t live in a subdivision with a lot of other families. We eat dinner together, as a family, most nights and try to have family time weekly. Salvacion is a stay-at-home mom, which isn’t commonplace anymore. I used to think it was the environment, but I wonder if it’s also the person. She is excelling beyond anything I could have imagined.

It kind of brings a tear to my eye because I think she may have the right combination of traits to be truly great and influential on a scale that most people only dream about. I’m just happy to be the parent and a part of it all, really. She seems to have inherited the good traits from Salvacion and me, without too many of the flaws. Maybe it’s too early to tell, but I can truly see her doing anything she wants in life. I’m just amazed by what’s she’s done already, I’m beginning to realize that she’s got a long ways to go before she’s through. I can’t wait to see what is yet to come.