Lucinda's red-letter day

Lucinda had a great day today in reading and swimming. She has always been cautious about new challenges, but I think her kindergarten teacher's approach - that "Ms. Amies wants you to make mistakes" - has given her a heap of confidence to try new things even if she can't do them immediately.

First, reading. Her teacher bumped her up two reading groups today to join the girls in the top level, which is just thrilling for her and for us.

When she started kindergarten, Lucinda knew the alphabet and letter sounds, but she showed zero interest in trying to read, and I think she was surprised that other kindergarteners were already excellent readers. It had not occurred to her that other children might do what she could not.

Nishimachi and her teacher, Penny Amies, take a very structured approach to reading. Reading and handwriting homework every night. Flashcards. Letter "blends". Lucinda gradually picked it up, but had trouble recognizing - scanning - letter combinations without getting stuck. (My main contribution was to suggest putting letter combos - th, sh, ch, ee, ea - on flashcards, to groove them in her brain.)

And in the last 2 weeks, her reading ability has just exploded. Suddenly, she is reading quickly and fluently - and enjoying reading in a way that will stick with her for life. She sees words more broadly, recognizes a longer list of words instantly, and sounds out mystery words with confidence. Ms. Amies noticed, too, and rejiggered the reading groups to put Lucinda with Lani, Saki and Emily, the class's three strongest readers, and a few other kids, too.

Next, swimming. She's been sharing a private lesson every Thursday with another kindergartener, Sylvan, at the Tokyo American Club. Lucinda started swim lessons last summer, but her teachers in Seattle were tougher with her, and I often had to press her to do those lessons at all.

But today, after a month of no-cry lessons, Lucinda did two of the three tests required to be a "Super Swimmer" - to swim by herself in the pool. She did one lap (25 meters) - dog-paddling, but a lap is a lap. And she treaded water for 30 seconds. She still has to retrieve a flipper from the bottom of the shallow end; she hadn't ever tried going completely underwater before, so we started practicing today.

Lucinda's other new, entirely self-taught talents: Jump-roping forward and backward. Next milestone: Lucinda's 6th birthday party - 1 week from Sunday - at our house.