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There was an Open House at the Cheese's school last week.  He had been talking about it for several days--it was quite obvious that he was very excited about it.

"So what am I going to see at Open House?" I asked him.

"I get to show you my journal from Writer's Workshop!" he said.

Whenever I can actually get the Cheese to talk about school it usually is about Writer's Workshop.  More than once he has informed me of what a good writer he is and I can't help but smile every time he says it.

When I was in kindergarten, I could write my name and that was about it.  In 1978 kindergarten was all about listening, sharing, and learning the alphabet.  There were The Letter People, trays of milk, and even nap time. 

My son is having quite a different experience.  He's reading and writing and learning basic math.  He's learning to tell time and count money; he's known his letters for years now and gave up taking a nap when he was three.

When we got to his classroom, he ran straight for his journal.  While I was still saying hello to his teacher, he was already begging me to sit down so he could show me his journal.  I've never seen him so enthused about something that didn't involve Legos or a trip to Toys 'R Us.

The best thing about his journal, besides him reading it to me, was seeing his growth throughout the year.  Back in September when he started his journal, the page would have one or two words on it.  Now he is writing three and sometimes four sentences, correctly starting them with capitial letters and ending them periods.  Through using his Guess-n-Go spelling, he has learned that it is more important to get his ideas on paper than it is worrying about if everything is spelled correctly. 

I don't think I learned that until college.  

When we left, I was gushing with pride and couldn't praise him enough for his work.  He smiled all the way home.  But the best was when he informed me, "Mom, I'm a better writer than you are."

I certainly hope so.