Pop Culture Toddler is a Smarty Pants

Yesterday when I picked up Pop Culture Toddler from her Montessori school, the administrator told me I needed to give her a call today, so we could discuss uniforms and PCT's transition to the next classroom. Her parting comment to me was, "She never spoke like a baby! Did she come out of the womb speaking sentences??" (my answer: "Pretty much, yeah.").  This morning I had the phone call with the administrator. They are moving Pop Culture Toddler to the new classroom (the "Explorers") next month, because she has already reached all the goals of her current one (the "Toddlers"). Show-off!

 

The classroom to which they are moving PCT is the classroom with the potty trained three-year olds. She just turned two at the end of November. The administrator said a couple of kids have been moved earlier -- usually at 2.5 -- but PCT's doing so well in her class, they should move her now [well, next month when her uniforms come in]. Pop Culture Toddler is going to have show-and-tell every Friday where she has to bring in something that starts with the letter they are studying that week.  The goal for her before she can leave this classroom and go to pre-primary -- usually at age 3.3 to 3.5 -- is to recognize pictures of all the presidents [I can't do that], the continents [easy enough. There are only seven -- or six, if you're a fan of either "Eurasia" or the combined "America" taught in some countries], the States [again, I can name them all, but recognize them? There are a few that still give me problems. "Is that Kansas?..."], and write her own name. I suppose I should work with the school on the school knowing how to properly spell Pop Culture Toddler's name before they attempt to teach her, considering we still get occasional report cards with her name misspelled. Her school has four girls with the same name as her (each spelled differently), and instead of recognizing that her name is the proper Irish spelling [which is also, you know, labeled on every single thing she brings to school and makes perfect sense considering her middle and last name are also Irish], they go with the British spelling or one of the "cutesy" American spelling that gives me hives.

 

This is crazy. Are there really three-year olds who know all of the presidents?? I was probably in elementary school -- 4th or 5th grade -- before I knew all their names (forget faces), and there were less of them then. I could probably only give you 15 to 20 now (the important or recent ones). At two, shouldn't the only easily identifiable presidents be Lincoln and Obama? I mean, it's not like we're talking presidents Elmo, Snoopy or Dora [which she would get in a heartbeat].

 

Oh, ha ha. the administrator also told me that while PCT's back-up outfit doesn't have to be another uniform, they encourage clothes of the same color because they've found that the girlie girls (like Pop Culture Toddler) will intentionally pee in their clothes so they can wear the cuter outfits in their backpacks. So now all the parents of the girlie girls are being instructed to send clothes that are the same color as the uniforms and not particularly cute. LOL. I already know how manipulative my child can be when she wants, so it's a pretty safe bet that I should pack some pretty heinous-looking backup clothes. I'm also planning on hiding all of her normal clothes in the gameroom closet where she can't see them. Telling a girl who is obsessed with purple that all she can wear is red or navy is not going to go over well, I imagine, particularly considering I could not convince her this morning that her very masculine brown, blue and white striped Cookie Monster shirt did not match and therefore should not be worn with her purple, ruffly Princess Tiana skirt.

 

I'm still pretty floored and impressed by all of this. The school has moved up PCT earlier before (never this early), but I thought she would stay in the Toddlers classroom for a while. I am, of course, grateful that I have a child who is doing so well, but at the same time, the whole thing just makes me feel old, because I clearly don't have a baby anymore [*sniff*]. Not to mention, at this rate, she will be in kindergarten by the time she's four. Migoodness...