Tonight I activated Stella's account on a thing called ARIS. It's an online service provided by the NYC Department of Education that allows parents to track their child's academic progress.Ok. She's 5!
There's not much there except for her attendance at this point. But looking at this site and working with Stella on her homework earlier this evening really had me thinking. Things are going to start getting a little more serious in the not-so-distant future.
Up until now it's been all fun and games. Coloring books and dolls. Now, the world is expecting Little Miss Stella to step up and apply herself. She doesn't realize this, but I do.
As I helped Stellie with her homework tonight I was struck by how, maybe for the first time, she really had to put her mind to work. Not that she didn't do great. She's a wiz at detecting patterns. And she completed her whole week's worth of homework in one day.
What does this all mean? I'm not sure. But I'm getting the feeling that a little bit of carefree innocence has been lost. Just a tiny bit.
