I want magic for my birthday too...

This is What It's Like to be a Princess

I want to be a princess. I want to have a baby princess too. And she got a cradle for her birthday present. I got magic, and I made a rainbow with it. Then the king and the queen come out and say it's time to have a meeting in the palace. And my baby just got a little crown. And I thought she would be a star. Her name was Anna. And then another princess came out and said it's time for the show of dances. Then it was night, and we saw a shooting star, and I made a wish that came true.
~by Kirsten Grothe

That's a story my sister dictated when she was in kindergarten or first grade. And I was just a baby star. One of the best things about coming home is that I go rummaging. I always find fun things from my childhood, and things that my siblings or I wrote when we were little are, by far, my favorite.
Here are some of the stories Kirsten wrote herself in first grade:

the fun spring time.

Once there lived a little girl and a little boy, and they just loved spring. in spring time they did all kinds of things, like rolling in the grass, and making mud pies and eating strawberry ice cream, and orange ice. but best of all they liked panting pictures. and then one spring day there mother said, we have to go get some thing's from the store now. but they refused to go. but finaly the mother said, then I'll go, and you kids go to the lingers. o.k. chilDren. o.k. mother. so they all lived

My Mom and me play together.

I like playing games with my mom! She is very very nice. The games we play are fun, we play socer, Trivia Adventure, and chese. one day we were walking with are cat and I triped and splat went that cat, and he was dead. And now we have another cat, and he bought a hat. the third cat bought a mat, but do cats have mony.

good and bad berry's.

berrys are good berrys are bad, ther are no such things that berrys have had. Do not ever eat berrys that are outside, unless you know that you're mom has planted them, and then thats o.k. but I want to tell you berrys are not the same, and thats the name. o.k? I am worried abuot you that you dont eat bad berrys. don't eat it o.k? and thats that. o.k?

Good thing when I become a teacher I'm gonna be able to sit around reading hilarious little kids' stories all the time. Kirsten is the sister who likes to say she was the dumb one of the family. Obviously, that is completely ridiculous, because these stories are sheer genius! And she was a crazy good speller and almost even knew how to use apostrophes correctly.

I tutor a first grader, and it makes me sad because he doesn't even know how to rhyme. He doesn't get excited about anything and just gives me one word answers to questions I have. He doesn't know the difference between his vowel sounds, and I wish I could work on those with him, but instead his teacher gives me a story about the seasons and tells me he should be able to read it, because that's what the rest of the class is able to do. Vowels are kinda crucial to reading. Background knowledge is also crucial to reading, and he doesn't know what the seasons are. And he couldn't explain to me what season means anyways. And I asked him when snow falls, and he said "on the ground." It honestly breaks my heart.

Kids are all over the place. You look at a room full of first graders, and there will be kids like that and kids like my sister. I've gotta figure out how to handle that, how to meet both of those kids where they are and help them to grow. I'm not sure how much one person can really do that, but I'm up for the challenge.

After all, I am a princess and a star.