And that was June, everybody put your hands together for June

and I'm not even sure I quite remember June coming on stage, let alone doing her bit and sauntering off again.

Can you believe the Summer holidays are here already? It feels like no time at all has passed since I took Chloe to school for the first time.

No time at all since I was telling her she'd grow into her pinafore and we were out buying new school shoes. Now the pinafore has been relegated to the "no longer appropriate" pile (wow she's grown) and her little shoes finally gave up the ghost last week when the strap just fell off in her hand. I know it's typical isn't it that her shoes would break the week before the end of term.

She's had her easing in day with her P2 teacher and she can't wait now to start moving up the school.

Obviously she's looking forward to the prospect of a couple of months at home with mummy too...


You can tell, right?

It's been a bumpy year what with her reading being a bit all over the place but it's not all doom and gloom as we finish the year. For a start I was talking to another mum this afternoon who said she's had the same thing with her son and that an awful lot doesn't seem to have stuck with him this year, but we're just going to concentrate on working with them over the Summer and most importantly, being consistent with them.

We've had Chloe's report card home from school and there's actually quite a lot of really good news on there. She loves maths for a start and it seems to come pretty naturally to her. We had been told in the P1 updates that only a small number of children had been ready to move on past counting to tackling small sums and Chloe was one of them. When we're walking anywhere together she'll even ask to "do her numbers" as we walk and she can easily manage small sums and has no trouble with answering "what's one more than" or "one less than" type questions. She also has a very good grasp of money for a child her age, but some of that is probably to be expected because she only ever sees me dealing with cash, not cheques or cards so it's drawn her attention more often and quite a lot now I let her handle her own money when we're out shopping. Best they learn about money and how quickly it can disappear from a young age, hopefully she'll appreciate it more.

She loves art, music and drama, something which I'm really seeing in her in the past few weeks and she's been described as quiet yet very confident. Happy to let others go ahead, but not afraid to make her own voice heard when need be. It's been lovely to watch her do little dance routines and sing loudly, not only for me, but wherever the notion happens to take her, coffee shops, town square, middle of Tesco, she doesn't care where she is or who's watching just as long as music is playing. It's great to see after the whole ballet debacle, Chloe's more of a swaying finger snapper.

And the reading hasn't been a complete wash either. It isn't something she particularly enjoys doing (I wonder if there are any early reader books with fart jokes). The problem is that she doesn't really like it and she's become very nervous at the thought of reading, getting something wrong and being told off for it so she just refuses to it. Of course if her teacher can't see her read then she has to assume that she can't do it, I get different results at home. It isn't helped that Chloe thinks her teacher shouts. In fairness she doesn't shout, she's just a lot louder than Chloe is used to. I'm softly spoken around Chloe because I never wanted to have to shout to get her attention, my mum's softly spoken (for the most part) and her first two teachers were both very quiet as well and she just hasn't been able to get used to the volume at all. Chloe hears loud and automatically thinks she's being shouted at.

She's perfectly capable of reading, she just doesn't realise it and she has trouble letting go of her nervousness. I know from my own personal experience that pride will kick nervous's ass from one end of the street to the other and when Chloe feels proud of her reading ability, she all of a sudden wants more and I can see her start to enjoy it.

She read today for her P2 teacher and she practically glowed when she ran from the building to tell me and she was joined by one of her friends who told me they'd each read a page in a book and Chloe was brilliant and she almost looked like she might cry, the pride was swelling inside her so much. Today was like a clean slate for her, a fresh start for her and Chloe seemed really happy to be able to show off what she's capable of to a new teacher.

Now it's just a matter of keeping her interest over the Summer and making sure that she's proud of herself and her abilities. A little bit of pride goes a long way.