School starts tomorrow

J & A have a fall birthday, so they will be on the older side when starting K tomorrow. But I read the list of what others' kids could/can do at age 4 or 5, and I'm terrified that they are already delayed academically, even before starting K.

They know letters and numbers (just recently learned to count over 100). They know the phonics of letters, but can't yet grasp putting those sounds together to form words. We work on it when they're interested, so the idea is forming, but they certainly are not reading, let alone have sight words (except for their name). They can write their name and their brother's name. If I dictate letter by letter, they can write words and/or sentences. They understand simple math and can think out addition (but don't understand it written - not that we've tried). They also have speech delays, probably resulting from being raised in a bilingual environment.

Then I hear of kids reading, writing, sight words and simple math who are red-shirted even though they are more advanced academically than my boys. Preschool during this past year has not been an option financially. I know that emotionally/socially, they are ready for K and have been ready for about 6 months. But man, I feel like a slacker because they can't read or write before entering K. How in the world will they keep up with kids who were red-shirted, are older and more mature, and have more years of pre-K preparation?

 

:hug: Cathy, I hope this won't be a big issue for your boys. I suspect that it will not. As countless people pointed out in the red-shirt thread, academics are the least of anyone's worries. Your boys are bright and adaptable (they are already bilingual! Thinks how that has forged new brain patterns and adaptablility!), and whatever they need to catch up on in academics will come along very quickly. You'll be amazed.

 

Just wanted to reassure you -- Nadia is in a very academically-challenging private school, and she and one other child in the class are the only ones that are reading, out of a class of 18.

Seriously, it is NOT the norm to begin kindergarten knowing how to read. That's what kindergarten and first grade are for!

 

A :hug: and a ditto to what Renée said.

Remember, you boys have spent a lot of their valuable learning time in the last 5 years learning two languages. A feet my university students can't manage to do! They've been to the GALAPAGOES! and seen things few other 5 year olds have. Things that in my opinion are worth a heck of a lot more than counting and phonics.

 

Cathy, the boys have a friend who entered K not knowing anything about how to read--didn't even have letter-sound relationships down. At the end of K, he had more than caught up. I think the boys will do just fine

 

Just wanted to let you know that reading some sight words, counting to 100, writing some words/phrases or short sentences are all things that were expected at the END of KG for us. People get so freaked out by the things they are supposed to be doing that we forget that KG is supposed to be the beginning of teaching kids these things and school routines. I know I forget this as well when I try to compare my younger 2 to my oldest DD who was able to do all this stuff by age 4-5 and my two will be 4 in a couple of weeks and just aren't as interested in it. They will probably go in without knowing how to do all the things listed, but I'm confident that between the teacher and us, they will learn. Hang in there and try not to worry to much. Easier said than done as we all want our kids to succeed, but I'm sure they'll do great. Most kids do even without all those skills going into it.

 

I think your boys will probably do fine. We're 2 weeks into school, and Timothy absolutely loves it. I was more worried about him loving it. Sarah is enjoying it also. We have 1/2 day. They spend time working with calendars every morning. They have art, music, and p.e. on a 3 day rotation. They are working on "reading" books that they make with no words and then the teacher said they'll be gradually working into adding words. They are focusing on one or two letters a weeks. This week will be the letter "S". They will finish the week by wearing Silly SockS to focus on S and it's sounds in a funny way.

We're in one of the top 5 school districts in the state of Kansas. We've won national awards for the schools here. But our experience, so far, has been one of learning through play and having fun. There is no pressure on the kids. They are learning great socialization skills. The teacher has said that her focus for this period of time is getting the kids to focus on routine of school. Just things like learning to take a folder back and forth between the parents and the teacher every day.

Our kindergarten experience is not a high-pressure, got to be reading, writing, and doing math. It's a "we played xylophones in music class, counted using the calendar, colored pictures by shapes, did show-and-tell and made a new friend on the playground" kind of experience.

Marissa

 

My oldest is a bright child, but I must have not been too bright as a first time parent because I didn't even THINK to teach her to read before kinder! She started kinder just like your boys and by October was bringing home books to read. She read fluently by the end of kinder.

My second child--another story. I had serious worries about sending him to kinder. He was just mastering his colors, counting, etc. I thought he'd never keep up. I remember his spring conference when the teacher said something about him being bright and more advanced than the other kids and I thought she had the wrong child! He blossomed beautifully and has been advanced ever since.

Every child matures and learns so differently.

 

I don't think you need to worry at all. Kindergarten will be an amazing year of growth and learning for them. I am positive they will be fine and you'll be pleased at their progress as big boys in school. Ability-wise kids are all over the place in K and this is normal. I was reading by the time I started K, self-taught as was Sean, ( my parents never set out to teach me to read, nor did we teach Sean to read -- he was a "natural" reader and picked it up on his own) but B&C were just beginning to read a few words when they started K. There were kids of various different abilities at the beginning of the school year, and having worked in all of their classrooms as a parent volunteer, I can tell you that most of the kids, no matter where they started ability-wise, learned by leaps and bounds that K year!! I understand your fears, but I think you will discover they will do marvelous things as Kindergartners!!! It's an exciting time!!

 

Thanks everyone for the reassurance. Our school district is superb, one of the best in the country. All three high schools are in Newsweek's top 100. It's a wonderful city filled with highly-educated adults who demand excellence from their children. We're such slacker parents who send them out to play regularly or let them watch tv on Saturday morning so that we can sleep in. :blush: But even as a slacker, I still worry about them. I know being bilingual is a huge benefit in the long run, but I worry about the short term. I see and hear the confusion between the two languages. I'm interested to see how the school handles phonics in the two languages. My two only recently learned to correctly state age as X years old instead of asking me how many a person has (directly translating from Spanish).

Man, this parenting thing just gets tougher.

 

I teach special ed k-2 and I give my kindergarteners the same assessment as the rest of kindergarteners. At the end of the year we assess 30 sight words, letters, letter sounds, letter writing (formation), number identification to 30, number writing to 30, and counting to 100.

All of the kindergarten teachers I work with differentiate their lessons to bring up the kids who are struggling and challenge the kids who come in reading.

I'm sure your boys will be fine. They might be assessed by the ELL teacher to see if they need help with their English/Spanish. Most of the students I know that get ELL speak mostly another language. They are so lucky to be bilingual. It's a skill that will serve them well.

 

Oh, I'm sure they'll be just fine Cathy. Your boys have had so many life experiences that a lot of their classmates haven't even heard of in a book - I think that will serve them well!! Most of the redshirted kids have probably only been 6 for a month or two, or are still 5 themselves so they aren't going to be that much older than your boys. I think the ruinous effects of redshirting were way overblown for dramatic effect in that thread. If it was really causing so many problems the districts could easily change their policies.

Let us know how today went! Were they excited? My girls go in tomorrow for a meet the teacher/see the room day and they are super excited.

 

How did the first day of K go, Cathy? Enquiring minds want to know!! :woohoo:

 

The first day went great. They aren't even tired. Shucks. I was hoping for a quiet evening. Jacob is currently sitting on the potty, singing at the top of his lungs in Spanish. The song makes no sense whatsoever, but all the word are Spanish, sort of Spanish or Spanglish. :laughing: I think that summer school was the perfect "trial run" for K that is making the transition that much easier.

We still need to work on the routine. They eat lunch at 11am, then snack at 1pm. Both ate everything at lunch, and then had nothing left over for snack time. Oops. Guess I need to pack more food.

 

Hooray for Jacob and Aaron!! And hooray for that summer program! I'm so glad it went so well, Cathy. Good luck with the routines---and don't worry if there is a little dip in the positive feelings in a few days--that is totally normal, too!

 

Cathy, I actually pack a lunch bag and a snack bag. The boys know that their red bag is their snack bag, and the one that matches the backpack is their lunchbag. By packing them separately, the are able to reserve food for snack

 

Sharon, you beat me to it. I was just going to say we always packed snack separately too.

Sounds like they're off to a great start!! Enjoy!! K was my favorite grade!!

 

Cathy, my kids are in K at age 4, with four 6year olds and six nearly 7 year old redshirted kids (but our system of school entry is a little different so parents holding their kids back still need them to be tested for entry, regardless of age).

I was worried because in K here, the kids will be completing comprehension, questions and answers etc. by the end of the school year in English, and learning to read in Urdu, but they seem to be doing really well, and the teacher is very happy with their progress. It has not been a big deal for them academically so far, and that they are bilingual as well has helped tremendously, trust me. I was pleasantly surprised at how they were able to adapt to both their peers, as well as lessons simply because they have a grasp of both languages.

Just wanted to reassure you on the bi-lingual part.

Good luck to your boys, I'm sure they will do great!

 

It's day 2 and already a phone call from the school nurse. Another child pinched Aaron for no apparent reason. Being a very sensitive child, he was pretty traumatized. With his brother and playmates, he's used to being pushed around in games and over dominance of toys, but he's not used to an unprovoked sort-of attack. They sent him to the nurse for ice (probably to remove him from the situation so that he could calm down), but that just made him more upset. That strategy backfired when he then didn't want to return to his classroom. Sigh. I knew that we would be the bully's victim because it's so easy to make him cry. I just didn't think it would start on the second day of school. I was hoping that he would get a grace period before being confronted with bullies.

And yes, the school has a zero tolerance policy on bullies. I know that they dealt with the pincher. I just hoped that he would be comfortable in school before we has to deal with this.

 

Cathy, I'm so sorry. Starting them in school is stressful enough without something like this. Poor little guy!! And only day 2.