Child says K is "too easy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would wait abit. They are still doing assessments etc. That said, IMO kids that go into K as strong readers don't get too much academic challenge in K. That is not to say they do not learn socially etc..but the teacher's focus will be on the non-readers. My child was reading at a 2nd grade level but the teacher almost never worked with her (she cried over this) For my child it got much better as the years went by..but K never provided much of a challenge. Maybe a really good teacher would have done more with her..good luck!

This was my child's experience exactly. It didn't get better for him until 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

NP here. I don't really have a dog in this fight yet, but I think this is an unfair statement about parents of early readers. While we provided assistance as requested, we didn't 'push' our child to read - she decided she wanted to read herself. The issue isn't with kids who are 'too smart' for kindergarten, it's that the current academic model of kindergarten isn't really set up to handle them. While I worry about my child being bored in kindergarten, this doesn't mean I want her to be pushed further along in reading, or in other academic skills. I just want my child to find the process of learning as fun and rewarding as I did, and I worry that spending time going over things she already knows how to do will give her a negative attitude towards school.


Well said!

[Anonymous]

It's public school -- you take what you get. If your kid is ahead, you might have to wait until others catch up. If your kid is behind, you might have to put more effort in to catch up. They can't truly teach lessons at 10 different levels in each grade.

[Anonymous]

My concern is that with so many different levels and the need to differentiate, social skills never get reinforced and the teacher is too busy to help kids learn how to deal with issues that arise during the school day.

[Anonymous]

PP - my experience is behavior is the one thing that does not go unnoticed. K was a wonderful place for learning social skills. That was definitely not an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD just started K in MoCo. She is a pretty good reader (can read easy chapter books like Junie B. Jones) and has been complaining that all she does in school in "easy worksheets of stuff I already know." I know it is only the beginning of the second week of school, but I'm wondering if others with kids in MoCo have insight on this. Will they assess the kids and brreak them into reading groups based on reading level? I don't want to be the pain in the ass parent, but I also don't want my daughter to continue to be bored.

Oh come on.. need to brag about your little Einstein? My DS entered his K with two Phd's under his belt
and he is currently working on his Noble .. third one. Yet, you would think he is bored at K? On the contary,
he actually enjoys running around screeming, poking his nose and eating baggers and licking the slide
when nobody is watching. Yeah baby, bring it on. They might be smart all right but put them with
the older grade and you will deprave them all the fun and isolate them

People, science is not everything.

[Anonymous]

OP, she says that because she knows that it will impress you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is with all pushing for more advanced academically K? Kids are so used to being thrown things at them that
if something ins not piling on them every bit of a minute they get boared? Just like K was only about reading and math.
It is so much about being with peers and learning to have fun. I have super smart kid with readling level of a 3rd grader
yet who can appreciate even simplest books and for Dc it is not only about reading and going through info.. it is about
savoring the book, the story, appreciating the art. DC can take a baby book and still can push it to the next level
and build story upon a story like an adult. It is not all about zooming through books, it is also developing attention span.
In couple of yearas they all read like pro and who cares, it is those who can enjoy any reading material that can
go somwhere from there.

you are talking about reading for the sake of reading.

So a kid that can read a chapter book should just sit in class quietly and not disrupt the class while the teacher lists nouns that begin with the letter A: Art, Ant, Apple, ....This isn't about pushing. It's about keeping the kid engaged.

I think kindergarten is hard because the kids are not well known to the school and there is a wide variation that does narrow over time. I do think they will try to put the kids in different reading groups, but they need to assess the kids first. Unfortunately, MCPS is moving away from acceleration in the higher grades, so I hope your kid can get into a magnet. Otherwise, prepare for a bored kid who thinks learning is easy.

[Anonymous]

My son was the same in K but he did learn a lot of non-academic skills that were important. The work didn't match his ability until 3rd or 4th grade. He did say he hated school and it was boring on a daily basis. By the time it did get challenging, he really hated school. Luckily, he loves to read and spent a lot of time in class reading (whether he was supposed to or not). Schools do a great job of teaching to the middle (the top of the bell curve) esp in the early grades. You can make it harder yourself at home. He knew his sight words before he started K so when they sent them home on cards, I made sure he could spell them for example.