Can "advanced" kids really be bored in K? Or 1st?

[Anonymous]

I would have agreed with you a year ago but now that our DS is in K I can say I was wrong. DS came in reading at the top level in his class but he is absolutely NOT bored and loves going to school every day. Don't forget that the kids spend a lot of their day learning about social studies and science and they have "extras" every day like music and PE and all those activities are super fun for kids that age.
There are a few other kids in his reading group and I have never heard them or their parents talk about being bored.
In fact, I think that not having to worry about the academics really helps them focus on social skills. These kids are very sweet about helping their teachers and classmates and while other kids may be thinking about basic words that start with I and A they are thinking about how to spell them and about all the different sounds I and A can make depending on where they are in a word, what other letters they are next to, etc.

I'm sure there are some kids that might be bored in this situation but I think they are really in the minority.

Anonymous wrote:Well when a kid has been reading for a few years and their words for the week are I and A...the kid is both not engaged and bored. When she can multiple and they are working on number recognition same applies.

[Anonymous]

You sound like a great mom. Kids frequently reflect the attitudes shown at home.

[Anonymous]

My son is maybe the oldest in his class and is also reading at probably a third grade level, and has beautiful writing, spelling and composition. He is very social and has not complained of being "bored." However, he has said that he is tired of doing so many worksheets. He brought some home and I saw they are teaching 'do' and 'at.' It's a long day and they hardly ever go outside. I think they should play more but at least my son seems to enjoy the specials. P.E. and social studies have been interesting for him. He comes home and only wants to play, play, play.

[Anonymous]

He comes home and only wants to play, play, play.

Be grateful. He's normal! That is what a K kid should want to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the teacher above. Too many parents use the "bored" word to complain and the kids pick it up. Few children are truly bored--they just want to do what they want to do. Former teacher.

Alright Former Teacher, can you give assurance that a child who is academically advanced, reading above K level will be engaged and enjoy K?

How on earth can anyone assure you about this without knowing the school or teacher? Word calling doesn't make a child academically advanced.

Here's something to chew on: ADHD kids are rarely bored because they always have so many things to think about. The kids who are bored are the ones who lack the creativity and curiosity for intellectual exploration. No child should ever be bored in kindergarten.

The problem is this ignorant trend of trying to turn kindergartens into first grade, where children are more narrowly directed. Or, yes , in first grade if you have a reader who has to sit and listen endlessly to beginning phonics, and is not allowed to read independently. That could be boring. Very boring. But no decent kindergarten should be boring. You want to develop real intellect? Go to a play based kindergarten. One with subtle structures that allow independence to develop along with a sense of responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the teacher above. Too many parents use the "bored" word to complain and the kids pick it up. Few children are truly bored--they just want to do what they want to do. Former teacher.

Alright Former Teacher, can you give assurance that a child who is academically advanced, reading above K level will be engaged and enjoy K?

+1 DS is extremely advanced in math and language. Boredom was a big issue in K and elementary, he found most of what they were teaching to be far too slowly paced, and stuff he already knew inside out and so he would completely withdraw and zone out. The teachers never knew what to do with him. We ended up having to pursue some more aggressive and creative solutions to keep him engaged and interested in school. I think people are fooling themselves if they think everything's hunky dory with an advanced learner using the standard approach.

[Anonymous]

Why would you redshift an August child who's already advanced? If your child can do the curriculum already in K, they can focus on more social skills this year and possibly next as well. There doesn't seem to be any reason to hold your child back. Just let them do the K curriculum and nothing more unless they ask and spend the year playing with other kids after school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would you redshift an August child who's already advanced? If your child can do the curriculum already in K, they can focus on more social skills this year and possibly next as well. There doesn't seem to be any reason to hold your child back. Just let them do the K curriculum and nothing more unless they ask and spend the year playing with other kids after school.

Agreed. Let him be challenged in developing more social intelligence.

[Anonymous]

I think there's an argument to be made for redshirting. I'm not saying this is the right thing to do in your case, but I can see the other side.

I think kids who are really "advanced" benefit more from play-based, flexible environments where they can be free to amuse themselves with whatever interests them.

If your child has more time to become more mature he may be able to better handle a boring K environment. I can imagine that this could be the case for some kids.

[Anonymous]

I think kids who are really "advanced" benefit more from play-based, flexible environments where they can be free to amuse themselves with whatever interests them.

Totally agree. Kids who get "bored" frequently require entertainment.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. My son has a winter birthday, was not redshirted or anything. Is very solidly in the middle of his class in terms of age. He's in first grade, and he was very engaged in certain units, like one on producers and consumers (a first grade level economics lesson). But he failed the unit on his five senses. And that's something he's known since he was four. So something is going on there with respect to being bored/engaged/whatever you want to call it. Content really seems to matter for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the teacher above. Too many parents use the "bored" word to complain and the kids pick it up. Few children are truly bored--they just want to do what they want to do. Former teacher.

Alright Former Teacher, can you give assurance that a child who is academically advanced, reading above K level will be engaged and enjoy K?

How on earth can anyone assure you about this without knowing the school or teacher? Word calling doesn't make a child academically advanced.

Here's something to chew on: ADHD kids are rarely bored because they always have so many things to think about. The kids who are bored are the ones who lack the creativity and curiosity for intellectual exploration. No child should ever be bored in kindergarten.

The problem is this ignorant trend of trying to turn kindergartens into first grade, where children are more narrowly directed. Or, yes , in first grade if you have a reader who has to sit and listen endlessly to beginning phonics, and is not allowed to read independently. That could be boring. Very boring. But no decent kindergarten should be boring. You want to develop real intellect? Go to a play based kindergarten. One with subtle structures that allow independence to develop along with a sense of responsibility.

Ha! Never thought about that before, but at least for our one son with attention deficit issues, that is dead-on accurate. He lives in his head a lot of the time and (unlike his brother), I don't think he ever once claimed boredom (at home, school, or elsewhere).

[Anonymous]

Re: ADHD kids. The "lives in his own head" comment is so true, and to me this seems like a great adaptive behavior. Content not interesting to you? Think about something that IS interesting. However, given our education system, that behavior is considered maladaptive, inappropriate, and essentially failure.

I hate that my very smart kid is deemed unsuccessful in school because he really, really can't bring himself to concentrate on "learning" stuff he already knows.

[Anonymous]

My ADHD son is not able to sit still and do work for hours and hours. His teacher in kindergarten just gave up trying to get him to be quiet and finally just let him read books when the other kids were being taught how to read. It's amazing how quickly a child goes from a behavior issue to no behavior issue if they are in the right environment. The sad thing is, the school already knew his reading level at the beginning of the year when the reading specialist tested every student. But yet he had to sit through phonics lessons when he read 3-4 grades ahead. If they are going to collect data, they should actually do something with that data. By spring and multiple trips to the principal's office, his teacher finally just let him read and the problems vanished. I don't believe that advanced kids are always capable of finding something to do while they sit through material they already know. They are 5 years old, not 20. I sat through many hours of classes in HS and college that were boring and was able to fake interest and pay attention but I was a lot older.

[Anonymous]

9:19 If the child was going to be redshirted and then attend a play based or Waldorf pre-school for another year to develop social skills, that would be fine to redshirt, however what I've seen in FCPS is these parents hold their kids who are fully ready to go to K, put them in yet another academic type setting for the additional year, start them late with them a full year or two above the current curriculum, and then get upset that the teacher isn't teaching their "gifted" child. There is no reason to hold this child back. In FCPS, there are two recess times and an indoor play time every day plus PE, art, and library.