So tired of "my child is so bored in K"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, when I hear that a Ker is bored, I think to myself, "there must be something wrong with the teacher." Our K experience includes a kid who was reading at the second-grade level at the start of school as well as a kid who wasn't reading at all. Neither were bored. The teachers met them where they were and provided plenty of challenge for both. Both came home with tales of growing vegetables, exploring outside, new songs, new friends, computer time and fun at art.

Any good K teacher knows their class represents a wide range of skills and strengths and works with it!

Yup!
Sure, there are times of boredom in school (and that's going to be true no matter how advanced or behind you are!) but generally they work seemed pretty open ended. A lot of "write or draw" assignments so that kids who were already reading and writing could practice that and kids who were still learning could still do the material-part of the assignment. A lot of work that was easily adaptable depending on ability. My son's favorite "center" was the letter blocks - you build words out of letter blocks. So some kids could build "cat" and some kids could write sentences. If your oh-so-brilliant child chooses to do the simplest and most basic of work when given open-ended activities, that's a character trait you should probably work on.

Exactly. This goes along with the whole "only boring people are bored thing".
If your child allows himself to be bored in K it just proves that he isn't all that bright or inquisitive.
A truly bright child will take a simple assignment and turn it on it's head and make it something else.
I'm a teacher and this is what bright kids too.
If your child needs worksheets and assignments dictated to him to be intellectually stimulated then he's ultimately he's not that bright.

[Anonymous]

I don't believe most K kids are bored. I bet they love their class. Their parents just want to believe they must be bored because they are super duper smart and stuck in a boring class with dumbdumbs

In reality those kids probably have no problems going to their kindergarten class every day while mom writes online about how it's murdering his soul to play with kids who can't read yet.

[Anonymous]

I think that it's good to distinguish between "sometimes my kid gets bored" and "my kid thinks that kindergarten is boring". Everybody gets bored sometimes. But if all of kindergarten is boring, it's probably not because the child is super-advanced. It's because the teacher and/or curriculum are not what they should be, and the non-super-advanced children are bored too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most of the kids who are bored in K just prefer the play based style of the preschool classroom. There is a lot more sitting and focused work. Most K classrooms offer something for kids at various levels. They know their letters but are working on writing them into words and making them better on the page.

I agree. My kid complains he's bored at school all the time, but really its just because he's not able to do the exact thing he wants to be doing...which is playing with Legos or daydreaming. His teacher seems to do a good job of engaging them and keeping the kids up and active all day (lots of role playing, group work, etc). My kid also "hates" counting and reading so it's not because he's some kid-genius. I have totally worked with him and he's been in preschool...but I'm not forcing something that he is just not ready for.

[Anonymous]

I believe the OP is a childless bitter troll who has been on the DCUM boards for years calling children "little Timmy" and "johnny" and snowflake. Go away creep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most of the kids who are bored in K just prefer the play based style of the preschool classroom. There is a lot more sitting and focused work. Most K classrooms offer something for kids at various levels. They know their letters but are working on writing them into words and making them better on the page.

I agree. My kid complains he's bored at school all the time, but really its just because he's not able to do the exact thing he wants to be doing...which is playing with Legos or daydreaming. His teacher seems to do a good job of engaging them and keeping the kids up and active all day (lots of role playing, group work, etc). My kid also "hates" counting and reading so it's not because he's some kid-genius. I have totally worked with him and he's been in preschool...but I'm not forcing something that he is just not ready for.

Should also add that the teachers note that he does well at school. He needs some nudging to work harder, but is well-behaved and shows constant improvement.

[Anonymous]

I agree. I have an older profoundly gifted child who thought kindergarten was awesome. To me, it is a sign of either a bad teacher or a kid who needs more intrinsic motivation.

[Anonymous]

I think OP was simply remarking on the pervasive and competitive "every child is above-average" mentality of the DC metro area. And I couldn't agree more. I get tired of it too. We probably do have a significantly higher concentration of high-IQ kids in this area, just because of socio-economics and the concentration of highly educated parents. But intellectual capacity is never the whole story. A good kindergarten program isn't primarily about academics.

I have two bright kids who have always struggled with school, though one loves it anyway. The one who doesn't love school could do anything he put his mind to, but his passions lie outside of academics. He is always bored by school, but not because he was a stellar student. The younger child was adopted as a pre-schooler and he has had some early delays to overcome. He is never bored by school and loves to work hard. Both have IQs above the 90th percentile, for whatever that is worth, but Kindergarten was exactly where they needed to be when they were there. They both have fall birthdays, so they were on the older end of the age range.

I get that some kids are bored in kindergarten, but what does that mean? Maybe it's that they aren't ready to concentrate yet. Maybe they (like my oldest) are not eager students. Maybe the teacher isn't the greatest. Maybe they miss mommy. And yes, maybe the work is too easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most of the kids who are bored in K just prefer the play based style of the preschool classroom. There is a lot more sitting and focused work. Most K classrooms offer something for kids at various levels. They know their letters but are working on writing them into words and making them better on the page.

Well, mine was in Montessori preschool, so her boredom wasn't about play-based. It was that she was ahead of her classmates in reading and math. But she wasn't bored during the other subjects, and the social aspects were also good. But there is no doubt that some of it was boring for her, just as it would be for any of us to be in a similar circumstance.

[dcguy]

......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only boring people are bored.

This again? I always assumed this statement was first made by a dullard who imagined him/herself to be quite engaging.

Tell me, truly, when you're sitting in a three hour mandatory training session on the compny handbook, not once might you become...bored?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think OP was simply remarking on the pervasive and competitive "every child is above-average" mentality of the DC metro area. And I couldn't agree more. I get tired of it too. We probably do have a significantly higher concentration of high-IQ kids in this area, just because of socio-economics and the concentration of highly educated parents. But intellectual capacity is never the whole story. A good kindergarten program isn't primarily about academics.

OP here. Yes, this is a more articulate way of saying what I inartfully said in my OP. Nearly every parent I talk to is telling me how "bored" her chld is in K. A good teacher does make the difference. For example, my child's K teacher is using the calendar as an entry point into math class and counting. Yes, my child can already count, but we've actually never shown him a calendar before. So he is learning about dates and how many days it will be until X day. And, as a PP noted above, a good assignment is open ended. Not to out myself, but my child's K teacher does a reading period where children are paired up and each child takes turns reading a page...so kids who can read practice reading. Kids who can't read yet can tell a story based on the illustration. If your child can already read, then she can help her partner sound out the words. And both kids learn skills like waiting your turn, listening, sharing, etc. Of course, if your child was in preschool, they have done listening, waiting, sharing, etc, but what 5 year old couldn't stand to have some reinforcement in that department?

I actually know someone who told their child that she should not expect to learn anything new in K this year. Wow.

[Anonymous]

Tell me, truly, when you're sitting in a three hour mandatory training session on the company handbook, not once might you become...bored?

While there are clearly things I'd rather be doing, I can certainly find things to do meanwhile. For example, have you never made up stories in your head about people you meet? Admittedly, this might not be appropriate if you know all the people, but in restaurants it can be great fun.

You can count the number of times the presenter repeats himself. The dumb questions people ask, etc. You can even listen and keep a tally of the things you learn. And, you might even listen to see if there is something new to learn.

Or, you could take notes and make suggestions about how it could be better presented. Now, that would be a novel idea.

However, it is highly unlikely that your child is sitting through a three hour "training session." More like, five minutes here and there when he might be a little bored-or have to wait. That is not a bad thing to learn. Patience is a virtue. It is highly unlikely that the teacher is making him do boring things for three hours.

[Anonymous]

My gifted DC in HGC says sometimes school is boring, not because it's too easy, but just because DC hates that subject. School can be boring even if you don't know that particular subject well. I tell my DC not everything is going to be fun or easy all the time.

When this DC was in K, DC was already starting to reach chapter books. The teacher found a way for DC to be engaged. I agree, a good teacher should be able to figure this out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, when I hear that a Ker is bored, I think to myself, "there must be something wrong with the teacher." Our K experience includes a kid who was reading at the second-grade level at the start of school as well as a kid who wasn't reading at all. Neither were bored. The teachers met them where they were and provided plenty of challenge for both. Both came home with tales of growing vegetables, exploring outside, new songs, new friends, computer time and fun at art.

Any good K teacher knows their class represents a wide range of skills and strengths and works with it!

Yup!
Sure, there are times of boredom in school (and that's going to be true no matter how advanced or behind you are!) but generally they work seemed pretty open ended. A lot of "write or draw" assignments so that kids who were already reading and writing could practice that and kids who were still learning could still do the material-part of the assignment. A lot of work that was easily adaptable depending on ability. My son's favorite "center" was the letter blocks - you build words out of letter blocks. So some kids could build "cat" and some kids could write sentences. If your oh-so-brilliant child chooses to do the simplest and most basic of work when given open-ended activities, that's a character trait you should probably work on.

Exactly. This goes along with the whole "only boring people are bored thing".
If your child allows himself to be bored in K it just proves that he isn't all that bright or inquisitive.
A truly bright child will take a simple assignment and turn it on it's head and make it something else.
I'm a teacher and this is what bright kids too.
If your child needs worksheets and assignments dictated to him to be intellectually stimulated then he's ultimately he's not that bright.

Actually, a truly bright child will often get into trouble at that age because whatever creative thing they come up with on their own is often far more interesting and engaging than the classwork but not at all aligned with sitting compliantly and doing worksheets of things they already know how to do.