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Anyone else's child having a hard time w/ full-day kindergarten?
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Anonymous
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At the risk of both pointing out the obvious and opening a huge can of worms...
This is the reason that private schools require playdate auditions and redshirt boys with late spring/summer/early fall birthdays. They want to be able to ensure that the boys they accept are developmentally ready to handle a curriculum that is too demanding for a significant portion of the population. Public schools do not have this luxury. Thus, many states are rolling back the admittance birthday date to improve their overall testing stats for NCLB. In many school districts, wealthier and more sophisticated parents are voluntarily choosing to hold their boys back an extra year (poor and working class parents don't tend to have this luxury, and thus their boys tend to get labelled the "problem children") in order to ensure academic and social success. Hot, hot buttons and big cans of worms... |
Anonymous
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OP -- don't automatically assume that there's nothing you can do to change the schools way of running kindergarten. I agree it is unlikely that you can just go and rearrange thinsg to suit your son, true. But even though there's a lot of pressure on principals, teachers and schools, they are run by people who generally like children and have their best interests at heart -- they may, though, sometimes lose sight of the fact that they have little children instead of little test score generators.
A mother's plea to look at her child and what effect school is having on him, how the environment is affecting him, may fall on deaf ears -- or it may not. They should know what is happening when he comes home. Ask the teacher and the principal if they think this is good thing? As you say, your chlid is already reading! Why does he need to do worksheets and more worksheets, exactly? What is their educational goal for him, and are the worksheets helping him heet that goal? |
Anonymous
| OP here. I have no idea what the point of the worksheets are. I only used worksheets in school to practice handwriting. He has done a ton on coloring worksheets (which he hates) as well as "circle the pictures that begin w/ the letter ______" type worksheets. Oh, and lots of cutting and pasting. My SIL joked that the only thing my niece got out of kindergarten was how to color in the lines better. I sincerely intend to ask his teacher what the plan of action is. I know they spend the first month or so of school assessing the kids so I hope they move onto something a bit more meaningful. |
Anonymous
| OP, is it possible to have him go to another public school (just for the rest of the year) that is half day kindergarten? I don't know if it's possible, but it would be worth looking into for your son. |
Anonymous
| OP here. Unfortunately, all of the kindergartens in our county are full day. They took away the option of choosing in favor of all day. I think they are under the belief that the kids will earn higher test scores if they start them FT at age 5. It is like they do the opposite of what early childhood educators have found that kids this age learn best through play. I guess it is hard to test "play." |
Anonymous
The problem OP is that you are in the minority in this. Too many parents have been lobbying to get rid of half day kindergarten. If a school system still has half day they're considered behind the times by most parents. Personally I think this is a bit short sighted, but the school systems don't seem to have a choice. They're still waging the battle in Loudoun Co over this and Fairfax Co is finally switching all their schools by 2010, I believe. My daughter started Pre-K this year and by the time I pick her up she is exhausted. She said that she's there a long time. It's only from 9-12! I can't imagine if her day was as long as it's going to be next year. |
Anonymous
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OP, if you are a SAHM or work part tie, consider homeschooling for K. Sounds like the little one is miserable. He also sounds bright, and if he is already reading, half the battle is won. Homescooling for K is easy. I would suggest that you put him in as many rigorous physical activities as possible if you keep him home. He needs to build up his stamina.
Otherwise, my dd was always tired. We increased the sleep, nixed the TV, and by February, she was OK. |
Anonymous
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OP, I have no good advice, but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry that your son is having to go through this. Poor kid!
(Such an eye-opening thread for a mom of a 1 year old boy!) |
Anonymous
| If the PP who posted about her son's "lovely progressive kindergarten with recess multiple times a day" is still reading -- please tell us the name of your son's school!! I posted earlier with similar problems, and we're thinking we need to investigate other options for next year if not sooner. What kills me is that when I volunteer at lunch and recess, all the kids are pushing and jumping... and yet I'm worried that once my son gets labelled as the bad seed, he is going to associate school with punishment. |
Anonymous
| OP, FWIW, my daughter, who is 5 1/2 and was at full-time daycare since 4 months old, is also having a hard time adjusting. She's wet her bed a few times since school started, something she hadn't done for about a year. She has recess after lunch but otherwise, it's just sitting there all day doing worksheets as well. Every week it seems to be getting better. It really is a hard adjustment for the little ones, I guess they eventually get used to it... |
Anonymous
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Responding to 10:04:
The school is Burgundy Farm and it is truly the most delightful school for active young boys (and girls!) who really need to be outside a good part of the day in order to be mentally and physically healthy. The JK and Kindergarten programs are just wonderful ... I think the kids are outside more often than inside most of the day. They have the opportunity to walk/run between their classroom (and not in a quiet, straight line either!) and the library/gym/foreign language/art classroom. They frequently get to eat lunch outside at a picnic table, they have a covered porch that allows them to be outside for play even on rainy days. The campus has a barn with animals that they may visit during free times (with an escort of course). There's a swimming pool for PE in early fall and late spring. Lots of class time is spent on art, music, and motion. In other words, it is very play-based. The kids do "academics" in K, but not in the form of endless worksheets ... if I remember accurately, it was mostly done in circle time in a fun way and also in smaller break-out groups. There are 16 kids in each class and two wonderful full time teachers. Plus, Burgundy has parents come into the early childhood classroom regularly to help the kids with small projects, etc. so that the teachers have that much more time to work one-on-one or in very small groups. The kids love having their parents be there with them every now and then and you learn so much about what is going on, who your child's playmates are, and what the teachers are doing. By the end of K, most of the kids are reading at an elementary level (i.e. decoding well and working on their comprehension/fluency skills) and doing great at age-appropriate math (adding to 10, skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s, learning geometric shape names, creating and solving fun story problems, etc.) But more importantly, they have learned that school is a fun and exciting place to be and how to be a good friend ... which is still what I think is most essential for K. Sadly, the school is fairly expensive and thus not possible for many families despite a solid financial aid program. But knowing that this type of program is available and WORKS might help parents advocate more strongly for their kids other schools. Sorry to be such a booster ... |
Anonymous
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OP, are there any Catholic or other church schools near you that you could look into? They often offer scholarships.
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Anonymous
| I would also look to see if there is a faith-based program with financial aid you could look into. My son just started k at a catholic school and he is one of the youngest. He loves the program ... small class size (12 kids!), 2 recess breaks a day, nap time (he loves listening to stories), learning is not by worksheets but by breaking into groups and using blocks, beads, etc., reading "buddies" with the 4th graders, etc. He comes home with even more energy and I have to take him for a bike ride to get him to settle down! |
Anonymous
| Dear OP, maybe you could talk to the school counselor? Even though the school will be unlikely to change the overall schedule, I wonder if they could find a way to remove your son from the class for a break for a few minutes/day for the next month or so. |
Anonymous
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Here is the link to the Post article (actually I think it's a blog). There are lots of interesting comments following.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/kindergarten/the-problem-that-is-kindergart.html Interesting discussion. |