Why no reading in private preschools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC went to a private preschool where they were very adamant about not teaching academics. My DC had no trouble in K, was an early reader, and is still advanced for her age.

We both work, and she attended this program full-time, so it's not like I was staying home with her and giving her reading lessons. We just read to her, had a lot of reading and writing material around, had toys with letters on them (pretty standard stuff). You'd be amazed what kids pick up. There no real need for a teacher to go over at circle time the "letter of the week."

This is reassuring - we read to him morning and night (and always have), but unfortunately are only with him for 1-2 hours max per day on weekdays.

We're looking at preschools in NW DC west of Rock Creek Park (NCRC, Aidan, Little Folks). These schools all go through age 5, so we would plan to use these "preschools" as our "kindergarten." When asked about reading programming on my tours, the administrators stressed that the schools are purely play-based but that their children do tend to pick up reading skills. I guess it makes me insecure that perhaps these schools are leaving it to SAHPs (or parents with 9-5 jobs) to teach reading.

None of these programs have kindergarten. They go through 5 because most kids are already 5 when PreK ends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC went to a private preschool where they were very adamant about not teaching academics. My DC had no trouble in K, was an early reader, and is still advanced for her age.

We both work, and she attended this program full-time, so it's not like I was staying home with her and giving her reading lessons. We just read to her, had a lot of reading and writing material around, had toys with letters on them (pretty standard stuff). You'd be amazed what kids pick up. There no real need for a teacher to go over at circle time the "letter of the week."

This is reassuring - we read to him morning and night (and always have), but unfortunately are only with him for 1-2 hours max per day on weekdays.

We're looking at preschools in NW DC west of Rock Creek Park (NCRC, Aidan, Little Folks). These schools all go through age 5, so we would plan to use these "preschools" as our "kindergarten." When asked about reading programming on my tours, the administrators stressed that the schools are purely play-based but that their children do tend to pick up reading skills. I guess it makes me insecure that perhaps these schools are leaving it to SAHPs (or parents with 9-5 jobs) to teach reading.

None of these programs have kindergarten. They go through 5 because most kids are already 5 when PreK ends.

This. And so many people redshirt now, that they have probably all had a 6-year-old or two at the end of pre-K.

[Anonymous]

BTW, our Spanish-speaking nanny still read to our children and counted, and did the alphabet ...

What do you imagine your nanny is going to do all day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC went to a private preschool where they were very adamant about not teaching academics. My DC had no trouble in K, was an early reader, and is still advanced for her age.

We both work, and she attended this program full-time, so it's not like I was staying home with her and giving her reading lessons. We just read to her, had a lot of reading and writing material around, had toys with letters on them (pretty standard stuff). You'd be amazed what kids pick up. There no real need for a teacher to go over at circle time the "letter of the week."

This is reassuring - we read to him morning and night (and always have), but unfortunately are only with him for 1-2 hours max per day on weekdays.

We're looking at preschools in NW DC west of Rock Creek Park (NCRC, Aidan, Little Folks). These schools all go through age 5, so we would plan to use these "preschools" as our "kindergarten." When asked about reading programming on my tours, the administrators stressed that the schools are purely play-based but that their children do tend to pick up reading skills. I guess it makes me insecure that perhaps these schools are leaving it to SAHPs (or parents with 9-5 jobs) to teach reading.

None of these programs have kindergarten. They go through 5 because most kids are already 5 when PreK ends.

Ooops I missed Aidan on your list —plenty of academics there and they do have Kindergarten

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My younger DD leaned to read in her private pre-K. They had sight words in pre-K 3. By the end of pre-K 4, all but two kids were reading independently. Not just familiar books. My DD could read a newspaper article.

Great to hear. What school was it?

Quality Time in SSMD.

[Anonymous]

I think OP doesn't understand that these preschools don't go through Kindergarten. Age 5 is the last year of preschool, and then kids go to K in elementary school.

All 4 of my kids went to play-based coop preschools (a few hours a day type place) and all learned to read easily on their own or in K. Preschool should be fun; what's the rush?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think OP doesn't understand that these preschools don't go through Kindergarten. Age 5 is the last year of preschool, and then kids go to K in elementary school.

All 4 of my kids went to play-based coop preschools (a few hours a day type place) and all learned to read easily on their own or in K. Preschool should be fun; what's the rush?

Some day cares and other places have K. But, I'm getting the impression she wants to skip K which makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think OP doesn't understand that these preschools don't go through Kindergarten. Age 5 is the last year of preschool, and then kids go to K in elementary school.

All 4 of my kids went to play-based coop preschools (a few hours a day type place) and all learned to read easily on their own or in K. Preschool should be fun; what's the rush?

Some day cares and other places have K. But, I'm getting the impression she wants to skip K which makes no sense.

Yeah it’s weird. It’s true, though, that some programs include a true K year (so not junior K). Ours does.

[Anonymous]

Our kids went to Franklin Montessori and stayed there for their K year, going straight into public first grade. They could all definitely read before the K year started and could read well before the end of K. I liked the school for many other reasons as well, but if OP is focused on reading I would tell her to check it out. I don’t know how or if it’s different than Aiden. Its the only preschool we used.

[Anonymous]

Aiden is Montessori, isn't it? All Montessori schools teach letters and sounds. They do a fantastic job teaching handwriting, too. I've never ever heard of a play-based Montessori school. Maybe you misunderstood on that tour?

[Anonymous]

People! Do some research. Early or late reading does not matter. They all tend to even out by age 8. What is your hurry? Let your child be a kid. Plenty of academic years are ahead. Geeeez!

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks everyone for your helpful feedback. I understand now that these preschools feed into kindergarten, rather than first grade, and that reading skills are covered (or at least encouraged) in most of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a bone to pick. I know the research supports play-based learning in the early years, but I can't understand why none of the private DC preschools that my husband and I are considering for our son offer ANY reading programming at all (other than storytimes). I grew up in rural NC in the 80s, and remember learning letters around 3/4, words around 4, and starting to read around 5. I believe that a similar progression is currently taught in DC public schools. Why are the private preschools/kindergartens so averse to this?

We plan to switch our son to a DCPS (Mann) starting in first grade (i.e. after two or three years in private preschool), and it seems to me that the students from public kindergartens may have a leg up. My personal experience was that early readers had ENORMOUS confidence and enjoyed school, while late readers (and by this, I don't mean a specific age but rather being behind the median in their class) struggled and felt frustrated. Since a major predictor of academic success is a student's enjoyment of school, growth mindset, etc., I would suspect that the gap between early and late readers only widens over time and trickles into other subjects.

I suspect many of you will say that reading should be taught at home, but my husband and I both work until 6:30/7 and cannot depend on our Spanish nanny to teach reading fundamentals. Since this is the case, would we be better off in a DCPS kindergarten? Sorry that this rant is all over the place.

Why are you thinking that you could send your child to 2 or 3 years of preschool and then have DS got into 1st grade? You want him to skip Kindergarten?

I guess I don't know where the line is drawn between preschool and kindergarten when many of these DC "preschools" (NCRC, St. John's) appear to last until the children are 5.5/6. I assumed the kids applied to first grade upon leaving them.

No, they go to Kindergarten after. Some preschools have a "pre K" year for those kids on the cusp of the cuttoff (i.e. August-December birthdays)

[Anonymous]

I don't know what schools you are referring to but our Bethesda based private preschool taught pre-reading skills. My son then went on to a private elementary school that started in Pre-K. He was a fluent reader when he started at that school at age 4 and worked once a week with the reading specialist one on one and with two other kids that could also read. And no, he wasn't being pushed to do academics. He loves reading, he loves school (he thought he played all day bc of how they taught the curriculum) and he can't wait to go back to school in September.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know what schools you are referring to but our Bethesda based private preschool taught pre-reading skills. My son then went on to a private elementary school that started in Pre-K. He was a fluent reader when he started at that school at age 4 and worked once a week with the reading specialist one on one and with two other kids that could also read. And no, he wasn't being pushed to do academics. He loves reading, he loves school (he thought he played all day bc of how they taught the curriculum) and he can't wait to go back to school in September.

Which private elementary?