Want opinions about advanced DD going to kinder

[Anonymous]

DD just missed the cut off and will go to Fairfax county kinder this Sept. I am not trying to say she is on her way to TJ and Harvard, but she is advanced. Her pre-k teacher tells me I need to talk with her teacher next year and let her/him know DD needs to be challenged, she has offered, without my asking or encouragement to talk with her/him. I'm not sure that is the way to go. It should be, but I don't want to come off as "that parent."

Can you tell me if she will have a chance to stay advanced? Will they differentiate her reading and math? I was surprised to learn that they do no entrance assessment, so I worry about her just assimilating with the other 30 kids.

I am happy she had the extra year, I just want her to continue on, and since she'll be there full day, I worry about it.

[Anonymous]

Kindergarten teachers often ask for information from parents, and by extension often find it helpful to get information from preschool teachers/daycare providers for the kids that attended either, so I think you can pass on that information in a straightforward way without being coming across as "pushy" since it would be "whole child" stuff, not just academic stuff.
Kindergarten teachers are used to getting a wide range of academic levels, reading levels, etc., and should be able to quickly identify where your child needs to be, and cluster you kid at the appropriate level within the classroom. Kindergarten is also 50% about socialization and learning the ropes about how elementary school "works" so it's important for your kid to experience that.
FWIW, my kid enjoyed kindergarten, even though was at the "advanced" end of things, but the teachers began different kinds of assessments and ultimately later on in elementary they made the decision to have kid skip a grade. Not to say that is what will happen in your case, but just to note that this worked great for us, and I'm glad we went through kindergarten first.

[Anonymous]

Talk to the teacher once school starts. I work in an ES and parents who contact a K teacher now, before their child ever enters the school in the fall are viewed as PITAs. The K teachers are busy writing report cards and assessing the kids in their classes now. My DD was advanced too but there isn't too much differentiation in K. He did occasionally meet with a reading group on his level starting around XMAS/New Years but that's about it. It is K and there is much to be learned that has nothing to do with academics. Keep her challenged at home with frequent trips to the library and all will be fine.

[Anonymous]

It is great your pre k teacher offered this but you will find there are a lot of advanced kids in k so she may just be lukewarm to you. Also, it will really depend on the teacher. Our DD teacher was experienced and provided opportunities but k is really about learning to be in school all day, following directions, peer socialization. It is not to get or stay academically advanced. This continues at home. If you think she will be bored you might really have to look at private. 1st is often the same. About 2nd grade is where it takes off a bit and then obviously 3 rd if she is placed in AAP. Public school is public school. It is large, lots of different learners and personalities, problems but it is what it is. We have been happy overall but it is not going to be great all of the time. Keep engaging her at home and support her interests so that when she gets to MS & HS she will soar. Elementary school will not provide that. It will be warm, nurturing, social, fun but not academically rigorous. Howevr, all the kids come out of this model and find themselves excelling in IB, AP, TJ, etc. If she has it, she has it. Enjoy it and don't worry too much.

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of other posts on this that you can check back about on this. My DC was also near the cutoff and beyond the standard kindergarten curriculum and it has been a very enjoyable and productive year if perhaps not always as advanced as a private school. We were advised not to talk about much till after the first report card and it worked well. By then the teacher has their own interpretation of your child and grades to report to you. We only found one discrepancy in skills DC already aquired that was rectified by the second quarter.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to the pps. I am not really worried about her being bored, just want her to continue to love school and learning. I feel better after reading some comments, and I guess it is true, if she is advanced, it will show and she will succeed in school.

[Anonymous]

she will be fine. I put my dd into kindergartern early by Virginia standards but within the cut off for the state we lived in at the time, Connecticut. She was 4 when she started, didn't turn 5 until mid October. Many kids with birthdays after August are traditionally held back, but I knew she needed to go to school. And she flourished. And then we moved to Virginia. When we moved here, I took the opportunity to have my twins repeat 1st grade, because here in VA with the earlier cut off, they would absolutely be the youngest kids in their grade and I didn't want them to have to deal with that, also with the move, I wanted them to be able to focus on developing friendships etc, so thought an "easy" year might benefit them.

It has not slowed them down at all. My dd was just selected for the Futura (GT) program here in Loudoun so there was really no ill effect to having her repeat that year - I worried that she would not be challenged, but it turned out just fine. Moral of the story, be sure your teacher understands her strengths and focuses on keeping her challenged. I know our teachers have never had a problem doing that.

[Anonymous]

The teacher will know. They test them when they enter kindergarten and keep a close eye on them. Best to say nothing, otherwise you will be that parent and it is not worth it in kindergarten!

[Anonymous]

At kindergarten orientation they gave us assessment pages to fill out about our kids, and told us that all the kids in fcps are assessed either over the summer or in the first few weeks do the teacher understand their level. The parent assessment asked if kids were reading for an example of a book they can read. I imagine that the level of the books indicates level of advancement to a degree.

[Anonymous]

I talked to our school principal and teacher when my son was entering. Our preschool teacher said he was at a second grade level and should possibly skip K. The school was not hip on that idea but they were very friendly and receptive to my concerns over keeping him challenged and progressing. However they were more concerned about emotional and social development of kids and since my son was at age level there they wouldn't support skipping. Anyway we had a half day kindergarten at the time and so as you might guess he didn't get differentiated. He got pulled out by the gifted teacher we shared with like four schools a couple times a month. We continue to do about a half hour of work at home each night just to keep him learning new things but while math and reading were so far below him I'd say the social stidies and sciences were new for him - like I never taught him about Betsy Ross etc- so that part was good for him. But he had a great year Anyway. In 1st grade again I was disappointed in the differentiation but he did grow socially and liked school. There really wasn't time for much enrichment at home after a full day at school but we kept him reading. In second grade we finally got differentiation and he was in aap for third- which was great. There are usually like five other kids in a class in the same boat-way ahead of curriculum and I think in retrospect it was the right decision to keep him with peers-age wise. He is happy and growing and excelling and I have a friend who did skip their son who was very young anyway and now he is like two years younger than everyone else and it's a little off- like an 8 year old where the other kids are pretending to date. The social growth is pretty standard among kids and if you jump them ahead you may not like how fast they grow up. I'm also glad as the years go by so quickly that i will have my child around an extra year!

[Anonymous]

DD was advanced when she went in to K. She was happy all year but did not progress as much as the other kids academically. That said, she made a lot of progress socially, which she needed. I think the K program she was in was great, but in the end, we backed off and just let it slide as it's K and when we were in K there was way less going on academically in the first place and we all turned out OK. It was hard to get to that point, took me until Jan/Feb, but I'm fine with her year and will stress about it more next year.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, it doesn't matter what you or your pre-k teacher tell the K teacher, they will do their own assessment. They'll have the kids sorted by November -- if your kid is truly advanced, she'll be in a higher group.