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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes but doing the kid equivalent of many of the things you described will get the child in trouble with many teachers at that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

I wonder how that would go over, in a kindergarten classroom where the kindergarten teacher's idea of teaching is: the teacher talks, the kindergarteners sit there and listen.

[Anonymous]

I wonder how that would go over, in a kindergarten classroom where the kindergarten teacher's idea of teaching is: the teacher talks, the kindergarteners sit there and listen.

Are you really equating play in K with a three hour training session?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I wonder how that would go over, in a kindergarten classroom where the kindergarten teacher's idea of teaching is: the teacher talks, the kindergarteners sit there and listen.

In kindergarten, my son actually DID provide his teacher with suggestions about how she could teach differently. (Highly/profoundly gifted, painfully bored for much of the day in K. Yes, he'd entertain himself, but there's only so much entertaining oneself for a 5 yr old that doesn't eventually lead to quality time in the principal's office.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Remind me again why you're making up stories and counting...is it because you're bored?

Not being bored does not equal not being able to come up with things to occupy your time! They are not equivalent. And no, I'm not equating K to a three hour training session on company policies. That was an ADULT ATTENTION LEVEL EQUIVALENT so you could, you know, try to imagine yourself in a situation that is intellectually non-stimulating, with the expectation that you sit there and pay attention throughout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This!

My child complained a lot of being bored in a play-based preschool. When we had a teacher who had time to devote to indulging creative projects, my child was more engaged & not bored. We opted for a school that had a more interactive/hands-on learning approach, that welcomes creativity, and my child no longer uses the word bored about school. Some kids who are bright need freedom to explore, & if they are told to sit and do worksheets instead of engage in their creative approaches to projects, they will be disinterested & may misbehave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I wonder how that would go over, in a kindergarten classroom where the kindergarten teacher's idea of teaching is: the teacher talks, the kindergarteners sit there and listen.

Are you really equating play in K with a three hour training session?

No, of course not. I am equating teacher-talks-kindergarteners-sit-and-listen to a three-hour training session.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

When I do these things at a three-hour training session, it's because I'm bored. And I'm still bored, even while I'm doing them. I'm just slightly less bored.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's okay - mine is still bored 6 years later - not as much - it actually peaked in first grade

Same here.

[Anonymous]

No, of course not. I am equating teacher-talks-kindergarteners-sit-and-listen to a three-hour training session.

And, that is what started this conversation. PP did not want their child playing because he would be bored. FWIW, kids do need to sit and listen sometimes--but certainly not for three hours. And, in K fifteen minutes is a long time.

However, some kids equate not doing what they want to do with being bored.

Some parents use the "bored" word as an excuse for any behavior problems their child may have.

[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.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I hear another parent tell me their child is "so bored" in K, I will scream. You would think that our little snowflakes are all geniuses with absolutely nothing they could gain from K at all. Just because little Timmy "already knows how to read" doesn't mean he can't learn some good social skills in K. Some of the most socially immature, whiny kids are the same ones whose parents are filling their heads with "don't worry Johnny, I know you are SO bored in K and won't learn anything new."

My child was bored to death in K and didn't learn much, but it's because the teacher gave them worksheets all day and made them stay completely silent. It was so boring that on days I helped out in the classroom I would watch the clock and count down the minutes. He didn't learn any social skills, because they weren't allowed to talk or interact, and there was no group work. Maybe you should actually go to the classrooms of some of these kids and see for yourself what is going on before you jump to conclusions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I wonder how that would go over, in a kindergarten classroom where the kindergarten teacher's idea of teaching is: the teacher talks, the kindergarteners sit there and listen.

In kindergarten, my son actually DID provide his teacher with suggestions about how she could teach differently. (Highly/profoundly gifted, painfully bored for much of the day in K. Yes, he'd entertain himself, but there's only so much entertaining oneself for a 5 yr old that doesn't eventually lead to quality time in the principal's office.)

And how did the teacher take that? I can't imagine it was genuinely well-received.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I wonder how that would go over, in a kindergarten classroom where the kindergarten teacher's idea of teaching is: the teacher talks, the kindergarteners sit there and listen.

In kindergarten, my son actually DID provide his teacher with suggestions about how she could teach differently. (Highly/profoundly gifted, painfully bored for much of the day in K. Yes, he'd entertain himself, but there's only so much entertaining oneself for a 5 yr old that doesn't eventually lead to quality time in the principal's office.)

And how did the teacher take that? I can't imagine it was genuinely well-received.

Honestly, she was probably the most understanding teacher he has had so far. She was the one who raised the possibility that my oft-in-trouble kid was gifted. While a school counselor pushed us to get him diagnosed with ADHD because "I don't know what else it could be", the K teacher said "he just reminds me so much of this profoundly gifted child I nannied". She was a teacher who saw something in my kid beyond a prone-to-interruption exceedingly talkative kid. So, when he gave her teaching advice, she received it warmly and thanked him for his great ideas. She was amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School is boring for the majority of kids I know. I mean, really, really, boring. I remember being bored out of my mind during kindergarten and pretty much all the way through high school. Got interesting and fun once I hit university.

Right? I'm not sure what people expect.