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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only boring people are bored.

Naah. That's crap. It would be true if applied to a situation where a person said they were bored but they were allowed to entertain themselves. For instance, my kid is never bored as long as she has a pencil and paper and is allowed to write or draw. Or books. She's good with that. But if she's asked to sit there and find letters from a bin and put them on the spot where that letter is on her paper? Or count to 100 again? Yeah, that's really freaking boring. She's nowhere close to a boring person, but that shizz is boring once you already know it.
I'm not ever bored when left to my own devices. But I sure was bored today when I had to edit someone else's really boring brief.

[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.

You're a teacher! Good lord, help us all. No child who's bored needs worksheets and assignments dictated to him. But why is it the burden of the 5 year old to figure out how to make filling out the worksheet where they match up letters to sounds interesting? That's boring. My kid has the social skills necessary to pretend she isn't bored because she doesn't want to tick off the teacher. But it is definitely boring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: 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.

Mmm, no. My kid really did have problems going into kindergarten every day and never liked it. Tears most mornings. It was mostly boring for her. In part, because she did already know the stuff they were teaching. And in part because she is an introvert and therefore never really felt comfortable forcing her own way into the social scene and classroom. And her teacher was not great at drawing her out.
Some bright kids are fine with it because they enjoy the social aspect. Some aren't because the social aspect is sort of a negative for them anyway. I was also that kid in elementary school, and I was bored to tears in K and never liked it. Extremely high IQ, excelled in school, and certainly didn't lack intrinsic motivation. Please. But I did, and still do, have a low tolerance for stuff that bores me. Luckily, when not in an elementary school environment, had the freedom to pursue areas of interest and wasn't required to do the boring stuff all day.
Everybody's different. These broad sweeping statements ("only boring people are bored") are always wrong with respect to many people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I'm sure some parents do use the "bored" word that way. And many of us use it correctly. Signed, mother of bored K'er who never had any behavior problems in school, just learned to really dislike school and keep it to herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only boring people are bored.

Naah. That's crap. It would be true if applied to a situation where a person said they were bored but they were allowed to entertain themselves. For instance, my kid is never bored as long as she has a pencil and paper and is allowed to write or draw. Or books. She's good with that. But if she's asked to sit there and find letters from a bin and put them on the spot where that letter is on her paper? Or count to 100 again? Yeah, that's really freaking boring. She's nowhere close to a boring person, but that shizz is boring once you already know it.
I'm not ever bored when left to my own devices. But I sure was bored today when I had to edit someone else's really boring brief.

Sorry, bolded part is correct. Well, obviously not literally but the truth is really bright kids don't get bored typically. I previously taught elementary school. (Cue in someone to now comment thank goodness I don't teach anymore because her brilliant kid WAS bored.). Just as an example, one day after a science lesson on fruits (pumpkins), the kids (kindergarteners) were counting pumpkin seeds with a partner. Each child had a large chunk of seeds/pulp from a freshly carved pumpkin and then he/she would take one seed out of the pulp at a time and put in into a container. The first partner would say, "one" as she put her seed in the container and the second child would say, "two" as he out his seed in the container. This continued until the team of two finished counting. For a bright child, under your theory, he'd be bored out of his mind mindlessly counting seeds to 27 or 33, right?

When asking the kids later to share something's they learned that day, one very bright boy later stood up to explain that he realized we could have cut the time in half had both kids in each group put a seeds in at the same time and we counted by twos. He then said that we could have had 5 kids in a group or 10 kids in a group and counted by fives or 10s which would have taken even less time. He then said that it is "kinda cool" to think that a pumpkin can naturally decay, the seeds naturally scatter and new pumpkins can grow, and from this he learned just about how many could grow. All other kids who shared mentioned they learned how many seeds they had counted or that they had more or less seeds than this or that group.

Later his mom told me that now that he knows what "pulp" feels like, he asked her to find out now pulp is removed from OJ since he sees the cartons at the store that say pulp and no pulp on them.

This kid was never, ever bored. Typically very bright children are able to entertain themselves because they interpret information in unique ways. Yes, lots of kindergarteners can count by twos or 5s or 10s, but most wouldn't interpret the information as he did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only boring people are bored.

Naah. That's crap. It would be true if applied to a situation where a person said they were bored but they were allowed to entertain themselves. For instance, my kid is never bored as long as she has a pencil and paper and is allowed to write or draw. Or books. She's good with that. But if she's asked to sit there and find letters from a bin and put them on the spot where that letter is on her paper? Or count to 100 again? Yeah, that's really freaking boring. She's nowhere close to a boring person, but that shizz is boring once you already know it.
I'm not ever bored when left to my own devices. But I sure was bored today when I had to edit someone else's really boring brief.

Sorry, bolded part is correct. Well, obviously not literally but the truth is really bright kids don't get bored typically. I previously taught elementary school. (Cue in someone to now comment thank goodness I don't teach anymore because her brilliant kid WAS bored.). Just as an example, one day after a science lesson on fruits (pumpkins), the kids (kindergarteners) were counting pumpkin seeds with a partner. Each child had a large chunk of seeds/pulp from a freshly carved pumpkin and then he/she would take one seed out of the pulp at a time and put in into a container. The first partner would say, "one" as she put her seed in the container and the second child would say, "two" as he out his seed in the container. This continued until the team of two finished counting. For a bright child, under your theory, he'd be bored out of his mind mindlessly counting seeds to 27 or 33, right?

When asking the kids later to share something's they learned that day, one very bright boy later stood up to explain that he realized we could have cut the time in half had both kids in each group put a seeds in at the same time and we counted by twos. He then said that we could have had 5 kids in a group or 10 kids in a group and counted by fives or 10s which would have taken even less time. He then said that it is "kinda cool" to think that a pumpkin can naturally decay, the seeds naturally scatter and new pumpkins can grow, and from this he learned just about how many could grow. All other kids who shared mentioned they learned how many seeds they had counted or that they had more or less seeds than this or that group.

Later his mom told me that now that he knows what "pulp" feels like, he asked her to find out now pulp is removed from OJ since he sees the cartons at the store that say pulp and no pulp on them.

This kid was never, ever bored. Typically very bright children are able to entertain themselves because they interpret information in unique ways. Yes, lots of kindergarteners can count by twos or 5s or 10s, but most wouldn't interpret the information as he did.

Well that sounds like a fun, hands-on activity. Of course he wasn't bored digging through a freshly carved pumpkin! Kids love pumpkins.

If k were more hands-on activities, more play, and fewer worksheets, there'd be a lot fewer bored kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry, bolded part is correct. Well, obviously not literally but the truth is really bright kids don't get bored typically.

That's a circular argument, though. Really bright kids don't get bored, therefore if your kid gets bored, your kid must not be really bright.

Really bright kids do get bored. Really bright adults also get bored. I get bored. I had to re-read the same 150-page document for the twelfth time (literally the twelfth time) the other day for proofreading. Was I bored? You bet I was.

[Anonymous]

A few years back I volunteered in a kindergarten classroom for 1.5 hours each day. It was always the same time between 10-11:30. The first hour was spent in the classroom during literacy time. The teacher would have a group of 6 with her working on reading. The rest went to centers which were all play based. We had so much fun, every child that would come through my center was grinning from ear to ear the whole time. they all loved literacy time because it was playing, with of course learning hidden inside ! I also volunteered once a week during music in the early afternoon. Again all the kids were laughing and having a wonderful time. Kindergarten that year was truly amazing and I can't imagine 1 of those children saying anything different. The parties were awesome and frequent, the parent volunteers helped so much. After school for an he during nice weather almost the entire class played on the playground together.

[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.

You're a teacher! Good lord, help us all. No child who's bored needs worksheets and assignments dictated to him. But why is it the burden of the 5 year old to figure out how to make filling out the worksheet where they match up letters to sounds interesting? That's boring. My kid has the social skills necessary to pretend she isn't bored because she doesn't want to tick off the teacher. But it is definitely boring.

99% of teachers are not gifted themselves. They have no gifted people in their family. They are not well trained in giftedness. Lacking personal experience and lacking training, they get gifted issues completely wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only boring people are bored.

Naah. That's crap. It would be true if applied to a situation where a person said they were bored but they were allowed to entertain themselves. For instance, my kid is never bored as long as she has a pencil and paper and is allowed to write or draw. Or books. She's good with that. But if she's asked to sit there and find letters from a bin and put them on the spot where that letter is on her paper? Or count to 100 again? Yeah, that's really freaking boring. She's nowhere close to a boring person, but that shizz is boring once you already know it.
I'm not ever bored when left to my own devices. But I sure was bored today when I had to edit someone else's really boring brief.

Sorry, bolded part is correct. Well, obviously not literally but the truth is really bright kids don't get bored typically. I previously taught elementary school. (Cue in someone to now comment thank goodness I don't teach anymore because her brilliant kid WAS bored.). Just as an example, one day after a science lesson on fruits (pumpkins), the kids (kindergarteners) were counting pumpkin seeds with a partner. Each child had a large chunk of seeds/pulp from a freshly carved pumpkin and then he/she would take one seed out of the pulp at a time and put in into a container. The first partner would say, "one" as she put her seed in the container and the second child would say, "two" as he out his seed in the container. This continued until the team of two finished counting. For a bright child, under your theory, he'd be bored out of his mind mindlessly counting seeds to 27 or 33, right?

When asking the kids later to share something's they learned that day, one very bright boy later stood up to explain that he realized we could have cut the time in half had both kids in each group put a seeds in at the same time and we counted by twos. He then said that we could have had 5 kids in a group or 10 kids in a group and counted by fives or 10s which would have taken even less time. He then said that it is "kinda cool" to think that a pumpkin can naturally decay, the seeds naturally scatter and new pumpkins can grow, and from this he learned just about how many could grow. All other kids who shared mentioned they learned how many seeds they had counted or that they had more or less seeds than this or that group.

Later his mom told me that now that he knows what "pulp" feels like, he asked her to find out now pulp is removed from OJ since he sees the cartons at the store that say pulp and no pulp on them.

This kid was never, ever bored. Typically very bright children are able to entertain themselves because they interpret information in unique ways. Yes, lots of kindergarteners can count by twos or 5s or 10s, but most wouldn't interpret the information as he did.

Well that sounds like a fun, hands-on activity. Of course he wasn't bored digging through a freshly carved pumpkin! Kids love pumpkins.

If k were more hands-on activities, more play, and fewer worksheets, there'd be a lot fewer bored kids.

I think the point wasn't the activity. The point is that really bright kids see things and interprets things differently which makes most things interesting to them.

[Anonymous]

I get sick of teachers who allow my kid to become bored and then complaining when his behavior became disruptive.

You didn't want my kindergarten student entertaining himself. That's why he dismantled 3/4 toilets in my house. He was perfectly capable of finding something that interested him, but it usually involved taking something apart or dropping objects from heights. If not that, then he was writing songs about things in his environment and singing them to himself.

He's a bit better now that he has discovered reading. He can entertain himself more quietly. In K, though, you better find something for him to do. If you let him find something to do for himself, it wasn't going to end well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry, bolded part is correct. Well, obviously not literally but the truth is really bright kids don't get bored typically.

That's a circular argument, though. Really bright kids don't get bored, therefore if your kid gets bored, your kid must not be really bright.

Really bright kids do get bored. Really bright adults also get bored. I get bored. I had to re-read the same 150-page document for the twelfth time (literally the twelfth time) the other day for proofreading. Was I bored? You bet I was.

Must not be that bright I guess. Wait, let me save you the effort to responding to me. Here is your retort: "I am profoundly gifted."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sorry, bolded part is correct. Well, obviously not literally but the truth is really bright kids don't get bored typically.

That's a circular argument, though. Really bright kids don't get bored, therefore if your kid gets bored, your kid must not be really bright.

Really bright kids do get bored. Really bright adults also get bored. I get bored. I had to re-read the same 150-page document for the twelfth time (literally the twelfth time) the other day for proofreading. Was I bored? You bet I was.

Must not be that bright I guess. Wait, let me save you the effort to responding to me. Here is your retort: "I am profoundly gifted."

No, I am not profoundly gifted. I'm smart enough to recognize circular reasoning when I see it, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think the point wasn't the activity. The point is that really bright kids see things and interprets things differently which makes most things interesting to them.

Actually I think that the activity is exactly the point here. Really bright kids may see things and interpret things differently, but sitting there doing drill worksheets leaves very scope for seeing things and interpreting things differently, without the kid getting in trouble.

[Anonymous]

^^^very little scope