Reply to did you feel like you had to teach your child to read and write?

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Reply to "did you feel like you had to teach your child to read and write?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have been parenting under the philosophy that at home I want learning to be fun. For example, we play rhyming games, do art projects, play board games, and read a ton, but I don't push on writing letters the correct way or push sounding out words to read every night (though some nights we do). I've been operating under the assumption that I could leave the more academic feel of learning to the school and at home teach through play.

After our kindergarten parent/teacher conference last night, I'm questioning this. My son was solidly in the the middle of the beginning and ending kindergarten reading benchmarks, but the teacher, instead of being positive about this, made it seem like we have a lot of work to do at home to get him to the end result. She asked us to work on holding the pencil correctly all the time, writing letters in the correct manner, doing flashcards for sight words, etc.

I get the importance of reinforcing teaching at home and I want to do it, but I felt like she wasn't suggesting working these things in to life, but rather doing a lot of drilling. I feel like if I got my kid to kindergarten already half way to the end of the year benchmark, what we're doing at home is working and adding in boring drills should not be necessary.

I guess with 28 kids in a class, it's going to be hard for the teacher to really teach kids at this age anything, but if I wanted to take on the responsibility of being my son's teacher, I need some training!

Is this the reality of school in FFX county, does my son have a teacher that is outside the norm, or are my expectations out of whack? I think I need a reality check! [/quote]

OP - Did your child go to preschool or preK?  I also am not keen on a drill and kill method of practice at home for my children and, like you, teach more through exposure to different games and activities that I know involve skills kids need to know.  However, I have found that my almost 5 year old who is in preK this year is rapidly learning reading and writing through their more direct teaching methods.  After reading your post, I am wondering if that will be sufficient for her Kindergarten prep or if I'm going to have to do even more.[/quote]

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