Reply to How do you balance forcing a pre-K kid to learn with not making them hate school?

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "How do you balance forcing a pre-K kid to learn with not making them hate school?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here.  I appreciate all of the resources, and I agree about the importance of play (and that's most of what my kid does all day).

But she's enrolled in online public preschool and the public preschool program is VERY focused on things like practicing letters, copying sentences, etc.  The assigned exercises are all optional, and we've barely done them this year, but as K gets closer, I've been feeling some need to get her ready for what it will be like.

It's interesting to hear on this board how inappropriate academics are for 4 year olds and then to experience the intensely academic focus of public preK.  I asked my kid's teacher about this--inquiring as to whether we might use a tiny bit of one class period for the kids to just talk to one another, do a show and tell, etc., and she said that their goal is kindergarten readiness, which means she wants all kids to be able to start to sound out words (or just the first sound in a word), write within lines, write all numbers, complete worksheets on things like sequencing, etc.

It's hard to strike the balance between following my instinct (i.e. learn through play) and knowing that overly academic K will start soon.
[/quote]

This is outrageous. Not you, OP -- I understand your bind. Your child is enrolled in public PK, this is what they are offering you. You are trying to comply with what they are offering.

What they are offering is incorrect. This is not how 4 yr olds learn. Period. Your PK teacher almost certainly knows this. No PK teacher with any experience will actually advocate for online academic instruction for 4 yr olds. Sure, maybe an optional hour or two a week if they are interested. But daily academic instruction? No, that is ridiculous. As you are already sensing, it will destroy their interest in learning.

Public PKs are generally more academically rigorous than private PKs because of the intense focus on testing and achievement in public schools, linked directly to school funding. But in an in-person public PK program, that academic rigor is mitigated by the fact that the kids are also getting a lot of what they actually need, which is socio-emotional learning from being in a group setting with same-age kids, led by skilled ECE teachers who hopefully know how to guide them through the process of learning about the world, relating to one another, building vocabulary through ordinary interactions, engaging in free play, hands-on experiences, art, and music. Yes, the teacher might also drill the kids on letters and numbers even though there's no evidence that this actually helps with learning acquisition later. But they'll get all the other good stuff, and some kids actually take to the academic focus, so it winds up being okay in the end.

Online PK strips out all the best things about PK and leaves you just with the "academic rigor", the least important and probably unnecessary part! That's really bad!

Do not make your kid do anymore DL. Don't worry about learning numbers and letters right now. I mean it. Trust your instincts, as they are correct. It is upsetting that your child's school, school district, and teacher (all of whom know better) are subjecting your kid to this. They are doing it because they lack the will or creativity to do what should have been done last summer, and come up with an alternative option for young learners (whether that was in-person school, biweekly play dates, simply sending learning guides home with parents, literally anything other than planting 4 yr olds in front of computer screens for hours a day to "learn their letters" OMG that is the dumbest possible way to handle this).

You won't get in trouble, your child will be fine. Please stop making your kid do DL. Please. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics