Reply to Not happy with emergent curriculum..what is a buzzword that will get us more structure and learning?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is OP.  I am not surprised by the responses, but I will give more info on my view then bow out. I do agree emergent curriculum and play based can be excellent for children.  But, bluntly, you need very strong teachers and low student teacher ratio for it to be more then essentially babysitting kids while they play with toys or on a playground. You need creative teachers who are fully invested daily and ensure learning themes come up during exchanges with children.  Sounds like some of you have that.  Our school is lacking in that department.  It's teachers letting kids "chose" to play dolls, build, etc, while teachers sit around and watch.  And I think this is what goes on at the majority of preschools using this curriculum, unless they have an extensively trained staff which is frankly unlikely given what we pay providers in the US.   Again, I think its great in theory, but rarely implemented professionally or appropriately so I am hesitant to go to another school touting this.

My other child started K this year in northern virginia.  Every single child could write there name on day 1, and its a large class.  Most kids were 6 yrs old or soon to be.  Our PK has let us know quite directly that they do not think a child needs to write their name by K, that is not necessary or age appropriate.  This to me goes back to what is theoretically ideal, but is not operating in the local reality my kid (any many of yours) will enter.  As I said, my kid will be a very young K - and will be entering a class with mostly 6 year olds thanks to this red shirt epidemic in N. Va.  It's not out of the line for me to expect her PK to ensure she is prepped for K.  They have said bluntly they will not because they disagree with the reality of what K is now... So I am looking for a place that will make sure my child is not behind peers.  Im taking the advice to re-look at montessori, as one PP noted many places claim to be that with no certification so I will look closely.[/quote]

NP here. I agree w/ you OP. My kid doesn't like being the worst at something in a group and it affects how much she likes doing that activity. Yes, we should work on that. But we will do that with something like gymnastics or soccer, where if it doesn't work out soon, it doesn't matter; I am not going to experiment/teach her a lesson with school. I've seen other parents go down that route and their kids hate/fear school and that's not a place I want to be. In my kid's DCPS T1 PK4, all of the kids can write their names at this point in the year bar one who has physical special needs; the kids are "tested" (my DD didn't realize it was happening, so clearly done subtly) against a checklist of skills that includes recognizing letters and letter sounds, writing all letters, counting objects to 30 and recognizing written numerals 0-9, a variety of shape and body part names, a bunch of colors, etc. If you start K without these skills, you would be pulled out of class starting on the first day of the second month for small group intensive instruction to catch up. Not a huge deal, those kids will learn. But, (1) those kids are definitely behind the skill-level expectation of the school/what the school is set up to teach to the full class and so they may fall behind on class instruction, which is covering reading CVC words and trying to write easy words; and (2) my own kid would hate it and be embarrassed and it would turn her off from the activity. [/quote]

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