My son in 1st at FCPS doesn't seem to be learning anything new. At the parent-teacher conference last month I was told everything they had done from Sept through Nov. was review from the end of Kindergarten.

Anonymous wrote:What if their kids actually do all that stuff on the other post though?

Then they are getting their $30,000/year tuition's worth.

What if their kids actually do all that stuff on the other post though?

OP don't worry. Honestly kids are all over the place in terms of skills, especially the first few years of school. Teachers in FCPS know this, expect this and generally want/need to see progress over the year.

To give you an example, we have 2 kids who eventually entered AAP in FCPS in 3rd grade. One, DD with the fine motor skills and great language, was writing sentences at 3-4 years old while DS has finely gotten his act together in 4th grade at 10 years of age. His spelling is still atrocious though. In terms of raw intelligence, DS, who will possibly never make straight As like his sister, is way ahead.

This is all helpful. Writing some letters my child can do, but writing full sentences? I highly doubt he will do that with ease by even the end of K due to fine motor struggles. The graphing stuff sounds much more reasonable than I thought based on the private school post. Columbus, American Indians, etc sounds great and they get that in preschool too so he could handle that. Big relief. I was wonderinf if my kid would make it through elementary school after reading that one post.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry about that. I am not a type A parent worrying about Harvard I promise. I actually was a bit alarmed by what was being taught at private school based on a parent's post especially since I have a child with fine-motor issues who loves to play. According to this parents kids in K are already writing a sentence about their drawings, they are graphing, and learning money skills. They are doing social studies about all sorts of cultures. It all sounds great, it just sounds to me more like end of the year rather than mid year stuff for K and I was wondering if FCPS expects kids to move at such fast pace as well and then what are the expectations in 1st. The whole post I read sounded more like 1st/2nd grade stuff to me, but what do I know.

My kid is in an Arlington public K and is "writing" sentences about drawings. They just try to fill in whatever letters they can sound out. They do this every morning for a half hour. And they do graphing like a PP described. And they learn about other cultures...some seasonally appropriate things...Columbus, American Indians, etc. Maybe it just sounded mire impressive than it really is.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry about that. I am not a type A parent worrying about Harvard I promise. I actually was a bit alarmed by what was being taught at private school based on a parent's post especially since I have a child with fine-motor issues who loves to play. According to this parents kids in K are already writing a sentence about their drawings, they are graphing, and learning money skills. They are doing social studies about all sorts of cultures. It all sounds great, it just sounds to me more like end of the year rather than mid year stuff for K and I was wondering if FCPS expects kids to move at such fast pace as well and then what are the expectations in 1st. The whole post I read sounded more like 1st/2nd grade stuff to me, but what do I know.

My kid is in an Arlington public K and is "writing" sentences about drawings. They just try to fill in whatever letters they can sound out. They do this every morning for a half hour. And they do graphing like a PP described. And they learn about other cultures...some seasonally appropriate things...Columbus, American Indians, etc. Maybe it just sounded mire impressive than it really is.

The schools seem to try to cater to a variety of levels at least in the academic areas and socially as well. I have one child who is probably being held back a little this year academically and another child starting soon who will probably have to work much harder just to keep up as an average student. Neither of my children though is extremely gifted or very far behind, so I don't know what is provided to children of greater extremes. I'm glad that they give attention to both high academic achievers and children who need more help in the early years and they seem to do it in a way that doesn't make the kids feel bad about where they are in the learning process.

The schools try to cater to a variety of levels at least in the academic areas and socially as well. I have one child who is probably being held back this year somewhat academically and another child starting soon who will probably have to work much harder just to keep up as an average student. I'm glad that they give attention to both the high academic achievers and the children who need more help and they seem to do it in a way that doesn't make the kids feel bad about where they are in the learning process.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry about that. I am not a type A parent worrying about Harvard I promise. I actually was a bit alarmed by what was being taught at private school based on a parent's post especially since I have a child with fine-motor issues who loves to play. According to this parents kids in K are already writing a sentence about their drawings, they are graphing, and learning money skills. They are doing social studies about all sorts of cultures. It all sounds great, it just sounds to me more like end of the year rather than mid year stuff for K and I was wondering if FCPS expects kids to move at such fast pace as well and then what are the expectations in 1st. The whole post I read sounded more like 1st/2nd grade stuff to me, but what do I know.

Notice that only one poster listed the school (GDS) and unlike many of the other posters, that particular parent described what most people expect out of kindergarten. I suspect that some of the parents were either exagerating, or using creatively descriptive language to make it sound like their schools were teaching all the kids like they were second graders.

For example, a parent on the other thread listed graphing. My fcps kindergartner is also graphing. But in kinder, graping usually involves coloring a grid of squares, ie the first number is six, color in six squares with your favorite crayon. I suspect they are doing the same type of learning; it just sounds more impressive to call it "graphing" than to say they are coloring the squares to correspond with the numbers. (Or, perhaps the are actually graphing numbers and analyzing data. For $30K/year on kindergarten I might expect that too )

Some of the things my kid's class has worked on so far this year include: Citizenship/responsibility; Language Arts--handwriting, phonics, basic reading skills (following along the sentences with the finger, sight words, reciting short stories, and reading basic stories (my kid went from not reading to reading outloud independently in the first month of school)), types of stories (fiction vs non fiction, authors, illustrators, main characters, etc.); Science--leaves, plants, seeds, squirrels, germs/hygene (can't remember what else); History--the flag, pledge, pilgrims, veterans, Christopher Columbus, native Americans; Math--counting, "graphs", numbers through 100, writing numbers, shapes, patterns, number groupings; plus Music, Art, Computers and PE. I am sure there is a lot more that I forgot. It is all presented in a way that engages your average 5-6 year old. My kid loves learning and I don't feel like the work is either overwhelming or underwhelming.

Sorry about that. I am not a type A parent worrying about Harvard I promise. I actually was a bit alarmed by what was being taught at private school based on a parent's post especially since I have a child with fine-motor issues who loves to play. According to this parents kids in K are already writing a sentence about their drawings, they are graphing, and learning money skills. They are doing social studies about all sorts of cultures. It all sounds great, it just sounds to me more like end of the year rather than mid year stuff for K and I was wondering if FCPS expects kids to move at such fast pace as well and then what are the expectations in 1st. The whole post I read sounded more like 1st/2nd grade stuff to me, but what do I know.

I think your question needs to be more specific. What are you trying to find out?

September focused on not eating the paste. October's theme was "fingers don't belong in noses." In November, they practiced walking and chewing non-gum food products. And now, with the holidays approaching, they're exploring the 1001 multicultural uses for glitter.

Oh, if only my K student had gone to Beauvoir...

Seriously? I suspect that the curricula and skills taught at this age are pretty universal. Only the outward trappings and/or approach differ.

OP again...I meant what are they learning? Thanks.

Just curious based on a thread i read in another section. Thanks in advance.