Former K teacher:

There may be several that can "call words". That may be reading in their parents' mind, but not in mine. Reading involves lots more than decoding letters.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3 of the girls and 1 boy.

This is pretty accurate. And 2 of the girls will be put in the gifted program before the first month is out.

If this is even close, I feel a lot better. (OP here.) I was imagining at least 1/2 the kids reading...

Anonymous wrote:3 of the girls and 1 boy.

This is pretty accurate. And 2 of the girls will be put in the gifted program before the first month is out.

It just depends on the kid. My DD was very curious about reading and began with the Dr. Seuss books at 3. By kindergarten she was checking out books from the public library and reading chapter books. My DS didn't really start reading until he was six. He attended Beauvoir and I learned from his classroom teacher that half of his kindergarten classmates weren't reading. He's in upper school now and is a great student.

OP, your DC will be just fine. I really think it's important not to stress a child out early on. My DS preferred story telling through drawing pre reading.

Not mine. He knows most of his letters but not how to read yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son just finished K. His class had a wide range at the beginning, from kids who barely recognized the letters to accomplished readers. The K teachers are amazing at working with them all, keeping everyone challenged but not overwhelmed.

OP here. This is my main concern. The readers will get further and further ahead while the rest of the kids are left to fend for themselves.

No unfortunately, the kids who read will be relearning everything, not moving ahead as you fear. They'll spend months on letter sounds just like everyone else

3 of the girls and 1 boy.

My daughter starts 1st in the fall. Going into K she could read sight words but not a 6 word sentence. She could probably read a short sentence though like Go dog go. At the end of K she could read longer sentences but not easily. Reading was still very difficult.

Our summer homework was 10 min of reading a night. In June it was painful. Now it's pretty cool. She picked an Ivy and Bean book to read and she's doing most of it with me assisting on the bigger words. She has finally started to get that the words tell a story and that they are just not individual words.

So what I would tell you is don't worry too much about what your child can and cannot do today. Let the teachers work with your child. But you read and practice with her too. Every night for just a few minutes. The leaps and bounds my child made this summer was surprising to me. I was lax in K and did not practice with her. Now I know I should have.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son just finished K. His class had a wide range at the beginning, from kids who barely recognized the letters to accomplished readers. The K teachers are amazing at working with them all, keeping everyone challenged but not overwhelmed.

OP here. This is my main concern. The readers will get further and further ahead while the rest of the kids are left to fend for themselves.

This does not happen. Kindergarten is not high school. Please relax and trust that the teachers know how to handle the wide variations in ability amongst kids this age.

Anonymous wrote:My son just finished K. His class had a wide range at the beginning, from kids who barely recognized the letters to accomplished readers. The K teachers are amazing at working with them all, keeping everyone challenged but not overwhelmed.

OP here. This is my main concern. The readers will get further and further ahead while the rest of the kids are left to fend for themselves.

My son just finished K. His class had a wide range at the beginning, from kids who barely recognized the letters to accomplished readers. The K teachers are amazing at working with them all, keeping everyone challenged but not overwhelmed.

It really doe not matter. Some kids learn to read in a step by step way, and others wait and seem to get it in an "aha!" way, but all of them get it by the end of K.

She will be fine. She's more likely to be damaged by hysterical attitudes that assume the way she is at 5 years old is the way she will always be. Now, go take a Xanax.

I think she will be fine! My son is almost 6 and missed the cut-off so did private K last year so he is a beginner reader (some green and eggs and ham pages etc) but I expect his K class to have a variety of levels. This is the year she will learn

Other than a few sight words, DD does not yet read. I've tried here and there, but it just hasn't happened and I didn't want to pressure her or make her self-conscious. She knows all of her letter sounds and can write pretty much every letter (occasionally backwards or uppercase still.)

Tell me this is okay and she will not be slow-tracke for life!

FWIW, she's really good at addition, but nobody seems to care about that!