Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is transitional K?

A way for privates to soak parents for another year of tuition. They'll say a kid isn't ready for K, but there's a TK program The kid could do, and then move to K next year. The reality is a school may have 40 K seats, but TK has 30 seats. Those 30 TKers move to K, so really there's only 10 K seats available. So parents will accept a TK seat to get their kid into the school. Basically, the school forces redshirting on the majority of their families.

People paying for private education aren't looking for ways to avoid school.
They can apply to college from 11the grade if they think their kid doesn't need 13 years of school.

Anonymous wrote:It is normal. Ask me how I know.

- Mom of a superstar student

How do you know?

Anonymous wrote:What is transitional K?

A way for privates to soak parents for another year of tuition. They'll say a kid isn't ready for K, but there's a TK program The kid could do, and then move to K next year. The reality is a school may have 40 K seats, but TK has 30 seats. Those 30 TKers move to K, so really there's only 10 K seats available. So parents will accept a TK seat to get their kid into the school. Basically, the school forces redshirting on the majority of their families.

Anonymous wrote:Does this sound like some kind of delay? He just started kindergarten and for his homework he has to write the numbers 1-10 and his 2 looks like an S and he couldn't do a 3 or 5 either. He can identify the numbers and can write letters (not great handwriting though) so it didn't occur to me there could be something going on. His class art is also very poor compared to the other kids. What do you think?

Boys reverse letters and numbers until third grade and it’s normal.

What is transitional K?

My kid was the same at that age. It sorted itself out and other than reversing 4s her writing is fine now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did he go to a "play-based" preK?

He went to Transitional Kindergarten and seemed and they just traced the letters there. But he didn't write any letters or numbers much all summer.

So it sounds like he has other issues, right? Because you redshirted him. What are your other developmental concerns? What is the full picture here?

Also this "transitional K" seems well behind even my daycare-based preschool class of 4 and 5 yr olds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did he go to a "play-based" preK?

He went to Transitional Kindergarten and seemed and they just traced the letters there. But he didn't write any letters or numbers much all summer.

I don't have a specific answer for your issue but in the future I recommend getting one of the Summer Bridge or similar workbooks for the summer and giving it to him on long car trips or during plane travel. Doesn't have to be like daily practice but those books often have good guidance for this kind of thing specifically (letter and number formation in particular is something that workbooks actually excel at). It can help make sure your kid doesn't show up on the first day of a grade needing remedial help because of rusty skills or lack of familiarity. Summer learning loss is a real issue and it can have follow on effects if it lands your kid in remedial small groups and then they might not progress as far during the year as they could.

While my kid doesn't love worksheets generally she actually does enjoy getting her summer bridge workbook at the start of each summer and she'll work on it without prompting during travel or even sometimes at home because it's reasonably fun.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did he go to a "play-based" preK?

He went to Transitional Kindergarten and seemed and they just traced the letters there. But he didn't write any letters or numbers much all summer.

So it sounds like he has other issues, right? Because you redshirted him. What are your other developmental concerns? What is the full picture here?

Does he practice at home or is Kindergarten his first time being exposed to writing?

We had our kids writing at 3 years old and yes, initially it was very illegible but that was expected. They also practiced at pre-school.

It was legible by K but they had almost 2 years of practice at that point. Get some worksheets from online or a workbook and have him practice at home.

Is he by any chance a lefty? Left handed kids naturally write some things backwards for longer than right handed kids. With my 2 lefties I noticed 3 and 5 were especially problematic (along with p/q and d/b).

It is normal. Ask me how I know.

- Mom of a superstar student

Anonymous wrote:Did he go to a "play-based" preK?

He went to Transitional Kindergarten and seemed and they just traced the letters there. But he didn't write any letters or numbers much all summer.

Anonymous wrote:Possibly dysgraphia. OT and a lot of home practice needed. Watch letter formation closely - if you are going to a public school, they will completely let it slide. Ask me how I know.

One of the most misunderstood lds that exists. Every other adult blames it on lazy parenting. Just know that making a child write more does not cure dysgraphia. Every year my dc encountered a teacher who tortured dc with extra writing to fix the dysgraphia despite dc's IEP clearly stating not to do this.

Did he go to a "play-based" preK?