Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 15:15     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No textbooks, and we did have some "homework" eventually - a packet that was sent home on Fridays to be returned the following Thursday or Friday - one page of ELA and one page of math concepts a day, usually. But the truth was I never had any idea where she was with her learning or whether she was on track. And even at the PT conferences it was not clear at all - I'd hear "oh, she got a 576 on I-ready" but that means . . . nothing to me? And when I asked what she needed to work on the teacher would pull up the test and go to look at the questions she got wrong and say "Oh, we haven't gotten to that yet, we haven't covered this yet" so I'm not sure WTF the testing was even supposed to be covering since it's not what they've learned?

My advice as a parent of a now-rising 1st grader - work on reading, writing, and math basics at home. This is all stuff you can teach your kid and if you wait for the teacher to tell you where your kid is falling behind you'll probably be disappointed. I was shocked by both 1) how little reading progress DD made in Kindergarten, and 2) how few weeks it took me this summer to get her from a handful of sight words to staying up late reading chapter books by herself. Her teacher sucked but luckily it wasn't a statistics or calculus teacher. I can still teach whatever she needs to learn at age 5.


A lot of people here claim that their children learn nothing in elementary school, no basics. I’ve only seen that at poorly performing schools that are overcrowded and underfunded. Your typical school is not like that and schools with large budgets in wealthy towns are doing fine.

I’m don’t understand how your kid only had some sight words if you have been reading to her all along. Or maybe something clicked this summer and it came together for her. It can’t be that every kindergarten is failing.

If you think your child isn’t where he should be then ask questions.


Schools with “large budgets” in weathy districts aren’t doing any better at teaching. It’s the same. The only difference and why the kids are all doing well is because of their parents at home and what they are exposing them to
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 15:13     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
This must be your first. There is no homework or textbooks at all, period. Maybe if your kid takes an AP class they will get homework and a textbook. Better start supplementing now- or move to private.
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 15:08     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:No textbooks, and we did have some "homework" eventually - a packet that was sent home on Fridays to be returned the following Thursday or Friday - one page of ELA and one page of math concepts a day, usually. But the truth was I never had any idea where she was with her learning or whether she was on track. And even at the PT conferences it was not clear at all - I'd hear "oh, she got a 576 on I-ready" but that means . . . nothing to me? And when I asked what she needed to work on the teacher would pull up the test and go to look at the questions she got wrong and say "Oh, we haven't gotten to that yet, we haven't covered this yet" so I'm not sure WTF the testing was even supposed to be covering since it's not what they've learned?

My advice as a parent of a now-rising 1st grader - work on reading, writing, and math basics at home. This is all stuff you can teach your kid and if you wait for the teacher to tell you where your kid is falling behind you'll probably be disappointed. I was shocked by both 1) how little reading progress DD made in Kindergarten, and 2) how few weeks it took me this summer to get her from a handful of sight words to staying up late reading chapter books by herself. Her teacher sucked but luckily it wasn't a statistics or calculus teacher. I can still teach whatever she needs to learn at age 5.


A lot of people here claim that their children learn nothing in elementary school, no basics. I’ve only seen that at poorly performing schools that are overcrowded and underfunded. Your typical school is not like that and schools with large budgets in wealthy towns are doing fine.

I’m don’t understand how your kid only had some sight words if you have been reading to her all along. Or maybe something clicked this summer and it came together for her. It can’t be that every kindergarten is failing.

If you think your child isn’t where he should be then ask questions.
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 15:02     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:We are in Arlington. No homework in K (or at all in elementary). We get a weekly newsletter via email from each of our kids’ teachers that highlights what they worked on that week. The teacher will reach out if there is any issue, but if there is something you are worried about reach out to them.


+1
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 15:01     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Accept that you will rarely ever know anything about what your kid is doing their entire elementary career. Even during conferences or with progress reports.
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 14:37     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:Hoping to hear from parents of current or recent Kindergarteners.

Is it normal to not have homework or textbooks? Are you getting weekly updates on the class app with a brief overview of what they’re learning?

Otherwise, how do you know if your child needs help before progress reports? I’m not concerned about the grade, but making sure my child is understanding.


Our Montessori K sent a folder home on Fridays that was child’s written work done that week, to be returned empty on Monday am. The class had workbooks for a few subjects, like math. No classroom app. There was a weekly 2 page email from teacher with a few photos. No iPads or Chromebooks or other screens.

For 1st grade, they added spelling practice as homework 5x nights/week with a weekly spelling test. Math workbook was daily during school hours. They still had a folder going home on Friday pm with all written work DC accomplished during the week. No screens in class, but had typing on a computer for 30-40 minutes once each week.

We had no issues understanding what DC had done each week, mainly because of the folder (combined with all work being hand written).
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 14:36     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No textbooks, and we did have some "homework" eventually - a packet that was sent home on Fridays to be returned the following Thursday or Friday - one page of ELA and one page of math concepts a day, usually. But the truth was I never had any idea where she was with her learning or whether she was on track. And even at the PT conferences it was not clear at all - I'd hear "oh, she got a 576 on I-ready" but that means . . . nothing to me? And when I asked what she needed to work on the teacher would pull up the test and go to look at the questions she got wrong and say "Oh, we haven't gotten to that yet, we haven't covered this yet" so I'm not sure WTF the testing was even supposed to be covering since it's not what they've learned?

My advice as a parent of a now-rising 1st grader - work on reading, writing, and math basics at home. This is all stuff you can teach your kid and if you wait for the teacher to tell you where your kid is falling behind you'll probably be disappointed. I was shocked by both 1) how little reading progress DD made in Kindergarten, and 2) how few weeks it took me this summer to get her from a handful of sight words to staying up late reading chapter books by herself. Her teacher sucked but luckily it wasn't a statistics or calculus teacher. I can still teach whatever she needs to learn at age 5.
This right here is my exact concern. We’ve made so much progress on reading at home, but there really does not seem to be a serious emphasis on phonics at school. I want him to have the fundamentals down, but the day is so long and he’s too tired for enrichment at home. I guess just the weekends and summer will have to suffice?


Our pre-K teacher told us not to work on it because they had a system, and in pre-K it seemed the sytem was working! She was "blending" sounds and was really good at sounding out words, picked up some sight words, etc. In Kindergarten she stagnated and then regressed some (lost some sight words), probably because the teacher really only let the kids who came in already knowing how to read do any reading in class - the rest were put on tablets to "learn." I was starting to worry she was dyslexic! But like I said: a month or so of focusing on reading together every single day and she's reading chapter books alone now. She is bright and capable but the teacher was really bad, which is just the luck of the draw unfortunately.


Keep an eye on screen use. Yes, kids aren’t super reliable reporters but the weaker teachers rely on screens a lot, while the stronger ones use them sparingly.


I noticed this too. One sons teacher had them do absolutely everything on tablets including the morning song, story time and even recess when it rained. My son left her class a worse reader than when he started. The other son had a lovely teacher who sang, read stories and let them play with legos and Lincoln logs. I praised that one to the principal but she left, probably because she was getting paid the same or less than lazy teacher.
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 14:33     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:No textbooks, and we did have some "homework" eventually - a packet that was sent home on Fridays to be returned the following Thursday or Friday - one page of ELA and one page of math concepts a day, usually. But the truth was I never had any idea where she was with her learning or whether she was on track. And even at the PT conferences it was not clear at all - I'd hear "oh, she got a 576 on I-ready" but that means . . . nothing to me? And when I asked what she needed to work on the teacher would pull up the test and go to look at the questions she got wrong and say "Oh, we haven't gotten to that yet, we haven't covered this yet" so I'm not sure WTF the testing was even supposed to be covering since it's not what they've learned?

My advice as a parent of a now-rising 1st grader - work on reading, writing, and math basics at home. This is all stuff you can teach your kid and if you wait for the teacher to tell you where your kid is falling behind you'll probably be disappointed. I was shocked by both 1) how little reading progress DD made in Kindergarten, and 2) how few weeks it took me this summer to get her from a handful of sight words to staying up late reading chapter books by herself. Her teacher sucked but luckily it wasn't a statistics or calculus teacher. I can still teach whatever she needs to learn at age 5.


I could have written this! I thought it was just a bad teacher and she was, but this was appeared to be district-wide issue (and maybe other nearby districts?), so we feared it wouldn’t be getting better anytime soon. In any case, after teaching DD to read at home and spending another year waiting for school to begin teaching kids to write proper sentences and spell simple words, we switched to Catholic school. I’m shocked - Her handwriting is SO much better and it’s only been a week.
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 14:25     Subject: Re:Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Public kindergarten? There shouldn’t be homework at this age except reading.

Our teacher sent updates I think monthly with that topics they were learning (as a whole class generally, not student specific updates). These would be things like writing their names correctly, getting used to classroom routines, counting in number corner). She also sent leveled readers home which were switched out weekly and parents had to record minutes read and whether child struggled.
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 14:20     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Assuming you’ve already taught her to read she will be fine. If you haven’t taught her to read yet then you should start now, using an actual phonics program.
Yes, I’ve taught him to read with a program. I’m just worried that I’m going to burn him out by expecting him to do enrichment after he comes home from a long day of school. I think that alone proves that I’m not a tiger mom. I really don’t think my parents would’ve cared about my level of exhaustion. Haha


I wouldn’t worry about any of that. I wouldn’t overdue it but 30-60 minutes of enrichment following K is not a lot. Best to make it routine early on anyways. If he wants a day off or just doesn’t seem into it then skip a day or two or end early. The amount of “work” they do in K is minimal. You really need to be the main teacher from about K-3 and make sure he can read, spell, write, tell time, and do basic math fluently. Around 4th he should start getting homework, if not then focus on vocabulary and writing for a few years until middle school. I would treat school like social time until middle school as there’s not much consistency or teaching in elementary.
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 14:10     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Assuming you’ve already taught her to read she will be fine. If you haven’t taught her to read yet then you should start now, using an actual phonics program.
Yes, I’ve taught him to read with a program. I’m just worried that I’m going to burn him out by expecting him to do enrichment after he comes home from a long day of school. I think that alone proves that I’m not a tiger mom. I really don’t think my parents would’ve cared about my level of exhaustion. Haha


Kindergarten phonics will go slow for you and him. They focus on letter sounds and formation in the first third/half. Then will go into blending CVC and CV and sight words. Late in the year they will touch briefly on blends (CCVC, CVCC and magic/siletn e) Get phonics leveled books and follow up at home if you want to. If you care about handwriting work on that. Here is how: Sound out CVC words and have your kid write them. Sound out words with blends and diagraphs sh, ch, th, ck (crab, bush, pick) and have your kid write them while you are paying attention to handwriting. Give him time to play when he gets home and then just read one book or work for 10 minutes on handwriting (Do 1 sight words and 3 CVC, then increase to a sentence).


You may want to think about starting this in October when the school routine is down and he is less tired.

Or do nothing and that would be fine too, since he is already reading!
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 13:36     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
This was a few years ago. At some point after the new year, we had a conference, I can't recall who initiated it, but the teacher loaned us books and reading aids. My DS had great progress reports at that point but we all knew he wasn't naturally picking up reading like other kids and he wasn't going to hit the K standard at the end of the year. I don't think any other kids were singled out in his class for help. I think if you don't hear anything, your child is on track or exceeding expectations.
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 13:25     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to K last year. We had a wonderful teacher. She sent a weekly newsletter. We got additional emails periodically about any special events. No homework or textbooks. We had a fall conference with the teacher then as needed.


I wanted to add after reading the above replies, my daughter made a lot of progress with reading. She came in reading CVC words but was progressed to maybe mid to late first grade level by year end. It helped that the class was small and a higher SES school so she had a peer group also at the same point.
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 13:24     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No textbooks, and we did have some "homework" eventually - a packet that was sent home on Fridays to be returned the following Thursday or Friday - one page of ELA and one page of math concepts a day, usually. But the truth was I never had any idea where she was with her learning or whether she was on track. And even at the PT conferences it was not clear at all - I'd hear "oh, she got a 576 on I-ready" but that means . . . nothing to me? And when I asked what she needed to work on the teacher would pull up the test and go to look at the questions she got wrong and say "Oh, we haven't gotten to that yet, we haven't covered this yet" so I'm not sure WTF the testing was even supposed to be covering since it's not what they've learned?

My advice as a parent of a now-rising 1st grader - work on reading, writing, and math basics at home. This is all stuff you can teach your kid and if you wait for the teacher to tell you where your kid is falling behind you'll probably be disappointed. I was shocked by both 1) how little reading progress DD made in Kindergarten, and 2) how few weeks it took me this summer to get her from a handful of sight words to staying up late reading chapter books by herself. Her teacher sucked but luckily it wasn't a statistics or calculus teacher. I can still teach whatever she needs to learn at age 5.


I don't understand why you didn't do stuff like look up i-Ready tables to find out what her assessment meant, or notice that she wasn't reading fluently and do some extra work at home. Why didn't you know until summer? Why did you need the teacher to tell you? Also did your child get a report card at any point? That would have told you whether your kid was on, above, or below grade level.


The assessments didn't mean anything, is entire the point. Testing a kid on concepts that the class has not covered doesn't tell you anything about the kid's ability to learn or retain, and the teacher could. not. answer. questions about that because she did not know how to parse out scores for the material that was covered in class, and there was no testing that wasn't on the tablet. It's not like she had pop quizzes to look at to counterbalance the tablet reports. She wasn't reading fluently and was still writing some letters and numbers backwards and the teacher's feedback was "she's on track, this is all perfectly normal at this point." I needed the teacher to tell me, because, like I've already said, another teacher at the same school told me not to do any enrichment at home because it would interfere with the way the school teaches reading - except the next year I got stuck with a teacher who was evidently incapable of implementing the school's method successfully.

And your belief in report cards for a Kindergartener is kind of cute. She exceeded expectations in every class, does that mean anything to you? Because the expectations are "sits on the carpet at carpet time."
Anonymous
Post 08/14/2025 13:24     Subject: Kindergarten Communication from Teacher
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Are you a tiger mom? Kindergartners should be learning through play.
I’m the child of immigrants, but my spouse who isn’t is also concerned. I don’t think it’s a Tiger Mom thing, but a generational shift.


Does the country your parents come from not know anything about child development? At the kindergarten stage playing is the best way to learn. Not with textbooks, not with sitting and doing homework, not drilling a kid over and over.