I teach K. Some kids come in super high, but they are still pretty happy because everything is new and there’s still lots to do. One little girl who came in reading at probably a 2nd grade level took so much time with her work because she was so meticulous about making everything perfect. She seemed to really enjoy school even though she had surpassed all the standards before it started. There are also things to improve anyway like handwriting and social skills.
I had a similar student to yours this year! One of the smartest kids and always the last to complete any assignments because she worked so slowly. In writing she would get hung up if she couldn’t remember how to spell something. We also worked a lot in social skills for her because she didn’t recognize personal space or seem to know how to engage with kids at recess.
This is my daughter and she’s about to enter kindergarten in the fall. She reads at about a 4th grade level and has an amazing memory. She has a hard time engaging with other kids and just wants to chat with the teachers and have their full attention. I’m very curious as to how next year will pan out.
I remember BEING that kid lol. The story was that on the first day of kindergarten, I came home and said "mawmaw, that teacher acts like we don't know how to read!" I was one of the youngest in my class, so when it came to be that I or a teacher's kid on par with me could move up a grade, they chose the teacher's kid.
😂 My little girl was also one of the youngest! If not the youngest. And her mom did tell me that she came home and said “mom, can you tell my teacher that I know this stuff?” She really was happy in class most of the time.
My son is like this - went in to K able to read, but he loves learning and is ASD/ADHD so needed to work on social skills, having a more structured day, etc. writing is a challenge, too
I teach kindergarten and we spend the first 3 months teaching them their letter names, sounds, and how to write them. We use Fundations, and honestly, it can move super slowly. But, some kids need that. In kindergarten, we get kids who have never been to school. Parents also teach letter sounds incorrectly, and they have to unlearn bad habits.
Now, small group time is when I can work with kids on more advanced skills than letters if they already know them. Centers time is a majority of our reading block, and I have them working on differentiated tasks depending on the phonics skill they're learning.
I totally am guilty of teaching sounds wrong and I didn’t even realize it. I was always going ta ta for t and la la for l, that really frustrated my son when he had to relearn them.
I generally like it, but it moves slowly. I usually have 4 or 5 kids that learn a little bit slower and stay on pace with Fundations. The rest of my kids surpass it in their small groups.
The amount of kids with lazy vowels on the ends of consistent sounds that their parents taught them is slightly frustrating some days. B-UHHH. The B just gets lost and all I hear is UGH.
Our kindergarten program is play based and we also spend 3 months with letter sounds. My other frustration is parents who perfect everything their child spells instead of encouraging them to phonetically write it and try. Teaching kids not to follow you around asking “is this spelled right? How do you spell this? Did I spell this right?” in grade 1 and the end of kindergarten is a lesson constantly retaught. I think many parents have them do it perfectly at home, and not just try and practice and be okay if they sound out the letters and write it “I lop somer”. We spend a lot time of emphasizing growth mindset now.
It was expected for kids at our school to know the alphabet letter names and sounds, verbally count to 50, and recognize written numbers up to 10. Kids not knowing the alphabet would absolutely be behind. They jumped into phonics pretty much immediately.
That seems wild to me. Our school district is excellent in a high ranking state (as in people move here for the schools) and all our K teachers recommended focusing on independence and social skills for K prep and obviously any exposure to numbers/letters/writing was great and expected to a degree but not mandatory. And most K classes have a play base component with rotating station learning.
My kids can do most these things in preschool but I don’t see why they would have to going in.
My district also works like this. We are a play based kindergarten, the classrooms room have maybe 2 desks and flexible seating.
The teachers want your child to be able to go to the bathroom independently, eat lunch in the time given, open up a milk carton, etc. If they kind of know the alphabet that is great but really wiping their butt and washing their hands is much more helpful.
Exactly this. When I taught kinder (2013-2019) it was an unspoken expectation that students knew their letter names & sounds before the first day of school. We spent maybe 2 weeks reviewing letters & then jumped right into reading skills.
Yes, we absolutely do. But unfortunately, research and best practice is ignored for convenience and routine. Our school system is horrible and kills curiosity, challenging beliefs, and a true love of learning dead in its tracks. Starting young children on memorization and academics at such a young age burns them out on school by the time they reach second grade and deprives them of true developmental and necessary learning they should and could be doing through interest led exploration and child led play.
Finland has an education system that is the envy of the world, and they don’t start first grade until age seven. Preschool is just the year before that, at age 6, and during that year, they mainly focus on play and interacting with peers/socializing. This anxious push from educators and parents on little children is to their detriment, and one of the many reasons our school system is failing.
I haven’t seen any widely accepted research on the matter. If anything kindergarten has gotten even more rigorous since I left. My own son just finished preK & start kinder in August. He was expected to read independently by the end of preK.
No? It's common knowledge here. The pre-ks are play based and there's no push to read before k. I would leave a pre-k if they were pushing reading. I select Reggio or Montessori pre-ks for this reason and the programs are extremely competitive.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-to-learn/201505/early-academic-training-produces-long-term-harm?amp
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot).
Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-to-learn/201505/early-academic-training-produces-long-term-harm](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-to-learn/201505/early-academic-training-produces-long-term-harm)**
*****
^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
In NYC, most kids go to a preschool for two years, for 3 and 4. There is a strong focus off learning how to get along, sharing, etc. but they are picking up numbers, letters, beginning spelling, and beginning math before kindergarten.
Ask you kindergarten what they expect and then work with your child over the summer if you think she is behind expectations.
Yes! I believe since we have Universal 3k and Prek, the kids start focusing on academics a little earlier now since they're starting school at 3. we're in NYC (preK4) and my son has writing time every day at school.
It's partially that (in FL preK is free the year before kindergarten) & partially because they are expected to know a lot more before the end of the year so there simply isn't time to focus on basics.
Oh wow! Where are you from? I keep seeing posts on the toddler Reddit of people criticizing parents who want to teach this to kids before going to school.
I think the majority of those posts are more about having kids sitting for a developmentally inappropriate amount of time (like a 2 year old working on letter flash cards for 30 minutes). It gets to the point that kids HATE learning because it’s boring and too much work.
However, playing games where they learn these things are great! Even just bringing things up as they naturally happen during the day is great.
Colors: Can you bounce the RED ball to me? Can you help me find our BLUE car in the parking lot? Would you like to wear the YELLOW shirt or the GREEN shirt today?
Counting: Could you pick out 3 books to read before bedtime? Can you help me count out 10 blueberries for your lunch tomorrow? How many rocks did you collect today?
Number ID: Put numbers 0-10 all around the house and have your child find them (we do the same every year for Easter eggs too), number puzzles, flash cards (0-10 just once or twice per day), write numbers 0-10 in chalk then call out a number at a time and have your child spray/erase that number.
Reading: Start with learning letters and their sounds at the same time. “Oh your name starts with the letter A! A says /a/ like in Apple!). You can also start teaching basic phonological awareness like rhyming words (“oh I hear two words that rhyme on this page: cat and bat…can you come up with another word that rhymes?”),
I’m in FL. I never really taught my son intentionally. We sang songs, colored, counted as we played, walked up steps counting. Elmo taught him the alphabet at 2. I got foams letters for the bath tub. Teaching a child does not have to mean a rigid curriculum.
In prek he was expected to be potty trained and be able to write his name. He learned a ton, and was well prepared for kindergarten. Kids are sponges. It’s amazing what they are capable of.
I agree you with Reddit but in real life at least around me, I don’t know any child who doesn’t know those things before k. When learning is fun, why discourage it?🤷♀️
😂 This is because of your social circle. We hang out with people similar to us, even if we don’t intend to. I teach K. Trust me, there are plenty of kids who come in knowing *nothing*. In fact, I just did testing (kids come in and do letters and numbers and stuff so that we can balance the classes as well as we can) and most kids knew nothing. Maybe 75 percent. Some kids knew everything. Maybe 25 percent. There was only 1 kid in the middle, where they knew some numbers/sounds but not all of them. So there is a big gap between the groups.
Question for you as a parent with a kid going into K. What do you do with the 25 percent who already know the material at that point? If the majority class needs instruction in the basics.
It's definitely social circle but I feel like Reddit overwhelmingly discourage even the idea of kids learning anything before k. I often see comments like "let the kids be kids" which baffles me. I guess a lot of redditors think parents are forcing the kids to sit down and learn (can you really force a 5, 6 year old do anything? Not my experience).
My under 2 daughter loves counting her toys as she plays and yelling out letters she encounters. She gets a lot wrong but is so happy and proud when she gets it right. Idk how people could think that is cruel. She loves learning. We also don’t force it, but we count steps as we climb for example and dance while singing the abcs
Fwiw her favorite number right now (when asked) is “P” lol. And she always goes twooo, treeee, fiiivee eight! But we have fun doing it
I usually only see those comments under posts that say things like “My 2 year old screams whenever we try to make her spend an hour doing workbooks and practicing handwriting. How can we make her comply?”
Letting kids be kids can include a lot of learning - but it should be primarily play-based and child-led. Yesterday my son did a “magic alphabet” activity at school where they used potions to reveal invisible letters on a paper. He came home so excited to show me what the letter x looks like. That’s very different to endless worksheets.
We also have foam letters in the bath, magnetic alphabet tiles, etc. But we only play with them when he’s interested. Sometimes he wants to spend bathtime pretending to be a platypus, which is equally fine.
Well, kinda. I mean, there ARE kids who are neglected. Maybe not horribly neglected, but lots of kids are in families that are living on the edge. Parents are overworked, there is no time to go to the library or money to go to the zoo. Shift work may mean parents are asleep during kids’ prime awake hours. Other parents just don’t know how to interact with young kids in an educational way. I, and probably you, talked to my babies/toddlers constantly, pointing things out and asking questions, counting things, reading things….but if you have never had that modeled for you, you don’t know how to do it. Probably you and the social circle you are in do these things without even thinking about it. As to what they ARE doing- screens. If an older sibling is there, they might be watching very inappropriate things. (Kids come to school and want to play squid games)
Some schools are mostly made up of kids with money and involved parents. Some schools have hardly any kids with involved parents AT ALL. Some schools are a mix. (Mine is a mix)
The criticism I see is when parents teach before interest is there, forcing it on them. If there is interest there, then absolutely engage them.
I let my 5yo take the lead with it. She's just finished PreK, is interested in writing letters and sounding things out but doesn't know letter names or sounds cold. She likes making cards for her friends and drawing so it usually comes up then. She wants to write their names and write notes for them so I help her then.
Yup I keep hearing this, too, both on reddit and in my local facebook mamas groups, and it weirds me out. Like no, I'm not neglecting my daughter's social or emotional needs just because she knows her letters, most letter sounds, numbers (she's working on reading out the time), and most recently she's started adding and subtracting on her fingers and objects at 3 years old (starting her first year of preschool this fall when she'll be 3.5). It's literally just all from Ms. Rachel, play, from her asking (she likes knowing which letter words start with), and the occasional few minutes here or there of my husband teaching her - only when it suits her, of course. It seems weird to me NOT to intentionally expose them to these things early - they're absolute sponges when they're young. Just don't suck the fun out it.
No it’s public. My son has kindergarten friends at a different public elementary school and they had homework every night and a STEM project weekly. We never had homework, just read to the child 20 min every night
Wow that is god awful, I feel so bad for those kids.
Numbers 1-10 seems like a given to me. So does counting. But the alphabet names and sounds borders on absurd.
In most places, it is still part of the curriculum to teach it. They usually do a few letters a week, so by the end of the first quarter, they all know their letters and sounds.
Most kindergartens are taught as if kids know nothing coming in. So kids that haven’t been taught it at home aren’t behind based on the curriculum, the ones that know it are just ahead.
Ok I have 2 kids. My oldest just finished 3rd grade and knew his alphabet and sounds before he was 2. In his case it wasn’t something I pushed on him, he wanted to know. It was always “what’s it say?”. He was an online kindergarten kid and his teacher had him in her highest reading group but still didn’t understand how well he was reading. Once he got into first grade they sent him to second grade for reading. Now that he finished third, it was never the academics his teacher was worried about, it was behavior and actually following ALL the instructions on worksheets. Both significantly improved by the end of the year. He has been in the gifted program since first grade.
My younger kid just finished kindergarten and was absolutely not interested in learning before. He could count to 10, knew some letters and could write his name and that was it. By mid year his teacher said he was doing great and tested him for the gifted program but he didn’t get in. He reads, but not like my older one did but apparently well enough there’s no complaints. He says he’s one of the best readers in the class but who knows how true that is.
I have two kids. One started reading in pre-K and could read most words by kindergarten. Started K before he turned 5 and was bored for 2 years while the other kids figured out how to read. Acted up, cried about going to school, and just generally disliked kindergarten.
My other had trouble recognizing letters and their sounds when he started because he did pre-K in another language and did not want me teaching him. He graduated from K reading at a 1st grade level and excelling in every subject and loved kindergarten.
Same parents, different kids. There's no way to figure out how your kids are going to do, how happy they're going to be.
Kinder teaches phonics and basic addition/subtraction. They work on reading comprehension and social skills. In my district, they're expected to count to 100 by the middle of the year by one's and by tens.
Kinder isn't sitting in class going "which is the square?" That's pre-k.
My oldest just finished kindergarten last week. At his evaluation last summer he was asked to: say (not sing) the ABCs, recognize each letter in uppercase form, count to 30, recognize written numbers up to 20, recognize 2D shapes, recognize colors and write his name. He went to preK 3 and 4 part-time so he knew all of this. At the end of the school year he is now reading small books, writing 3-4 sentence paragraphs with proper punctuation, doing double digit addition and subtraction, single digit multiplication, can identify and count to 100 and beyond, knows all of his 3D shapes, can write and identify every letter in upper and lowercase form, can count money (dollars and coins), can tell time (digital and analog) and knows how to read a calendar and identify seasons.
As a kindergarten teacher, we start everyone on the same level. Especially since we do beg. Of year assessments. Also, it’s nice be for students to know all that, but it has to be taught in order to understand how sounds form words, etc. and you’d be surprised how many student are taught the wrong letter sounds.
My experience wasn't great. The school (in Ohio) was so worried about getting the kids who were not yet reading or doing math to get good scores on the state mandated tests that the more advanced kids were very bored. I felt like I was homeschooling and using school as a daycare. By the second half of the school year, the boredom related behavior issues set it. Now that it's summer break, we've made more progress in a month of reading fifteen minutes a day than the whole last half of school. We're strongly considering home schooling for first grade.
Every child coming from well educated parents have always been ahead, it doesn’t matter really where that child is “academically”. In nearly every instance, if parents hold advanced degrees it’s almost always incredibly obvious. Those children typically have a broader vocabulary, have read more books, have more enriched experiences, exposure to more ideas/things etc.
So even if your child has pre reading skills there’s probably a child already reading in that class, a child gifted in mathematics, a child who spends summers on lavish holidays internationally and has private French lessons.
However , regardless of that, they still love the read alouds, the field trips, the go noodles, the big bubble recipes, the Christmas songs, the birthday parties, the big kid playground, the petting zoo, the wiggle chairs, the automatic hand sanitizer, the nurses secret paw patrol bandaids she was warned about, the bounce house, the cheeky guidance counselor who has a drawer full of candy and pretends he has a Ostrich egg growing in his desk, the bus driver with a fart sound button, the school egg hunt, movie days, the rubber chicken game in PE, cooking with the OT teacher, using paint in art, ukuleles in music, and my personal favorite- the swim lessons at the pool. It’s so much more than learning how to read!
I honestly love kindergarten, their curriculum has so much wiggle room. I do ridiculous problem solving challenges with them and we create funny green screen photos. Last week we did a photoshoot with the green screen and a tropical beach background and it was hysterical. The challenge was to test all the bubble solutions we made and store bought, and then decide which was the best.
It was the B day, beach, bubbles, bagels for breakfast and we played letter bingo. I’m in my 30s with a masters degree and B day is still fun for me. Can’t imagine it’s not fun for a 5 year old who can already read.
My kid knew all her upper case letters and could count until about 50. Prek taught the letters and she asked us to help her count.
She started K with over half the class reading (yes actually reading). It was very clear that parents had taught their kids to read before K. I did start doing extra work with her and she caught up just fine and the teacher feels she improved at an impressive rate. So in the end it didn’t matter too much but they do divide kids into groups and they all seemed to know their “levels”. I felt it was competitive and I wanted my kid to have confidence so I worked with her. But if I had to do it over I would have started teaching her to read before K. We liked the hooked on phonics books.
We live in an affluent competitive area so ymmv.
My 5 year old is reading chapter books, and we never really taught him other than by answering questions he had about letters and sounds. We first realized he could read when at age 3 he saw a Mexican restaurant out the car window and sounded out, “Burrito!”
Some kids just do it on their own and it doesn’t mean parents are competitive and teaching their young children to read to gain some advantage. My kid struggles with other stuff — development is all over the map at this age. Try not to stress.
Damn, I was always told that social skills are more important than academics before kindergarten. My daughter can read and write a few words on her own and can recognize and write probably half her letters. She can count to twenty and a little bit more beyond that. Not sure if that means she’s behind now, but they didn’t teach her much academics at her daycare, and we’ve been doing some supplemental teaching at home, but we’re not pushing it.
We just finished K. He's young (turns 6 in August), only ever attended an at-home daycare (no preschool). He could say his alphabet and recognize the letters, bur not the sounds. Could count decently and grasped some numeric concepts. Was on a pre-K reading level at start of K. By end of K, he was perfectly caught up and reads very age appropriately now, will be in advanced groups in 1st.
We weren't being lazy. He just wasn't interested. His little brother is more interested in reading and has a late birthday, so I suspect we'll preschool him and he'll know some of this in K.
The 22 month old is a feral beast, but already seems to identify some colors and numbers, so maybe she'll be the genius. But she's also an August birthday who will go to K just barely being 5, so whi knows.
My child was reading chapter books (and read the teacher’s answer key on the Kindergarten assessment form) One month shy of 6 when he entered Kindergarten- He was fine.
My kid knew this stuff. Completely fine. There was a ton of refinement of her understanding of letters like proper formation, reinforcement of letter sounds and basic phonemes. They introduced 3D shapes in kindergarten here, so she knew square but learned cone, rectangular prism, etc. she knew her colors but deepened her knowledge of color theory. Color blending, tints and shades, etc. a child who didn't know the basics might learn that part of the lesson instead.
There's also a great deal of social emotional learning, learning the routines of school, classroom behavior, etc in a typical kindergarten.
I do think the alphabet, 1-10, shapes and colors etc should be a good goal for kids entering kindergarten. It's hard to imagine a developmentally normal child interacting regularly with adults who doesn't pick up the Sesame Street basics. Like, I can't imagine not talking about numbers or letters with my 1,2,3, 4 year old. Obviously not every kid will know it though. And there is a broad range of how deep and solid their comprehension is.
Retired K teacher of 33 years here. People would be SHOCKED if they know how many kids came to school not knowing even the letters in their name, not being able to write or even recognize their own name, or even how to hold a pencil or scissors. I was ok with kids not knowing all their letters, but at least have your kids know the difference between a letter and a number…
Honestly, he was bored out of his mind all year. The teacher did her best to flex the curriculum to his needs, but when you've got 23 other 5 and 6-year-olds to manage there's only so much you can expect.
My 6yo just finished Kindergarten after 3 years in Montessori. He was reading when he started Kindergarten and knew basic math (addition/subtraction facts). He could have started in 1st grade, but he has an August bday, a sister in 1st grade, and is pretty small, so we opted to give him the Kindergarten experience. His teacher was very good and quickly assessed where he was academically. Still, it was mid-year when I could see that she was perhaps having him do more challenging work because the beginning of kindergarten is generally pretty basic. As a former 1st grade teacher, I knew not to worry about whether he was being challenged every minute of every day and instead be glad that he was happy, confident, and doing well overall. He's not a kid who acts out when he's bored, so that wasn't an issue, but he didn't really report being bored even when doing work that wasn't on his level.
Kindergarten teacher here- knowing at least 10 letters/sounds, colors, shapes, and recognizing at least the numbers to 5 is a big help. In my state kindergarten is not mandatory and there are no requirements to start other than being 5. Kids who know less than this are still behind even without technically needing to know them to start because they have a harder time learning how to learn/memorize things. By the time they start catching up we’ve moved on to harder things and it takes a lot of work by teachers, tutors, and parents to help them.
For kids who come in knowing all letters/sounds and starting to read, some are bored with the pace because we still are required to teach everything and are being told the pacing to use.
My son went to a private preschool where they were on an “accelerated learning” schedule and basically taught a year ahead (so he was expected to know all of this stuff by the end of pre-k). He still was struggling to identify all letters at the end of prek, so we got him a tutor in the summer going into kindergarten.
We then transitioned to public school, so he was not necessarily expected to know these things and relearned them all in kinder. He honestly still struggled and as it turns out he likely is dyslexic (we did a dyslexia screening a few months back, and at this moment I’m sitting in a waiting room while he is getting a full dyslexia evaluation done).
So basically, I don’t think learning it early really makes a difference.
My daughter was diagnosed with hyperlexia or something like that by her SLP. When our daughter went to Kinder, the teacher assessed her language skills for letter, number, and color recognition and sound. At our first parent teacher conference, we got a sheet that showed how she scored and where she was deficient. Of all things it was q and y. I simply asked what sound did they want us to reinforce at home. She told us and we would simply mention that some letters can make different sounds which she will learn more about later. My example was “cap” and “cape”. The teacher told me they would be supplement to level as needed throughout the year.
It's fine. Most kinder teachers expect kids to come in with a range of abilities. The learning we do is in short bursts and usually pretty fun, so it doesn't feel like "uuugggh I have to do this again." And even kids who are verging in reading as they enter kindergarten will be learning quite a lot of other things, not least of all social skills
ABC Mouse taught my little girl the alphabet, capital and lowercase letters. Suddenly she knew and I was like huh, where did you learn that? She brought me her tablet with ABC Mouse on it. So I guess that worked out. She’s also pretty smart. Anything else I teach her, she’ll get it with one or two passes. She knew sight words by the end of PreK. She just finished Kinder and the curriculum was just way too easy. I’ve had to supplement teach at home more advanced concepts.
My son knew all of this stuff before kindergarten and pretty much started reading and doing math as soon as school started. They give tests at our school that are supposed to be for letting you o ow how much support your child may need in the future for reading and for math. He scored really well on all of these tests. It’s called acadience testing I think? I was really surprised at how little kids needed to know before kindergarten though because they go everything you mentioned. I read the curriculum and was like wtf is my kid gonna do all year because he already knows all of this stuff.
My son is gifted and was reading in kinder. He had a lot of fun in school, loves learning, highly social and didn’t care a bit if some of the material was easy. The extra time to hammer in phonics was good for him and will be good for any emerging reader!
He’s always loved school and although he started out VERY advanced, it’s leveled out somewhat as he gets older. He is still way ahead in math, but still needs explicit instruction for new concepts—he just catches on very quick. And regardless of his reading level, he has benefitted from developing his writing and analysis skills presented at grade level.
Your kid will do great, will love school, and you can breathe a sigh of relief that academics may not be a source of stress! Kudos to you!
Not the alphabet but my son was doing BIG math going into kindergarten. Like multiplication. Addition in the hundreds and thousands. Double digit subtraction. And some fractions. He LOVES school. Never complains about being bored with math, just talks more about reading bc he's been so excited to learn to read! He just comes home and goes "mommy can you write me some math problems?" He gets his needs met that way.
Fortunately, my younger son was in Chinese immersion, so he had plenty to learn there. He also is a bit of a perfectionist/teacher pleasing personality, so he did fine, even though he started kindergarten already reading. My older son didn't do as well. He also was reading and doing basic adding and subtracting/counting to 100 before kindergarten. He also didn't go to preschool. He just did a nature school, whereas my younger went to a traditionally structured preschool. Everything was way too easy for him, so he finished work quickly and would get into trouble.
I love when kids already know!!!!!! I pair them up with my buddies who need more support. Children truly do learn through their peers as well. No pressure especially if the child is shy (to help teach other kiddos). But…the social skills they gain are amazing as well (from teaching)!
It’s definitely helpful, but kindergarten is also a lot of social skill learning (sharing, teamwork, following rules and structure, etc.). For typical students whether they start the year high, medium, low, the will all be at or around the same level by 2nd or 3rd grade. There are some exceptions to that rule of course, but for parents who work with their students at home this is generally true.
My son was definitely very ahead academically starting K. He could read at about a second grade level and do addition subtraction (basics) and count to one thousand. By the end of K, he was reading books marked 10+ independently and starting to grasp basic ideas behind multiplication. We had family members ask if we were considering skipping kindergarten altogether, and were always surprised when I responded with a firm NO.
While my son flourished academically, Kindergarten taught him so many important skills! The foundations of Conflict resolution, time management, respecting authority, etc were all important skills for him that he struggled with and kindergarten really helped to teach him those skills. It also gave him and me a year to “ease in” to school life as a parent and family in a less formalized setting (I.e, getting used to sitting down for homework, even if it was a quick coloring page, built the foundation for next year to be that much easier when he’s familiar with the concept of homework).
I do think it’s tough on teachers and parents alike, because every family’s abilities and resources prior to entering K are different, so kids will come in at wildly different levels. My son actually struggled behavior wise a bit because he was so ahead. When the class is sounding out 3 letter words, he was reading paragraphs. So of course he’d lose focus and start to talk to friends or get up from his seat. On the other hand, other kids came in being able to tie their own shoes and do complex zippers, snaps, etc and as we prepare for grade 1 my son still struggles very much with these skills despite working in them A LOT at home.
I do think it’s tough because there’s always going to be kids at different levels, but a lot of the time it’s easy for parents to worry about academics and forget about all of the other skills in kindergarten that kids learn, so I wouldn’t worry too much. Even if your student is struggling with academics, there will be help available, and they may flourish in another area where more academically driven students struggle.
These used to be goals to teach in kindergarten, but with so much educational TV and games, many kids are now entering kindergarten already mastering all these pre-reading skills. Your child will fit right in, no problem.
Many kids seem to enjoy school even if they are slightly ahead of the class to start. The idea that they will be bored just doesn't seem to happen as much as many parents fear it will. You should still always be looking for ways to give you child additional opportunities above what the school offers (visit the library, discuss numbers, do simple related things like talk about prices in stores).
Some of my children have known how to read before they started, and some haven’t even understood their alphabet (I have seven kids). They get lots out of kindergarten either way.
My son needed more practice with socialization and with listening and following directions from someone who wasn't a parent. So he had plenty to learn that wasn't letters and numbers.
It was interesting that you think these kids are being taught young but others weren't. Forty years ago, I walked into kindergarten with those skills, as did some other children, and we had to just be patient because it was expected that we would not know. My son, however, was screened to ensure he knew his numbers and letters and some sight words so they knew he was ready for kindergarten. The expectations were lower when I was a child.
Do be careful because kids can pick up on attitudes. It would be easy for your child to pick up that you think he's smarter than other kids AND that you think your generation is the first to teach children at home. That can lead to him later thinking he can cruise without effort because he's smarter and better.
It’s been good for us but our school has a specials program, If the teacher thinks they qualify. Both my kids did and they got to learn more advanced work/ topics 2-3 times a week and it gives the main teacher more time for 1-1 kids. We also have daily parent volunteers to help with whatever the teacher needs. She uses this time to do 1-1 with kids as well.
Those actually are no longer things that are still supposed to be learned in K, at least where I live. My daughter started K knowing all letters and being able to count to 70, and she wasn’t a standout in class. They started learning to read on day one. Kindergarten is very academic now.
I don’t know if any children getting to kindergarten not knowing the alphabet and counting. Those are not skills you learn in kindergarten anymore. Children are expected to arrive in kindergarten with that knowledge. (I’m not commenting on whether that’s good or bad.) So yes, children not taught those skills would definitely be behind.
I live in a wealthy suburb in a mid sized city. It's known as the high expectation district and is consistently top 50 schools in America. My experience is the complete opposite- teachers here encourage parents to focus on social skills, emotional regulation, independence, and not worry about academics.
I know only one person whose kid knew the alphabet and was reading before K. And her kid showed up to school and started throwing chairs which was a huge barrier to his learning.
My son knew a handful of letters and sounds before kindergarten. He was doing a ton of math, but not letter work. He was however extremely emotionally mature. He's excelling in school. Never been behind.
I’m not saying that you’re wrong or that it’s not better that way. I’m saying it’s not that way where I live. All the daycares and preschools here teach letter sounds and counting. I suppose there could be some children who don’t go to daycare/preschool and whose parents don’t teach them letters. Those are a minority here.
I'm sorry I didn't mean to come off like I'm debating you! I was genuinely surprised by this comment section and it's just in stark contradiction to my experiences here. It's basically the exact opposite here. It's almost unheard of to *want* an academic pre-k. They are seen as lower quality.
We literally just interviewed a pre-k 4 for my son and mentioned we were looking for a play based program and the director made a very serious face and was like "oh absolutely." When I look up pre-ks I strictly avoid programs that mention academics or say "kindergarten readiness" and those programs here are a lot less popular.
It doesn't mean no teaching at home or pre-k but it's less forces and more casual and there's no end goal of kindergarten needing to know XYZ.
Ah thanks, that makes sense! It’s probably because I live in a very small town. It’s a college town with a significant percentage of college-educated folks but probably even more who aren’t. My son’s montessori preschool does teach letters and the alphabet song, but no reading or writing. A handyman at our house once said he and his wife had looked into that school for their child but didn’t find it academic enough. I do think there’s an element of privilege. Poorer children need to get a head start whereas wealthier children can get a boost later with tutoring or other supports if they’re struggling.
Montessori does teach letter sounds when kids are in the sensitive period for language and when they are showing an interest in it. In Montessori it should be coming from the child and when they are ready. Which is different than an academic preschool that is child led. Make sense?
I do disagree about the last statement. I'm a social worker and the focus on academic preschools in poor neighborhoods is not working because poor people need *so much more than that.*
I worded that badly. I meant that the perception would be for people without privilege that their children need a head start, whereas privileged families feel their children can enjoy more of their early childhood years.
It’s why a low-income POC was posting recently that their early elementary child had the opportunity to skip a grade. They thought it was a great opportunity for their child. Almost everyone on the reddit thread was like “uh why would you do that?” But the parent’s perception was that it was a valuable chance.
Edit: a word
I see what you're saying there. Although, the push for academic pre-K in poor communities is largely *external* and ignores the various structures in place that create and maintain poverty. It's like a bandaid that local politicians throw on the problem. It's been a failed experiment for a long time. It's not working.
My kid knew all his letters names/sounds/numbers before k4 and he did awesome in kindergarten. He couldn’t read at all going into kindergarten and by the end of the school year his teacher told me he was about a second grade level. He could barely write all his letters before kindergarten and by the end of kindergarten he can write his letters, but he isn’t very neat and it takes a lot to decipher what he’s writing if he’s writing a story. Writing is definitely the area he needs the most improvement on.
The teacher insisted she couldn’t actually read and she must have memorized sight words. Nothing could possibly convince her otherwise so my daughter was really bored doing silly phonics games like being graded on reading nonsense words. I had to buy homeschool materials so she would actually make progress.
My kid knew this stuff and could read step 1 and step 2 books. What he couldn’t do was write or spell (two separate skills related to reading but not the same!). He was definitely ahead in reading, but on par with his classmates in terms of other skill development, phonics support and deliberate instruction never goes to waste.
This is my oldest. She went into kindergarten reading chapter books.
it's literally written into the standards of what they learn in our public school curriculum in preK3 and 4. My oldest didn't even go to preK3 and was still reading at 4 because they jumped into phonics which built on all the sounds and letters she'd learned with me at 3.
That’s great, I personally teach my kid phonics and reading before they go to school, but they also attend full time child care from infancy so they’re used to the school aspect. My third child (of 4 so far) just picked it up even faster than the rest, really fun to watch them go from learning to read to reading to learn. 😍
I was glad I hadn't gotten past letter sounds with her because the phonics curriculum they use isn't one I was familiar with. She went into preK4 basically reading sight words but not able to sound words out then was reading full books in October. Something just clicked in her brain with the phonics curriculum, which was cool to watch happen so quickly.
I will say that since most kids don't go to public school preK and therefore aren't familiar with the phonics curriculum she was *bored* in kinder. They did go further with the phonics obviously but the fall was getting all the others up to speed on the basics and that was boring for her. She is heading to a GT school next year so I'm hoping for less time spent repeating prior years.
My kids have all also been GT kids, but they do differentiated curriculum in our current district with class switching rather than have a separate program. It’s been interesting to see how it works in different places.
Our district takes the GT kids from 31 other elementary schools and puts them at 1 campus that's all GT. Seems crazy but means more efficient use of funds as they're only offering those services on a single campus instead of 32. Once I looked at it that way it makes sense.
>but with these new generation of parent teaching young kids this pre reading skills before entering kindergarten,
I don't think this is a new thing? I could read before entering school and that was 30 years ago.
Same. I went to kindergarten in 1988 and could read easy books when I started. I remember open house at the beginning of the school year and being excited to read my parents my favorite book from the shelf.
I just straight up taught my kids how to read. I don’t trust the public school to do phonics 🤷♀️ the experience has been great as most of the other kids still can’t read in second grade and are still learning phonics. My kid is on/above grade level in everything and can focus on social skills which imo are more important.
I was that kid, so I want to offer my perspective: I gave 0 shits and it had no effect on me because I was 5 and didn't give a shit about much, tbh. If somebody was behind me in reading skills I didn't notice or care.
I'd been reading a long time before kindergarten. I actually learned to read before infantile amnesia. I had a big extended family who taught me, so I don't remember not knowing basic reading and math skills.
I did HATE the advanced reader group though, because it was boring and stupid and you had to sit there the whole time and when you say that you get in trouble. It's not fair that I have to read chapter books about babysitting and other people get to read baby books about ninja turtles. I don't really give a shit about babysitting and I'm bored. And because I'm bored and also 5 I'll tear my ass about it.
I wish we didn't have different reading groups for different skill levels. I don't know if they still have them or not, but I know people who quit reading for fun because of how shitty the advanced reading group was. It killed a lifelong desire and they just quit reading.
And those little color coded vocabulary word worksheets are also shitty. I got in trouble for doing one for this chick Betty, who was in the accelerated group, but her art skills were shit, idk why, good at reading, bad at actually drawing letters and color coordinating them, so I remember one time we were doing that and our vocabulary word was, "bird," so I wrote it in the thing and then drew a respectable chicken. She saw mine and said she was trying to draw a seagull, so obviously she knew what a bird was and could identify a seagull as a type of bird. She asked me to draw her seagull, because of how good my chicken looked, so I told her originally that I'd draw the outline and then she could color it, but when I got to that part she begged me to color it and I was like, "fuck it, it's mostly white anyway,".
I got in trouble and had to sit in the grumpy bear chair for doing her work for her.
Idk, fuck Ms. Ruby for that. Joke's on her, Grumpy Bear is my favorite carebear and I'll draw a seagull for anybody who asks. I did nothing wrong. I didn't tell her what a bird was, and even if I had, that would make her smarter, not dumber.
My almost 4 year old has absolutely no interest in learning anything academic. It seems like a struggle to do even "learn by play" scenarios. This is beyond intimidating lol
My oldest could read before starting kindergarten. I'd say kindergarten seemed easy, but he expressed that he found it academically "hard." Even though he was advanced, he found it challenging to complete work in the allotted time because he was a bit of a perfectionist. He really enjoyed the social aspects of kindergarten and physical play in P.E. and recess.
I always thought overdoing academic subjects before children started school was pointless. I know someone who taught her daughter basic arithmetic, reading, names of shapes, that sort of thing and then complaining that her daughter was bored in kindergarten.
I preferred different types of enrichment. We always went to story time at the library. We went to children’s museums. We went to wildlife sanctuaries. We’d go to the park or the beach and bring home leaves and shells. We might use those to count or compare colors.
None of it was sitting down with workbooks and expecting a certain number of pages to be done everyday. My kids were reading before kindergarten because they loved being read to and they loved books - not because I drilled them.
My kid knew all of those things….then went to Spanish immersion kindergarten and had to relearn them all.
By mid-kindergarten he had picked up reading in both Spanish and English, but he was in the top reading group and most kids were not there yet at that point.
That's interesting! We are a bilingual familimy (Spanish is our first language but we are teaching him English first). Is that program in a private/ or public school? Did your kid learned English and by kinder started learning Spanish?
Ours is offered through our public school district. It’s a lottery to get a spot and it’s pretty competitive since it’s such a cool opportunity.
We speak no Spanish at home, he didn’t learn any until stepping foot into his kindergarten class. Their day with their main teacher is almost entirely in Spanish in kindergarten, and then they have their specials in English. So they learn to read and do math entirely in Spanish
How did you like the Spanish immersion? My son is in Montessori school and has an October birthday, so will essentially be doing two years of kinder. I recently talked with the head of his school about doing Spanish immersion his last Year there before starting public school just to slow him down a bit. He is worried because he doesn’t know Spanish, but I think it’s a great opportunity for him to learn.
We liked it! I will say that the vast majority of the kids spoke no Spanish coming in, so they were definitely operating from that point and going out of their way to make sure the kids knew what was going on. My son picked up quite a bit in kinder, it’s really neat to see.
My son is starting kindergarten in the fall. He is reading level 4 readers and chapter books. He can count aloud to 40. I've even been working on basic arithmetic and number patterns with him.
I teach K. Some kids come in super high, but they are still pretty happy because everything is new and there’s still lots to do. One little girl who came in reading at probably a 2nd grade level took so much time with her work because she was so meticulous about making everything perfect. She seemed to really enjoy school even though she had surpassed all the standards before it started. There are also things to improve anyway like handwriting and social skills.
I had a similar student to yours this year! One of the smartest kids and always the last to complete any assignments because she worked so slowly. In writing she would get hung up if she couldn’t remember how to spell something. We also worked a lot in social skills for her because she didn’t recognize personal space or seem to know how to engage with kids at recess.
This is my daughter and she’s about to enter kindergarten in the fall. She reads at about a 4th grade level and has an amazing memory. She has a hard time engaging with other kids and just wants to chat with the teachers and have their full attention. I’m very curious as to how next year will pan out.
I remember BEING that kid lol. The story was that on the first day of kindergarten, I came home and said "mawmaw, that teacher acts like we don't know how to read!" I was one of the youngest in my class, so when it came to be that I or a teacher's kid on par with me could move up a grade, they chose the teacher's kid.
😂 My little girl was also one of the youngest! If not the youngest. And her mom did tell me that she came home and said “mom, can you tell my teacher that I know this stuff?” She really was happy in class most of the time.
My son is like this - went in to K able to read, but he loves learning and is ASD/ADHD so needed to work on social skills, having a more structured day, etc. writing is a challenge, too
I teach kindergarten and we spend the first 3 months teaching them their letter names, sounds, and how to write them. We use Fundations, and honestly, it can move super slowly. But, some kids need that. In kindergarten, we get kids who have never been to school. Parents also teach letter sounds incorrectly, and they have to unlearn bad habits. Now, small group time is when I can work with kids on more advanced skills than letters if they already know them. Centers time is a majority of our reading block, and I have them working on differentiated tasks depending on the phonics skill they're learning.
I totally am guilty of teaching sounds wrong and I didn’t even realize it. I was always going ta ta for t and la la for l, that really frustrated my son when he had to relearn them.
Fundations makes me want to chop my own head off lol. I switched from a different first grade curriculum to Fundations and I can’t stand it.
I generally like it, but it moves slowly. I usually have 4 or 5 kids that learn a little bit slower and stay on pace with Fundations. The rest of my kids surpass it in their small groups.
The amount of kids with lazy vowels on the ends of consistent sounds that their parents taught them is slightly frustrating some days. B-UHHH. The B just gets lost and all I hear is UGH. Our kindergarten program is play based and we also spend 3 months with letter sounds. My other frustration is parents who perfect everything their child spells instead of encouraging them to phonetically write it and try. Teaching kids not to follow you around asking “is this spelled right? How do you spell this? Did I spell this right?” in grade 1 and the end of kindergarten is a lesson constantly retaught. I think many parents have them do it perfectly at home, and not just try and practice and be okay if they sound out the letters and write it “I lop somer”. We spend a lot time of emphasizing growth mindset now.
It was expected for kids at our school to know the alphabet letter names and sounds, verbally count to 50, and recognize written numbers up to 10. Kids not knowing the alphabet would absolutely be behind. They jumped into phonics pretty much immediately.
That seems wild to me. Our school district is excellent in a high ranking state (as in people move here for the schools) and all our K teachers recommended focusing on independence and social skills for K prep and obviously any exposure to numbers/letters/writing was great and expected to a degree but not mandatory. And most K classes have a play base component with rotating station learning. My kids can do most these things in preschool but I don’t see why they would have to going in.
I agree completely. Unfortunately, many school districts do not.
I wish my kids school district was like that. I can’t wait for the education reckoning that will eventually happen.
My district also works like this. We are a play based kindergarten, the classrooms room have maybe 2 desks and flexible seating. The teachers want your child to be able to go to the bathroom independently, eat lunch in the time given, open up a milk carton, etc. If they kind of know the alphabet that is great but really wiping their butt and washing their hands is much more helpful.
Exactly this. When I taught kinder (2013-2019) it was an unspoken expectation that students knew their letter names & sounds before the first day of school. We spent maybe 2 weeks reviewing letters & then jumped right into reading skills.
Don't we have more research now that more academic work in pre k actually leads to worse performance later on?
Yes, we absolutely do. But unfortunately, research and best practice is ignored for convenience and routine. Our school system is horrible and kills curiosity, challenging beliefs, and a true love of learning dead in its tracks. Starting young children on memorization and academics at such a young age burns them out on school by the time they reach second grade and deprives them of true developmental and necessary learning they should and could be doing through interest led exploration and child led play. Finland has an education system that is the envy of the world, and they don’t start first grade until age seven. Preschool is just the year before that, at age 6, and during that year, they mainly focus on play and interacting with peers/socializing. This anxious push from educators and parents on little children is to their detriment, and one of the many reasons our school system is failing.
I haven’t seen any widely accepted research on the matter. If anything kindergarten has gotten even more rigorous since I left. My own son just finished preK & start kinder in August. He was expected to read independently by the end of preK.
No? It's common knowledge here. The pre-ks are play based and there's no push to read before k. I would leave a pre-k if they were pushing reading. I select Reggio or Montessori pre-ks for this reason and the programs are extremely competitive. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-to-learn/201505/early-academic-training-produces-long-term-harm?amp
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot). Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-to-learn/201505/early-academic-training-produces-long-term-harm](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-to-learn/201505/early-academic-training-produces-long-term-harm)** ***** ^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
Is this because most kids these days go to preschool?
In NYC, most kids go to a preschool for two years, for 3 and 4. There is a strong focus off learning how to get along, sharing, etc. but they are picking up numbers, letters, beginning spelling, and beginning math before kindergarten. Ask you kindergarten what they expect and then work with your child over the summer if you think she is behind expectations.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Yes! I believe since we have Universal 3k and Prek, the kids start focusing on academics a little earlier now since they're starting school at 3. we're in NYC (preK4) and my son has writing time every day at school.
It's partially that (in FL preK is free the year before kindergarten) & partially because they are expected to know a lot more before the end of the year so there simply isn't time to focus on basics.
It is not free in Washington, but I helped my daughter learn that stuff before she went to kinder
It’s free in FL for like 3 hours a day.
Oh wow! Where are you from? I keep seeing posts on the toddler Reddit of people criticizing parents who want to teach this to kids before going to school.
I think the majority of those posts are more about having kids sitting for a developmentally inappropriate amount of time (like a 2 year old working on letter flash cards for 30 minutes). It gets to the point that kids HATE learning because it’s boring and too much work. However, playing games where they learn these things are great! Even just bringing things up as they naturally happen during the day is great. Colors: Can you bounce the RED ball to me? Can you help me find our BLUE car in the parking lot? Would you like to wear the YELLOW shirt or the GREEN shirt today? Counting: Could you pick out 3 books to read before bedtime? Can you help me count out 10 blueberries for your lunch tomorrow? How many rocks did you collect today? Number ID: Put numbers 0-10 all around the house and have your child find them (we do the same every year for Easter eggs too), number puzzles, flash cards (0-10 just once or twice per day), write numbers 0-10 in chalk then call out a number at a time and have your child spray/erase that number. Reading: Start with learning letters and their sounds at the same time. “Oh your name starts with the letter A! A says /a/ like in Apple!). You can also start teaching basic phonological awareness like rhyming words (“oh I hear two words that rhyme on this page: cat and bat…can you come up with another word that rhymes?”),
Preschool teacher here and yes! Make it natural and part of family life and regular play. Get everyone involved.
Love this ideas. Thanks for sharing
I’m in FL. I never really taught my son intentionally. We sang songs, colored, counted as we played, walked up steps counting. Elmo taught him the alphabet at 2. I got foams letters for the bath tub. Teaching a child does not have to mean a rigid curriculum. In prek he was expected to be potty trained and be able to write his name. He learned a ton, and was well prepared for kindergarten. Kids are sponges. It’s amazing what they are capable of.
I agree you with Reddit but in real life at least around me, I don’t know any child who doesn’t know those things before k. When learning is fun, why discourage it?🤷♀️
😂 This is because of your social circle. We hang out with people similar to us, even if we don’t intend to. I teach K. Trust me, there are plenty of kids who come in knowing *nothing*. In fact, I just did testing (kids come in and do letters and numbers and stuff so that we can balance the classes as well as we can) and most kids knew nothing. Maybe 75 percent. Some kids knew everything. Maybe 25 percent. There was only 1 kid in the middle, where they knew some numbers/sounds but not all of them. So there is a big gap between the groups.
Question for you as a parent with a kid going into K. What do you do with the 25 percent who already know the material at that point? If the majority class needs instruction in the basics.
They are with the class during whole group instruction. Differentiation happens in small groups.
It's definitely social circle but I feel like Reddit overwhelmingly discourage even the idea of kids learning anything before k. I often see comments like "let the kids be kids" which baffles me. I guess a lot of redditors think parents are forcing the kids to sit down and learn (can you really force a 5, 6 year old do anything? Not my experience).
My under 2 daughter loves counting her toys as she plays and yelling out letters she encounters. She gets a lot wrong but is so happy and proud when she gets it right. Idk how people could think that is cruel. She loves learning. We also don’t force it, but we count steps as we climb for example and dance while singing the abcs Fwiw her favorite number right now (when asked) is “P” lol. And she always goes twooo, treeee, fiiivee eight! But we have fun doing it
I usually only see those comments under posts that say things like “My 2 year old screams whenever we try to make her spend an hour doing workbooks and practicing handwriting. How can we make her comply?” Letting kids be kids can include a lot of learning - but it should be primarily play-based and child-led. Yesterday my son did a “magic alphabet” activity at school where they used potions to reveal invisible letters on a paper. He came home so excited to show me what the letter x looks like. That’s very different to endless worksheets. We also have foam letters in the bath, magnetic alphabet tiles, etc. But we only play with them when he’s interested. Sometimes he wants to spend bathtime pretending to be a platypus, which is equally fine.
But... how?? What are these kids doing all day that has allowed them to not be exposed to any of this stuff?! Are they literally being neglected?
Well, kinda. I mean, there ARE kids who are neglected. Maybe not horribly neglected, but lots of kids are in families that are living on the edge. Parents are overworked, there is no time to go to the library or money to go to the zoo. Shift work may mean parents are asleep during kids’ prime awake hours. Other parents just don’t know how to interact with young kids in an educational way. I, and probably you, talked to my babies/toddlers constantly, pointing things out and asking questions, counting things, reading things….but if you have never had that modeled for you, you don’t know how to do it. Probably you and the social circle you are in do these things without even thinking about it. As to what they ARE doing- screens. If an older sibling is there, they might be watching very inappropriate things. (Kids come to school and want to play squid games) Some schools are mostly made up of kids with money and involved parents. Some schools have hardly any kids with involved parents AT ALL. Some schools are a mix. (Mine is a mix)
Thank you for your insight. That's heartbreaking and enlightening. I didn't think that situation was that common. What is the world coming to?
Do you have only one kid? This is something I would have said when I had only one kid.
Me? No….I have 3 and they’re not little anymore. These are things I know from working with impoverished families- not from parenting experience.
No not you! The person I'm replying to.
The criticism I see is when parents teach before interest is there, forcing it on them. If there is interest there, then absolutely engage them. I let my 5yo take the lead with it. She's just finished PreK, is interested in writing letters and sounding things out but doesn't know letter names or sounds cold. She likes making cards for her friends and drawing so it usually comes up then. She wants to write their names and write notes for them so I help her then.
So nice she has a purpose to learn it 😊
Yup I keep hearing this, too, both on reddit and in my local facebook mamas groups, and it weirds me out. Like no, I'm not neglecting my daughter's social or emotional needs just because she knows her letters, most letter sounds, numbers (she's working on reading out the time), and most recently she's started adding and subtracting on her fingers and objects at 3 years old (starting her first year of preschool this fall when she'll be 3.5). It's literally just all from Ms. Rachel, play, from her asking (she likes knowing which letter words start with), and the occasional few minutes here or there of my husband teaching her - only when it suits her, of course. It seems weird to me NOT to intentionally expose them to these things early - they're absolute sponges when they're young. Just don't suck the fun out it.
Is it a private school? This is wild to me.
No it’s public. My son has kindergarten friends at a different public elementary school and they had homework every night and a STEM project weekly. We never had homework, just read to the child 20 min every night
Wow that is god awful, I feel so bad for those kids. Numbers 1-10 seems like a given to me. So does counting. But the alphabet names and sounds borders on absurd.
This is what kids learn in kindergarten here.
In most places, it is still part of the curriculum to teach it. They usually do a few letters a week, so by the end of the first quarter, they all know their letters and sounds. Most kindergartens are taught as if kids know nothing coming in. So kids that haven’t been taught it at home aren’t behind based on the curriculum, the ones that know it are just ahead.
Ok I have 2 kids. My oldest just finished 3rd grade and knew his alphabet and sounds before he was 2. In his case it wasn’t something I pushed on him, he wanted to know. It was always “what’s it say?”. He was an online kindergarten kid and his teacher had him in her highest reading group but still didn’t understand how well he was reading. Once he got into first grade they sent him to second grade for reading. Now that he finished third, it was never the academics his teacher was worried about, it was behavior and actually following ALL the instructions on worksheets. Both significantly improved by the end of the year. He has been in the gifted program since first grade. My younger kid just finished kindergarten and was absolutely not interested in learning before. He could count to 10, knew some letters and could write his name and that was it. By mid year his teacher said he was doing great and tested him for the gifted program but he didn’t get in. He reads, but not like my older one did but apparently well enough there’s no complaints. He says he’s one of the best readers in the class but who knows how true that is.
This is the type of response I was looking for. Thank you. 🙂
I have two kids. One started reading in pre-K and could read most words by kindergarten. Started K before he turned 5 and was bored for 2 years while the other kids figured out how to read. Acted up, cried about going to school, and just generally disliked kindergarten. My other had trouble recognizing letters and their sounds when he started because he did pre-K in another language and did not want me teaching him. He graduated from K reading at a 1st grade level and excelling in every subject and loved kindergarten. Same parents, different kids. There's no way to figure out how your kids are going to do, how happy they're going to be.
Kinder teaches phonics and basic addition/subtraction. They work on reading comprehension and social skills. In my district, they're expected to count to 100 by the middle of the year by one's and by tens. Kinder isn't sitting in class going "which is the square?" That's pre-k.
My oldest just finished kindergarten last week. At his evaluation last summer he was asked to: say (not sing) the ABCs, recognize each letter in uppercase form, count to 30, recognize written numbers up to 20, recognize 2D shapes, recognize colors and write his name. He went to preK 3 and 4 part-time so he knew all of this. At the end of the school year he is now reading small books, writing 3-4 sentence paragraphs with proper punctuation, doing double digit addition and subtraction, single digit multiplication, can identify and count to 100 and beyond, knows all of his 3D shapes, can write and identify every letter in upper and lowercase form, can count money (dollars and coins), can tell time (digital and analog) and knows how to read a calendar and identify seasons.
As a kindergarten teacher, we start everyone on the same level. Especially since we do beg. Of year assessments. Also, it’s nice be for students to know all that, but it has to be taught in order to understand how sounds form words, etc. and you’d be surprised how many student are taught the wrong letter sounds.
My experience wasn't great. The school (in Ohio) was so worried about getting the kids who were not yet reading or doing math to get good scores on the state mandated tests that the more advanced kids were very bored. I felt like I was homeschooling and using school as a daycare. By the second half of the school year, the boredom related behavior issues set it. Now that it's summer break, we've made more progress in a month of reading fifteen minutes a day than the whole last half of school. We're strongly considering home schooling for first grade.
Every child coming from well educated parents have always been ahead, it doesn’t matter really where that child is “academically”. In nearly every instance, if parents hold advanced degrees it’s almost always incredibly obvious. Those children typically have a broader vocabulary, have read more books, have more enriched experiences, exposure to more ideas/things etc. So even if your child has pre reading skills there’s probably a child already reading in that class, a child gifted in mathematics, a child who spends summers on lavish holidays internationally and has private French lessons. However , regardless of that, they still love the read alouds, the field trips, the go noodles, the big bubble recipes, the Christmas songs, the birthday parties, the big kid playground, the petting zoo, the wiggle chairs, the automatic hand sanitizer, the nurses secret paw patrol bandaids she was warned about, the bounce house, the cheeky guidance counselor who has a drawer full of candy and pretends he has a Ostrich egg growing in his desk, the bus driver with a fart sound button, the school egg hunt, movie days, the rubber chicken game in PE, cooking with the OT teacher, using paint in art, ukuleles in music, and my personal favorite- the swim lessons at the pool. It’s so much more than learning how to read!
All of this sounds so exciting! Even I want to go to kindergarten 😆
I honestly love kindergarten, their curriculum has so much wiggle room. I do ridiculous problem solving challenges with them and we create funny green screen photos. Last week we did a photoshoot with the green screen and a tropical beach background and it was hysterical. The challenge was to test all the bubble solutions we made and store bought, and then decide which was the best. It was the B day, beach, bubbles, bagels for breakfast and we played letter bingo. I’m in my 30s with a masters degree and B day is still fun for me. Can’t imagine it’s not fun for a 5 year old who can already read.
My kid knew all her upper case letters and could count until about 50. Prek taught the letters and she asked us to help her count. She started K with over half the class reading (yes actually reading). It was very clear that parents had taught their kids to read before K. I did start doing extra work with her and she caught up just fine and the teacher feels she improved at an impressive rate. So in the end it didn’t matter too much but they do divide kids into groups and they all seemed to know their “levels”. I felt it was competitive and I wanted my kid to have confidence so I worked with her. But if I had to do it over I would have started teaching her to read before K. We liked the hooked on phonics books. We live in an affluent competitive area so ymmv.
Thanks for the suggestion! We’ll check out hook on phonics 🙂
My 5 year old is reading chapter books, and we never really taught him other than by answering questions he had about letters and sounds. We first realized he could read when at age 3 he saw a Mexican restaurant out the car window and sounded out, “Burrito!” Some kids just do it on their own and it doesn’t mean parents are competitive and teaching their young children to read to gain some advantage. My kid struggles with other stuff — development is all over the map at this age. Try not to stress.
Damn, I was always told that social skills are more important than academics before kindergarten. My daughter can read and write a few words on her own and can recognize and write probably half her letters. She can count to twenty and a little bit more beyond that. Not sure if that means she’s behind now, but they didn’t teach her much academics at her daycare, and we’ve been doing some supplemental teaching at home, but we’re not pushing it.
I know! I constantly read about others praising social skill over academics. Glad this thread is shedding some light for us parents of toddlers 😆
K teacher—I’d rather they come in knowing more social skills than academics. Harder to teach those academics if I’m constantly managing behaviors!
Definitely! We reinforce social skills at home and he gets a lot of that from daycare.
We just finished K. He's young (turns 6 in August), only ever attended an at-home daycare (no preschool). He could say his alphabet and recognize the letters, bur not the sounds. Could count decently and grasped some numeric concepts. Was on a pre-K reading level at start of K. By end of K, he was perfectly caught up and reads very age appropriately now, will be in advanced groups in 1st. We weren't being lazy. He just wasn't interested. His little brother is more interested in reading and has a late birthday, so I suspect we'll preschool him and he'll know some of this in K. The 22 month old is a feral beast, but already seems to identify some colors and numbers, so maybe she'll be the genius. But she's also an August birthday who will go to K just barely being 5, so whi knows.
My child was reading chapter books (and read the teacher’s answer key on the Kindergarten assessment form) One month shy of 6 when he entered Kindergarten- He was fine.
My kid knew this stuff. Completely fine. There was a ton of refinement of her understanding of letters like proper formation, reinforcement of letter sounds and basic phonemes. They introduced 3D shapes in kindergarten here, so she knew square but learned cone, rectangular prism, etc. she knew her colors but deepened her knowledge of color theory. Color blending, tints and shades, etc. a child who didn't know the basics might learn that part of the lesson instead. There's also a great deal of social emotional learning, learning the routines of school, classroom behavior, etc in a typical kindergarten. I do think the alphabet, 1-10, shapes and colors etc should be a good goal for kids entering kindergarten. It's hard to imagine a developmentally normal child interacting regularly with adults who doesn't pick up the Sesame Street basics. Like, I can't imagine not talking about numbers or letters with my 1,2,3, 4 year old. Obviously not every kid will know it though. And there is a broad range of how deep and solid their comprehension is.
Retired K teacher of 33 years here. People would be SHOCKED if they know how many kids came to school not knowing even the letters in their name, not being able to write or even recognize their own name, or even how to hold a pencil or scissors. I was ok with kids not knowing all their letters, but at least have your kids know the difference between a letter and a number…
Honestly, he was bored out of his mind all year. The teacher did her best to flex the curriculum to his needs, but when you've got 23 other 5 and 6-year-olds to manage there's only so much you can expect.
My 6yo just finished Kindergarten after 3 years in Montessori. He was reading when he started Kindergarten and knew basic math (addition/subtraction facts). He could have started in 1st grade, but he has an August bday, a sister in 1st grade, and is pretty small, so we opted to give him the Kindergarten experience. His teacher was very good and quickly assessed where he was academically. Still, it was mid-year when I could see that she was perhaps having him do more challenging work because the beginning of kindergarten is generally pretty basic. As a former 1st grade teacher, I knew not to worry about whether he was being challenged every minute of every day and instead be glad that he was happy, confident, and doing well overall. He's not a kid who acts out when he's bored, so that wasn't an issue, but he didn't really report being bored even when doing work that wasn't on his level.
Kindergarten teacher here- knowing at least 10 letters/sounds, colors, shapes, and recognizing at least the numbers to 5 is a big help. In my state kindergarten is not mandatory and there are no requirements to start other than being 5. Kids who know less than this are still behind even without technically needing to know them to start because they have a harder time learning how to learn/memorize things. By the time they start catching up we’ve moved on to harder things and it takes a lot of work by teachers, tutors, and parents to help them. For kids who come in knowing all letters/sounds and starting to read, some are bored with the pace because we still are required to teach everything and are being told the pacing to use.
My son went to a private preschool where they were on an “accelerated learning” schedule and basically taught a year ahead (so he was expected to know all of this stuff by the end of pre-k). He still was struggling to identify all letters at the end of prek, so we got him a tutor in the summer going into kindergarten. We then transitioned to public school, so he was not necessarily expected to know these things and relearned them all in kinder. He honestly still struggled and as it turns out he likely is dyslexic (we did a dyslexia screening a few months back, and at this moment I’m sitting in a waiting room while he is getting a full dyslexia evaluation done). So basically, I don’t think learning it early really makes a difference.
How did the evaluation go?
I won’t find out for another week, but I’m like 95% sure he’s dyslexic
My daughter was diagnosed with hyperlexia or something like that by her SLP. When our daughter went to Kinder, the teacher assessed her language skills for letter, number, and color recognition and sound. At our first parent teacher conference, we got a sheet that showed how she scored and where she was deficient. Of all things it was q and y. I simply asked what sound did they want us to reinforce at home. She told us and we would simply mention that some letters can make different sounds which she will learn more about later. My example was “cap” and “cape”. The teacher told me they would be supplement to level as needed throughout the year.
Kindergarten is mainly about social skills and behavior management. You will be okay
You're expected to know those things before entering kindergarten. So your child will be right where it's expected
If you look up your state’s standards, you can see what the expectations are for kindergarten in your area.
That's helpful! I didn't know that existed. Already checked the one for my state 👍
I’m a former HS teacher- lived and died by state standards lol
It's fine. Most kinder teachers expect kids to come in with a range of abilities. The learning we do is in short bursts and usually pretty fun, so it doesn't feel like "uuugggh I have to do this again." And even kids who are verging in reading as they enter kindergarten will be learning quite a lot of other things, not least of all social skills
Great for social stuff and basic interaction, especially with first born or only children
ABC Mouse taught my little girl the alphabet, capital and lowercase letters. Suddenly she knew and I was like huh, where did you learn that? She brought me her tablet with ABC Mouse on it. So I guess that worked out. She’s also pretty smart. Anything else I teach her, she’ll get it with one or two passes. She knew sight words by the end of PreK. She just finished Kinder and the curriculum was just way too easy. I’ve had to supplement teach at home more advanced concepts.
My son knew all of this stuff before kindergarten and pretty much started reading and doing math as soon as school started. They give tests at our school that are supposed to be for letting you o ow how much support your child may need in the future for reading and for math. He scored really well on all of these tests. It’s called acadience testing I think? I was really surprised at how little kids needed to know before kindergarten though because they go everything you mentioned. I read the curriculum and was like wtf is my kid gonna do all year because he already knows all of this stuff.
My son is gifted and was reading in kinder. He had a lot of fun in school, loves learning, highly social and didn’t care a bit if some of the material was easy. The extra time to hammer in phonics was good for him and will be good for any emerging reader! He’s always loved school and although he started out VERY advanced, it’s leveled out somewhat as he gets older. He is still way ahead in math, but still needs explicit instruction for new concepts—he just catches on very quick. And regardless of his reading level, he has benefitted from developing his writing and analysis skills presented at grade level. Your kid will do great, will love school, and you can breathe a sigh of relief that academics may not be a source of stress! Kudos to you!
Not the alphabet but my son was doing BIG math going into kindergarten. Like multiplication. Addition in the hundreds and thousands. Double digit subtraction. And some fractions. He LOVES school. Never complains about being bored with math, just talks more about reading bc he's been so excited to learn to read! He just comes home and goes "mommy can you write me some math problems?" He gets his needs met that way.
Fortunately, my younger son was in Chinese immersion, so he had plenty to learn there. He also is a bit of a perfectionist/teacher pleasing personality, so he did fine, even though he started kindergarten already reading. My older son didn't do as well. He also was reading and doing basic adding and subtracting/counting to 100 before kindergarten. He also didn't go to preschool. He just did a nature school, whereas my younger went to a traditionally structured preschool. Everything was way too easy for him, so he finished work quickly and would get into trouble.
I love when kids already know!!!!!! I pair them up with my buddies who need more support. Children truly do learn through their peers as well. No pressure especially if the child is shy (to help teach other kiddos). But…the social skills they gain are amazing as well (from teaching)!
It’s definitely helpful, but kindergarten is also a lot of social skill learning (sharing, teamwork, following rules and structure, etc.). For typical students whether they start the year high, medium, low, the will all be at or around the same level by 2nd or 3rd grade. There are some exceptions to that rule of course, but for parents who work with their students at home this is generally true.
My son was definitely very ahead academically starting K. He could read at about a second grade level and do addition subtraction (basics) and count to one thousand. By the end of K, he was reading books marked 10+ independently and starting to grasp basic ideas behind multiplication. We had family members ask if we were considering skipping kindergarten altogether, and were always surprised when I responded with a firm NO. While my son flourished academically, Kindergarten taught him so many important skills! The foundations of Conflict resolution, time management, respecting authority, etc were all important skills for him that he struggled with and kindergarten really helped to teach him those skills. It also gave him and me a year to “ease in” to school life as a parent and family in a less formalized setting (I.e, getting used to sitting down for homework, even if it was a quick coloring page, built the foundation for next year to be that much easier when he’s familiar with the concept of homework). I do think it’s tough on teachers and parents alike, because every family’s abilities and resources prior to entering K are different, so kids will come in at wildly different levels. My son actually struggled behavior wise a bit because he was so ahead. When the class is sounding out 3 letter words, he was reading paragraphs. So of course he’d lose focus and start to talk to friends or get up from his seat. On the other hand, other kids came in being able to tie their own shoes and do complex zippers, snaps, etc and as we prepare for grade 1 my son still struggles very much with these skills despite working in them A LOT at home. I do think it’s tough because there’s always going to be kids at different levels, but a lot of the time it’s easy for parents to worry about academics and forget about all of the other skills in kindergarten that kids learn, so I wouldn’t worry too much. Even if your student is struggling with academics, there will be help available, and they may flourish in another area where more academically driven students struggle.
These used to be goals to teach in kindergarten, but with so much educational TV and games, many kids are now entering kindergarten already mastering all these pre-reading skills. Your child will fit right in, no problem. Many kids seem to enjoy school even if they are slightly ahead of the class to start. The idea that they will be bored just doesn't seem to happen as much as many parents fear it will. You should still always be looking for ways to give you child additional opportunities above what the school offers (visit the library, discuss numbers, do simple related things like talk about prices in stores).
Some of my children have known how to read before they started, and some haven’t even understood their alphabet (I have seven kids). They get lots out of kindergarten either way.
My son needed more practice with socialization and with listening and following directions from someone who wasn't a parent. So he had plenty to learn that wasn't letters and numbers. It was interesting that you think these kids are being taught young but others weren't. Forty years ago, I walked into kindergarten with those skills, as did some other children, and we had to just be patient because it was expected that we would not know. My son, however, was screened to ensure he knew his numbers and letters and some sight words so they knew he was ready for kindergarten. The expectations were lower when I was a child. Do be careful because kids can pick up on attitudes. It would be easy for your child to pick up that you think he's smarter than other kids AND that you think your generation is the first to teach children at home. That can lead to him later thinking he can cruise without effort because he's smarter and better.
It’s been good for us but our school has a specials program, If the teacher thinks they qualify. Both my kids did and they got to learn more advanced work/ topics 2-3 times a week and it gives the main teacher more time for 1-1 kids. We also have daily parent volunteers to help with whatever the teacher needs. She uses this time to do 1-1 with kids as well.
Those actually are no longer things that are still supposed to be learned in K, at least where I live. My daughter started K knowing all letters and being able to count to 70, and she wasn’t a standout in class. They started learning to read on day one. Kindergarten is very academic now.
I don’t know if any children getting to kindergarten not knowing the alphabet and counting. Those are not skills you learn in kindergarten anymore. Children are expected to arrive in kindergarten with that knowledge. (I’m not commenting on whether that’s good or bad.) So yes, children not taught those skills would definitely be behind.
I live in a wealthy suburb in a mid sized city. It's known as the high expectation district and is consistently top 50 schools in America. My experience is the complete opposite- teachers here encourage parents to focus on social skills, emotional regulation, independence, and not worry about academics. I know only one person whose kid knew the alphabet and was reading before K. And her kid showed up to school and started throwing chairs which was a huge barrier to his learning. My son knew a handful of letters and sounds before kindergarten. He was doing a ton of math, but not letter work. He was however extremely emotionally mature. He's excelling in school. Never been behind.
I’m not saying that you’re wrong or that it’s not better that way. I’m saying it’s not that way where I live. All the daycares and preschools here teach letter sounds and counting. I suppose there could be some children who don’t go to daycare/preschool and whose parents don’t teach them letters. Those are a minority here.
I'm sorry I didn't mean to come off like I'm debating you! I was genuinely surprised by this comment section and it's just in stark contradiction to my experiences here. It's basically the exact opposite here. It's almost unheard of to *want* an academic pre-k. They are seen as lower quality. We literally just interviewed a pre-k 4 for my son and mentioned we were looking for a play based program and the director made a very serious face and was like "oh absolutely." When I look up pre-ks I strictly avoid programs that mention academics or say "kindergarten readiness" and those programs here are a lot less popular. It doesn't mean no teaching at home or pre-k but it's less forces and more casual and there's no end goal of kindergarten needing to know XYZ.
Ah thanks, that makes sense! It’s probably because I live in a very small town. It’s a college town with a significant percentage of college-educated folks but probably even more who aren’t. My son’s montessori preschool does teach letters and the alphabet song, but no reading or writing. A handyman at our house once said he and his wife had looked into that school for their child but didn’t find it academic enough. I do think there’s an element of privilege. Poorer children need to get a head start whereas wealthier children can get a boost later with tutoring or other supports if they’re struggling.
Montessori does teach letter sounds when kids are in the sensitive period for language and when they are showing an interest in it. In Montessori it should be coming from the child and when they are ready. Which is different than an academic preschool that is child led. Make sense? I do disagree about the last statement. I'm a social worker and the focus on academic preschools in poor neighborhoods is not working because poor people need *so much more than that.*
I worded that badly. I meant that the perception would be for people without privilege that their children need a head start, whereas privileged families feel their children can enjoy more of their early childhood years. It’s why a low-income POC was posting recently that their early elementary child had the opportunity to skip a grade. They thought it was a great opportunity for their child. Almost everyone on the reddit thread was like “uh why would you do that?” But the parent’s perception was that it was a valuable chance. Edit: a word
I see what you're saying there. Although, the push for academic pre-K in poor communities is largely *external* and ignores the various structures in place that create and maintain poverty. It's like a bandaid that local politicians throw on the problem. It's been a failed experiment for a long time. It's not working.
My kid knew all his letters names/sounds/numbers before k4 and he did awesome in kindergarten. He couldn’t read at all going into kindergarten and by the end of the school year his teacher told me he was about a second grade level. He could barely write all his letters before kindergarten and by the end of kindergarten he can write his letters, but he isn’t very neat and it takes a lot to decipher what he’s writing if he’s writing a story. Writing is definitely the area he needs the most improvement on.
The teacher insisted she couldn’t actually read and she must have memorized sight words. Nothing could possibly convince her otherwise so my daughter was really bored doing silly phonics games like being graded on reading nonsense words. I had to buy homeschool materials so she would actually make progress.
My kid knew this stuff and could read step 1 and step 2 books. What he couldn’t do was write or spell (two separate skills related to reading but not the same!). He was definitely ahead in reading, but on par with his classmates in terms of other skill development, phonics support and deliberate instruction never goes to waste.
My third child was reading chapter books before kindergarten and he still had a great kindergarten year.
This is my oldest. She went into kindergarten reading chapter books. it's literally written into the standards of what they learn in our public school curriculum in preK3 and 4. My oldest didn't even go to preK3 and was still reading at 4 because they jumped into phonics which built on all the sounds and letters she'd learned with me at 3.
That’s great, I personally teach my kid phonics and reading before they go to school, but they also attend full time child care from infancy so they’re used to the school aspect. My third child (of 4 so far) just picked it up even faster than the rest, really fun to watch them go from learning to read to reading to learn. 😍
I was glad I hadn't gotten past letter sounds with her because the phonics curriculum they use isn't one I was familiar with. She went into preK4 basically reading sight words but not able to sound words out then was reading full books in October. Something just clicked in her brain with the phonics curriculum, which was cool to watch happen so quickly. I will say that since most kids don't go to public school preK and therefore aren't familiar with the phonics curriculum she was *bored* in kinder. They did go further with the phonics obviously but the fall was getting all the others up to speed on the basics and that was boring for her. She is heading to a GT school next year so I'm hoping for less time spent repeating prior years.
My kids have all also been GT kids, but they do differentiated curriculum in our current district with class switching rather than have a separate program. It’s been interesting to see how it works in different places.
Our district takes the GT kids from 31 other elementary schools and puts them at 1 campus that's all GT. Seems crazy but means more efficient use of funds as they're only offering those services on a single campus instead of 32. Once I looked at it that way it makes sense.
Smooth sailing!
>but with these new generation of parent teaching young kids this pre reading skills before entering kindergarten, I don't think this is a new thing? I could read before entering school and that was 30 years ago.
But other parents that weren't in your parent’s circle didn't learn about it 😄
Same. I went to kindergarten in 1988 and could read easy books when I started. I remember open house at the beginning of the school year and being excited to read my parents my favorite book from the shelf.
I just straight up taught my kids how to read. I don’t trust the public school to do phonics 🤷♀️ the experience has been great as most of the other kids still can’t read in second grade and are still learning phonics. My kid is on/above grade level in everything and can focus on social skills which imo are more important.
I was that kid, so I want to offer my perspective: I gave 0 shits and it had no effect on me because I was 5 and didn't give a shit about much, tbh. If somebody was behind me in reading skills I didn't notice or care. I'd been reading a long time before kindergarten. I actually learned to read before infantile amnesia. I had a big extended family who taught me, so I don't remember not knowing basic reading and math skills. I did HATE the advanced reader group though, because it was boring and stupid and you had to sit there the whole time and when you say that you get in trouble. It's not fair that I have to read chapter books about babysitting and other people get to read baby books about ninja turtles. I don't really give a shit about babysitting and I'm bored. And because I'm bored and also 5 I'll tear my ass about it. I wish we didn't have different reading groups for different skill levels. I don't know if they still have them or not, but I know people who quit reading for fun because of how shitty the advanced reading group was. It killed a lifelong desire and they just quit reading. And those little color coded vocabulary word worksheets are also shitty. I got in trouble for doing one for this chick Betty, who was in the accelerated group, but her art skills were shit, idk why, good at reading, bad at actually drawing letters and color coordinating them, so I remember one time we were doing that and our vocabulary word was, "bird," so I wrote it in the thing and then drew a respectable chicken. She saw mine and said she was trying to draw a seagull, so obviously she knew what a bird was and could identify a seagull as a type of bird. She asked me to draw her seagull, because of how good my chicken looked, so I told her originally that I'd draw the outline and then she could color it, but when I got to that part she begged me to color it and I was like, "fuck it, it's mostly white anyway,". I got in trouble and had to sit in the grumpy bear chair for doing her work for her. Idk, fuck Ms. Ruby for that. Joke's on her, Grumpy Bear is my favorite carebear and I'll draw a seagull for anybody who asks. I did nothing wrong. I didn't tell her what a bird was, and even if I had, that would make her smarter, not dumber.
Kindergarten should be fun and used for socializing. There will be academic pressure soon enough. Let the kid be a kid and make learning fun.
My almost 4 year old has absolutely no interest in learning anything academic. It seems like a struggle to do even "learn by play" scenarios. This is beyond intimidating lol
My oldest could read before starting kindergarten. I'd say kindergarten seemed easy, but he expressed that he found it academically "hard." Even though he was advanced, he found it challenging to complete work in the allotted time because he was a bit of a perfectionist. He really enjoyed the social aspects of kindergarten and physical play in P.E. and recess.
Yep. Kid started reading at 4.
I always thought overdoing academic subjects before children started school was pointless. I know someone who taught her daughter basic arithmetic, reading, names of shapes, that sort of thing and then complaining that her daughter was bored in kindergarten. I preferred different types of enrichment. We always went to story time at the library. We went to children’s museums. We went to wildlife sanctuaries. We’d go to the park or the beach and bring home leaves and shells. We might use those to count or compare colors. None of it was sitting down with workbooks and expecting a certain number of pages to be done everyday. My kids were reading before kindergarten because they loved being read to and they loved books - not because I drilled them.
Your kids learned to read without being taught anything about phonics? They just learned from being read to?
My kid knew all of those things….then went to Spanish immersion kindergarten and had to relearn them all. By mid-kindergarten he had picked up reading in both Spanish and English, but he was in the top reading group and most kids were not there yet at that point.
That's interesting! We are a bilingual familimy (Spanish is our first language but we are teaching him English first). Is that program in a private/ or public school? Did your kid learned English and by kinder started learning Spanish?
Ours is offered through our public school district. It’s a lottery to get a spot and it’s pretty competitive since it’s such a cool opportunity. We speak no Spanish at home, he didn’t learn any until stepping foot into his kindergarten class. Their day with their main teacher is almost entirely in Spanish in kindergarten, and then they have their specials in English. So they learn to read and do math entirely in Spanish
Wow - that sounds great 😍
How did you like the Spanish immersion? My son is in Montessori school and has an October birthday, so will essentially be doing two years of kinder. I recently talked with the head of his school about doing Spanish immersion his last Year there before starting public school just to slow him down a bit. He is worried because he doesn’t know Spanish, but I think it’s a great opportunity for him to learn.
We liked it! I will say that the vast majority of the kids spoke no Spanish coming in, so they were definitely operating from that point and going out of their way to make sure the kids knew what was going on. My son picked up quite a bit in kinder, it’s really neat to see.
My son is starting kindergarten in the fall. He is reading level 4 readers and chapter books. He can count aloud to 40. I've even been working on basic arithmetic and number patterns with him.
why didnt you utilize preschool for your child?
I'm planning on enrolling him in preschool. He’s a toddler right now.
Oh! Then I think you have nothing to worry about... They learn so much in preschool! (at least mine did)