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Preschoolers prep for kindergarten, really?
Really, kids are studying 2 hours a week with tutors! (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32404017/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/?GT1=4...)
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Wow. Things have really changed, haven't they? I can't imagine hiring a tutor at this age, but on the other hand, my daughter will be one of those "red-shirters" as she'll start kindergarten just before she turns 6!
I thought this quote was interesting: “I think he was actually a little too prepared, as he began to be very bored and unchallenged throughout the year,” Aarons says. “Kindergarten is seven hours a day in Texas, and he just didn't have enough to do.”
I wish there was a way to challenge those kids who needed it. I guess it's up to us parents in many ways to fire their curiosity with outside activities like museum trips and extra reading materials. But the kids who are bored can have just as hard a time in school as those that are over their heads...they lose focus when the same material is being repeated over and over. With so many parents putting so much time and energy into educating their children from a very young age, maybe it's time to start placing higher expectations on our schools -- budget shortages or not.
Patti
SAHM in SoCal and administrator of the Sleep Forum group, http://www.mothersclick.com/group/sleep-forum and Tri-Counties Moms, http://www.mothersclick.com/moms-club/tri-counties-moms-sb-ventura-slo-c...
The trouble is, classrooms will always be filled with kids of varing abilities so over preparing your child may not be in his best interests if he gets bored and learns to hate school his first year out.
I remember kindergarten -- at least, I think I do -- I remember building with blocks and singing songs and learning the ABC's. Now, that's all pre-school material. It seems like every grade level has been pushed back one and the sad thing is - in the end, kids are still graduating high school without a proper education.
Maybe it's time we went back to the old way where kids got to be kids in kindergarten.
Oh I totally agree, kids should be allowed to be kids. My daughter can play by herself for hours at a time, and I love watching/listening to her create her own little world! It's amazing and I think that downtime is absolutely essential for development. But actually I think we should raise the standards rather than lower them.
Kids are capable of so much if we just give them the resources -- and it seeems like with every generation they're capable of more. Limiting their growth just means that they are being held back from reaching their full potential! In addition to letting her play and explore on her own, I've also encouraged my daughter to learn the alphabet at a young age, count, even do simple addition and subtraction, and more -- in a fun way and at her own pace as she shows interest and asks questions. I never put pressure on her to learn what I think she needs for kindergarten, but she's naturally curious, as most kids are. And she's smart, and though I don't believe she's "gifted" (very often that's just parents' egos talking) I do worry that she may be bored at times in school.
I don't know what the answer is...public schools will always have kids who are behind and need extra help, and as a result the more advanced kids (even kids of average capabilities) might end up bored waiting for the others to catch up. What CAN we do with the kids who need extra challenge?
When my daughter entered Kindergarten, they were changing over to full day Kindergarten and it was something new for the district. We had just moved from a school district that had a full day kindergarten that was gotten into by lottery and my oldest got into it.
So when my dd started K at the new school and the parents were all complaining that the school was moving to full day kindergarten, the teachers said that there wasn't much of a choice because they were now being forced by state and government standards to teach at a first grade level. It's true that in preschool kids are now learning what we would have learned in Kindergarten and Kindergarten students are taught on what used to be a 1st grade level.
It's unfortunate that our teachers don't have a lot of choice and neither do our kids but that seems to be the only way the U.S. can keep up with other countries.