I am so nervous for my daughter today, she has a standardized test and assessments today in K. She J. turned 5 in September and for anyone who can financially afford to keep their kid in Pre-K an extra year that has an early b-day I say do it! She was well above average in pre-k, could do times tables, addition, subtraction, knew how to write words, and draw shapes, and was fine socially, a little shy, but still had friends.
Well....now she seems to be struggling, she can read three letter words, and obviously 2 and 1 but gets nervous over the 4 letter ones, and can read certain ones but doesn;t have the confidence to try more and J. will say any answer to get the question over with. So my question is, did anyone have a kid that had issues with learning to read in the begininng of K but is a great reader now? Also did anyone with a kid with an early b-day do K twice so they'd be in the proper age group?
btw i couldn't afford to wait another year in pre-k or i would have, full day free k saves M. 800 a month and being a single mom i jut couldnt do it
i emailed the teacher, who is awesome, and she said she can hear emmy read well when shes not looking or asking her to, and thinks we'll be able to get her confidence up to do it during the test together soon
update: I J. wanted to say I am not pushing her at all, I actualyl dont think it should matter yet, but dont want her behind, the teacher emailed M. to let M. know thats she was having issues and that tests were coming up, I have a metting the 22nd to go over her report card, test and classroom assessments...emmy is super shy and she is doing great with making friends now, and I even told the teacher I know learning is paramount but for M. that speaks volumes since I think as her confidence grows socially the rest will come easier
You know, there are kids that are great students and are horrible test takers. J. let her get used to Kindergarten, it might take a while. And please stop worring about her being " behind". She is not. Good luck.
I know that this isn't your question but from an early childhood development standpoint: reading is NOT a kindergarten skill. Right around age 5, the brain goes through a significant growth "spurt" which usually results in both letters and numbers appearing backwards - much like dyslexia. This is normal and needed growth. Because it usually happens in kindergarten and makes reading (and writing) more difficult - reading is NOT a kindergarten skill. That being said, many schools pay absolutely no attention to what we know about childhood development and there is tremendous pressure today for children to do things we would have never dreamed of asking of them 20 years ago.
Ask your teacher what the criteria are for promotion and J. worry about that. My kindergartener has already met the criteria for promotion and you might be surprised by the "minimum" requirement.
C.
What is the question here. I think what you are referring to are classroom-based benchmark assessments. They really aren't "life or death" tests. It usually involved the teacher getting a 1st quarter baseline on "where" your child is at this point in time. She will be benchmarked again at the end of each quarter. They are looking for incremental progress, not mastery at this point.
You don't say what th eteacher's concerns are, but the expectation of being able to "read" with fluency is really solidified by second grade. Up until then, it's a lot of skill-based learning and exploration.
She's fine. Relax and let her explore Kindergarten.
I agree that these are supposed to be developmental assessments, not tests that she is "failing". Reading is supposed to be a goal to achieve by the end of kindergarten, not an expectation they should have of children going into kindergarten.
That being said, there are incremental leaps these children take -- and months make a tremendous difference in terms of their readiness to read and their cognitive development. You will be amazed at the growth during this year,
But remember also that this is not a race. You/she shouldn't feel that if she is not "performing" at this point, her educational life will be problematic. Please let her evolve at the speed in which it is natural for her to take in information, and do not push. The readiness is truly all -- and the important thing is for her to develop a (gradual) love of reading, and a true love of learning. But please be patient -- allow her own development to guide you, not some externally imposed expectation.
As for repeating kindergarten -- yes it can be challenging for a child born in September, only because so many kids are held back a year that she could be in a class filled with children who are a full year older -- and the differences in maturity, skill sets and kindergarten readiness can be huge.
The only way I would recommend repeating kindergarten, is if the 2nd kindergarten were at a different school altogether. A lot of kids who go to private school do a year first at public school kindergarten, and seem to fare well. But if you are considering doing it at the same school -- I think you run the risk of hurting your child's self esteem -- as her friends will go forward to another grade, and she will be left behind. Many I know who have considered repeating K at the same school, decided, at the end of the year, that it would be too traumatic and ego shattering for their child. If there is another school you can transfer to in your district, that would be ideal. But listen to your gut by the end of the year, if this is too high pressure of an environment/school, then explore your options of a 2nd year of kindergarten somewhere else.
But please do not think your child has "issues learning to read" -- there should be several different reading groups in her classroom, geared to different levels of readiness and skill. She should not be considered "struggling" on month two of kindergarten. I certainly hope that your teacher is not putting these kind of excessive pressure and expectations on your child -- because it is inappropriate and developmentally wrong.
Perhaps you should have a meeting with the teacher to understand what her expectations are this year. Then go see the documentary "Race To Nowhere" and get some perspective on the general issue of pressuring children to perform in school. Good luck -- it's not easy struggling with your own needs to see your child thrive and do well -- and external pressures that don't always take into account what's developmentally right for your child.
umm my 6.5 year old is in K this year and can't do what your little one is doing yet...why pushing so much?
Please, please, do not worry! As Krista said this is a classroom-based benchmark assessments. It is to see where SHE is in different developments.. There really is not a fail.. It is what do we already know and what do we need to work on..
It will not feel like a test to your child.. Instead it is going to feel like she gets to work alone with the teacher for a few minutes!
I remember our daughters Kinder teacher gave us the results and said the only thing our daughter had a problem with was putting pictures in an order to tell what was happening. Our daughter kept putting them in strange order and making up magical things happen!
I told the teacher that was our fault because we did that so much but would always encourage our daughter to think of "fun things " that could happen with pictures in different order.. She was very creative. I told the teacher she needed to ask our daughter to tell the story in the "normal boring way" and our daughter would be able to do it.
Sure enough a few days later the teacher said it worked like a charm and our daughter placed very high.
I then explained to our daughter that unless she was in Art class, to J. answer the questions with the "normal boring answers" when at school doing school work. . She understood the concept from then on.
She is NOT having issues in learning from what you write. She is doing fine. Kids ALL used to start kindergarten when they were five and the cut off used to be December - you went to kindergarten the year during which you turned 5. Kids learn to read at different ages. Reading 3 letter words is fine - we didn't used to expect kids to read in kindergarten. In Scandinavia (and in Waldorf programs) they do not even address reading until age 7 and their kids out test ours (if you think that has any value at all). I read at age 4, my BIL read at age 7 and it did not prevent him from getting a Cornell BA and a Yale MA.
My opinion - testing kindergartners is J. plain STUPID.
Based on what you're saying I have no idea why you would be concerned or why the teacher would be worried about her doing well on any K test. But to answer your question, yes I know parents who hold their kids back to be older (but if your child is that advanced she would be bored, I'd think), and yes, I know lots of kids who go through tremendous sudden academic leaps in K. Perhaps her brain is focused on acquiring another skill right now.
(-K teacher)
I would make an appointment to talk to the teacher and express your concerns. The teacher might tell you that she is right where she needs to be at this point in the year. She also might have some tips on things you could do at home to help her reading progress.
FYI - my nephew is a 5th grader now. He could not read until partway through 1st grade. He now reads well above grade level and scores very high in reading standardized tests. I think some kids J. need a bit more time to pick up on things in the beginning.
From your post she is way ahead of most kindergartners I know, don't worry so much. She sounds like a lovely girl that is very smart.
Those tests are a snap shot of one moment in one day. That's it. I think you're having higher expectations than you should. When your child did well in pre-k you expected great things from her from now on. It doesn't work that way. And she may be sensing your feelings. She saw her self as so smart in pre-k and now she's like everyone else and it's new to her. She's probably not getting the same "Wow, great job" as she did he year before. Sounds like she's on track and it is a confidence thing. My youngest triplet has a confidence problem but it's because he's a slower learner than the other two, but he is still right on track for 1s grade. I've learned over the last 20 years not to worry until the teacher tells you to. If the teacher isn't worried, then you should not be. As long as she is on track for kindergarten and the teacher, who sees her all day long, feels she's fine then don't worry about it. J. do the things that are asked of you as a parent to help her learn as in homework and extra reading and such. Reading TO a child is as important as reading at this age. There's no rush. As long as by the end of the school year she meets expectations to move on to 1st grade I wouldn't worry about it. You can use other things to help too like letter based kids shows you can DVR like Word World, Sesame Street, Super Why. Get DVDs. Get a video game player with learning discs like Leap Frog Explorer or Mobigo. J. relax and do homework as expected and praise her for her work whether she does well or not.
FYI - my triplets have an early birthday so had to wait a year to start kindergarten and went to a local high school preschool program that wasn't the best. They are the older kids in each of their classes.
K. B
mom to 5 including triplets
ages 24, 16, 7, 7 and 7
She sounds like she is doing well actually. My daughter started off K in much the same manner as your daughter. By the end of Kindergarten she was the top reader. She sounds sensitive and maybe a little bit of wanting the answers to be perfect. If she spouts off an answer and its wrong, well she didn't try so knows the outcome. She's invested in getting it right and to her it feels worse to try and fail. Once she is more confident and knows whatever happens will be okay, she will be fine. My suggestiong is to downplay the tests and work with the teacher to get her confidence up.
