Do You Think Kindergarten Is Hard?

Hi A., Kids at that age should mostly be playing. They can learn a lot from just playing games and having books read to them. This will differ for each child, some want to read at that age and jump into formal learning, some just require more time to play and learn informally.
I think requiring a 5 or 6 year old to memorize 50 words and skip counting, etc is too much.
Sounds like you are doing well with your daughter, keep it up.
Just a plug here but, have you thought about homeschooling?? There is a great cirriculum called Five In A Row (FAIR) that I've heard awesome things about. it's relaxed learning through good stories and activities. We've been homeschooling for six years (been through 3 Kindergarteners with 3 more to go) and have found that they are each different in their learning styles and ages.
Might be something for you to consider. :)
Have a great Mother's Day!

Hi, I agree with Liz that you may want to do some research into Montessori schools. My daughter will be starting at one next fall and I have been making and using many of the materials at home with her now. Even if you don't want to go as far as changing schools, perhaps look into some of the methods and ways of teaching. There are many online resources and many books to check out. I know that there are specific activities aimed at the areas that your daughter is finding a challenge. I would recommend the book "Teaching Montessori in the Home" by Elizabeth G. Hainstock. She has one for the preschool years (through age 5) and for the schors. The preschool years book has an activity for number progression through 100.

Anyway, good luck and just keep working with her, she will get it in her own time.
K.

check out the book, Learning All the Time, by John Holt. He explores the capacity for children to learn at their own pace without the need for adult intervention, unless it is born of an 'organic' learning opportunity. Such as with performing everyday tasks like cooking, cleaning, organizing, etc. I think there were some great concepts in there even if you don't necessarily agree with all of his philosophies. I think the school system has unrealistic expectations of children at such a young age and that we need to take a long hard look at what early childhood education is really doing to our kids. There is no proof in studies or elsewhere that the trend in forcing our kids to learn their 3 r's so early in life has resulted in higher achievement later in life. In fact, the opposite appears to be true. That is one of the reasons we are seeing a sharp rise in the popularity of homeschooling and alternative schooling methods such as the one you find at Charyl Stockwell Academy in Hartland, MI. I have explored the option of homeschooling my 4 year old daughter. If you have the ability to work with your daughter over the summer and she still isn't to the point where you comfortable with her ability, you may want to consider keeping her in K for another year. She is better off being th oldest in her class than always feeling like she needs to catch up with everyone else.

When my daughter was her age she knew that and they gave them little word problems. But if you have access to a computer go to www.kidzone.com, www.kids.com and www.handwritingforkids.com(hand writing, math and a host of friendly assignments). Hope this helps F.

We just had a speaker at a mom's group that I belong to who has been an educator for 30 years teaching, managing, and consulting, who gave an hour long talk on how many kindergarten curriculums are too difficult for the children. She actually gave the example of counting by 5s as an inappropriate task at that age. She emphasized that parents should question the curriculum instead of attempting to force children to learn things they are not developmentally ready to learn. She likened it to expecting a 6 month old to walk. No amount of practice or drilling will make them learn if their development does not allow it. My MIL is a PHD in education and was saying the same things. Both say kindergarten should be far less structured and focus on creativity as opposed to concepts. Their major concern is seeing children and parents who are stressed and literally burnt out in elementary school. It was very alarming information that is driven home by the information you provided.

Hi A.,

I think that a lot of what we are asking kindergarteners to do really is NOT developmentally appropriate. I am lucky that school and structured work are my daughter's forte. She did fine. My son will be starting kindergarten this year and I think it won't be as easy for him.

I work in the schools with young five's, kindergarten and first graders. We all talk about how developmentally inappropriate it is to have 5 year olds working on the standards that the state is pushing. We have a lot of kids being referred for testing that would have been considered "normal/average" if the standards were what they used to be.

So...long story to answer, you are not alone. Kindergarten is hard and it is frustrating to the children, parents and educators. I don't know what you are already doing, but maybe focus on word families (-am like in Sam, Pam or -at like in Cat, Sat, Pat) while you are having her read. Once she can recognize, "I know the word "am" and I see it in these words, they're all in am's family." This website has some printable books for word families and sight words.

http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/printable_booklets.html

For math, maybe make a grid where she can write in the #'s 1-100. You could write in 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, etc. and have her fill in the blanks. Here's another link of some fun math activites to do around the house.

http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/PDFs/153_MathAround...

I am not a teacher, I am a speech pathologist, but these are things I do with my kids. My daughter and I do a lot of cooking to work on Math concepts. Hope this helps.

C.

It's a lot harder today, I'll tell you. The gov't is putting higher and higher standards and requirements on kids anymore. What you and I did in high school, kids are doing in grade school now.

All three of my boys survived. The oldest even did young 5's kindergarten first. All these dopey tests that determine their readiness or not. Pointless.

I went 1.5 years to kindergarten and never even noticed the lengthened time. I'd started in January and the system wanted to do away with January graduates. So my class (1972) was the first not to have Jan. grads. But it was a fun, developmental time in K. We had a huge room, with a 'kitchen', chalk boards at our level, a fireplace, tables (not desks), tricycles to ride around inside if it was lousy weather outside. Just a great experience.

When I was in Kindergarten it was about playing house and taking turns in the sandbox. I learned how to write my name too!

We have chosen to go to a Montessori program in our public schools with my daughter because it is more learning through play, my cousin chose a Waldorf school for the same reason.

If your daughter is struggling with Kingergarten you may want to look into some of the other programs that are less about drills.

L.

I'm guessing this is your first child or only child. I have several children, so my advice is relax. Find out how she learns best and then work in that way. For instance some kids don't like to read, have them read road signs, food labels, directions on the game boy, outdoor or sports magazines, be creative. Let your child be creative, with cooking, gardening, build models, paint, etc. One child couldn't identify all his letters until the middle of first grade. Now he gets straight A's, but we had to try many different techniques. We had to go back to the old Dick and Jane books with one of my kids. We recited numbers and math equations every time we were in the car.

Kindergarten is now more like first grade was in the past. If your daughther is one of the younger ones in her class, that may also be a consideration. Is the teacher concerned? If she isn't then again relax and don't expect too much in Kindergarten.

Hi A.

Maybe you can make her some colorful flash cards to help her remember her numbers and counting and maybe try a few different books and let her pick them out to help with reading instead of reading the same book.. Hope this helps..

K.

Hello A., Kindergarten should give a child the foundation they need for future classes. I went to Detroit public schools in the 60's. Through the riots and all. Then my family moved to the Oakland Country school systems. They were so far advanced for me that I went from A's and B's to D's and E's over night. I couldn't catch up. The rest of my education was hampered because I didn't get the basics that I needed in the early years. Trust the system, it sounds like they are on top of things. It the mean time, go to the library with you daughter and find ways of learning that are fun, playful and interactive. Both of you can have fun while learning. Good luck.

I have a child just finishing kindergarten and my kids are 3 years apart. I feel that kindergarten has gotten more demanding since my first child attended. Anyhow... I feel that kids learn at different paces. Keep reading with your daughter and working on math. Reviewing math while you are driving in the car is a great way to reinforce skills. Take turns reading the pages in her books. Also, ask your daughter's teacher about ordering work books for the summer to review. Keep practicing and everything will click with her when she's ready.

I think kindergarten is harder now than it was before. I don't know how you feel about your child watching tv but there is this awesome program on pbs called 'super why'. It teaches kids how to put words together with four fun characters. I am such a huge fan because my 3 year old has been watching it for about 4 months now and is so excited about spelling and reading. She is already phonetically sounding letters out and putting them together to spell words. Each time the program ends, she learns to spell a few new words. She is really learning from this program.

Well, I've had 3 go through the "new" kindergarden so far and they've all done alright (3 more to go!). That said, there was toward the end of the year especially a real tough point from the kids' standpoint in terms of motivation and feeling discouraged by the expectations placed on them before the end of the year. In my experience, most kids learning to read at this age balk at the sheer enormity of the things out there they must learn to read - books, labels, directions,etc. All those things staring them in the face waiting to be mastered! It's intimidating. My oldest was more ready for this challenge because I simply had more time to spend learning with him prior to his kindergarden years and had taught him to read before hand. We had a chart on the wall with the capital and lowercase letters, each group (Aa) was a different color. Every morning I would ask a question to each child that was appropriate for their age/level. So I would ask, "Can you show me a red letter?" and then say "Oh good! You found a red U! U makes an uh sound" To the next child I might say "Can you show me an L?" or "Can you show me the letter that says rrrrr?" I also had my whole house labeled with little labels stuck to EVERYTHING that had a picture of what I was trying to describe, and the word written out. At two my son was saying, I can spell table! And he'd run over to the table and point to each letter as he said the letters that made up the word. It's important to let your child know that as soon as they know what sounds the letters make, they are in possession of all the skill they need to master reading. I think it's also important when the kids start to resist reading that after you reassure them of this, you make them read. I'm not talking about a book, I'm talking about "Can you get me the ________?" child: "I don't know which one is ______"
parent:"Read the label sound it out" Maybe help them sound out the word slowly and ask what letters make those sounds in the beginning but don't do the reading for them. I know the schools rely on "sight words" but I think it does the kids a disservice because it gets the kids to memorize what words look like before they are really taught what tools they *should* be using to read. Imagine if you thought you were going to have to memorize every word on the planet! I wouldn't want to do it either! Also, make your child read directions on video games, items on the grocery list, recipies, etc. I don't mean totally burn them out on it. But do put them in a situation where they need to read to accomplish something they want to do. After all, that's what makes reading indepsensible for all of us. We need it to get things done effectively. It's important that they work at it and then experience sucess that is all their own doing so they can feel truly proud of themselves and gain the confidence that they "can" actually read and not just feel praise for "reading" when they know it is only rembering the word. (Imagine how you'd feel if you memorized the answer to a complex algebraic equation and then suddenly people kept congratulating you on how wonderful you were at algebra! You'd know it wasn't authentic and probably actually feel bad about all the praise!) Once they learn that reading is important and valuable for them, that they already possess the tools they need to solve the problem once they know the letter sounds, and that you're not just going to do it for them, they really get over the "reading slump" and begin to embrace reading for themselves. With numbers, I point out patterns like the way the numbers progress in the 20's 30's etc. How the first number changes, etc. I just keep a paper on my fridge with all the numbers from 1 to 100 on it and we go over it periodically. Kindergarden is getting harder, and it may not be developmentally appropriate, but it's not out of the ball park as far as skills they are capable of mastering. Good luck with your little one :)

I got cards and place mats at Meijers to work with my daughter. I thought Kindergarted was hard for her too. But, you know what by third grade she was right where she needed to be and above in some areas. Now she is in 7th grade and has been on honor role every quarter since getting into middle school. So, hang in there. Each kid blossoms at their own rate--if you are working with her, then she'll be fine.

GL:)

I have always used flash cards for my daughter, they really helped her. I used to also try to have her write the words over and over and she remembered them that way too. Just practice with her at least for an hour every day and she will learn them faster than you think.

YES, Kindergarten is difficult for some children. Each child enters with their own personal experience. In addition, the State of Michigan governs the curriculum and I would say that K is more like 1st grade.

How old is your daughter? It is true that some (not all) of the material that the state requires teachers to instruct is not developmentally appropriate. Your daughter may not be ready for some of this material. An additional year may allow her the time she needs to grow into her abilities.

The school year is coming to an end. I would suggest that you contact her teacher and discuss what would be best for your daughter. I would also continue to practice the skills that she was introduced to during her K year. There are lots of ways to may learning fun through the use of manipulatives. Oh, and I also recommend reading, reading, reading!

Best to you!
A.

My son is bright, but has ADHD, so we had to work hard in kindergarden too. I found he did really well with tactile learning. So we'd get out things like cheerios and chocolate chips, and bunch them in twos and fives to help him visualize what he was trying to memorize. Of course, the treat at the end was eating up all the goodies. It became more of a game than work, and that helped keep him engaged.

Good luck. D.

A.,

You might want to try playing store with her. Put up a sign of the numbers on the wall and ask her to make the stickers for each item showing what it would cost (whole numbers) and then adding them up to find out the total of what you or she have purchased. Then try subtracting because you didn't want an item.

Try hopscotch on the sidewalk or at the park. Put the numbers in the boxes and ask her to hop to a specific number.

Try go fish with number cards or even war with number cards.

In regards to reading, it is always tough in the beginning. Kids minds are flexible at this age, but it is still hard work. I get a lot of level appropriate books at the library. Talk with your children's librarian about which books would be appropriate for your daughter to read. I really like the Dick and Jane books because they are repetitive and helps the child read at a faster pace because they have seen the words multiple times.

Flash cards for sight words are great, but only a few at a time. I only use 10 or so with my son and sometimes we do sentences with the words he frequently gets stuck on. But the sentences are short, only 3-4 words long and I only ask him to copy the sight words, not the whole sentence.

Other options: draw pictures together and then write captions below the pictures. If your daughter really wants to write the caption herself and has spelling mistakes don't worry about it and praise her for her good work. Otherwise have her dictate a short sentence to you which you write down on a separate piece of paper and then have her copy that sentence onto the bottom of her drawing.

Remember writing and reading are two very different things and many kindergarteners are not ready to really write yet. Their fine motor skills just are not physically ready. That being said if parents do not criticize the child's work, writing can help them to remember words, numbers, etc., by stimulating another part of the brain and putting that information into a different part of long term memory.

One last thing. Talk with your daughter's teacher and find out what things they suggest to work on for next year that your daughter may be stuck on. Also ask which items she needs to work on just to keep the skills up to snuff.

Good luck!

-C..

The Reader Rabbit computer programs are wonderful and fun for kids to continue learning. We also enjoyed the Disney ones!

S.

I think it is harder for some kids compared to others, but don't think it is too hard for the average kid. Just keep working with her and she'll be fine.

Good luck!