Are you ready for kindergarten? Am I? Is Z?

[dsrtao]

Here's what the school district wants in a child entering kindergarten:

[Unknown site tag]

• Listen to stories without interrupting. That sounds like it's for the teacher's convenience. I don't listen to stories much in the office, although I do write them from time to time. Z can do this.
  
• Understand actions have both causes and effects. 37% of the voters don't know this one.
  
• Cut with scissors. I suppose. Although a knife with a straightedge guide is usually better.
  
• Follow simple directions. Z manages complex directions, when he feels like it. Creating simple directions is harder -- that's programming!
  
• Manage bathroom needs. An excellent skill. Everyone should have them. Politely excusing your self from a meeting or class, for instance... what do you mean, carry a pass?
  
• Button shirts, etc... the people on television aren't great role models, and Z's only clothes with fasteners are one button-down shirt and several polo shirts. He's so preppy...
  
• Begin to control oneself. I hear some subtext...
  
• Separate from parents without being upset. Have I ever told you the story of How I Went Home in the Middle of the Day and the Teacher Never Noticed?
  
• Speak understandably. Z can pronounce seventy-nine dinosaur species.
  
• Talk in complete sentences of five to six words. How about fifty words with proper subclauses and phrases?
  
• Identify some alphabet letters. Z is teaching himself to read silently. He identifies some non-English letters.
  
• Count to ten. E counts backwards for rocket launches. Z is trying out counting by 2s and 3s.
  
• Be ready to listen. No comment.
  
• Be responsible for putting away his toys. Well, when prompted.
  
• Establish a clear dismissal routine for your child to follow. Fish bicycle?
  
• Smile. Condescend much?
  
• ...more things for parents, not kids.
  

The question is not whether Z is ready for kindergarten. The question is whether he is ready for first grade or second.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Another aspect not covered, which I've seen remarked upon in news articles of the Time and Newsweek variety: many, many kids come to Kindergarten with several years of preschool/childcare regimentation already under their belts.

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

Yep - all of the paperwork asks where the kid went to pre-school, and they really want to see that the kid did go somewhere.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I haven't spoken myself with teachers or administrators about this, so I don't know if they "want" it or merely assume that most kids will have been in preschool, and prepare for that.

Either way, they have to take kids who come to them with a variety of histories, and at least here, it's only half day, so it's not like throwing them into a long day with no preparation.

The screening for K was about an hour long. My kids got lower marks on things like "able to catch a ball" -- the kind of thing many parents (fathers) feel is critical consumer-sports knowledge, so it's assumed to be a good indicator of general physical integration. HA! I say to such assumptions, but there's no changing it. While the twins were off being screened, I had a lot of paperwork to fill out -- maybe they've given that to you ahead of time.

I would advise you to save any deliberations on advancing Z a grade (or waiting to start him) until he's been at the school for a few weeks.

[dsrtao]

I would advise you to save any deliberations on advancing Z a grade (or waiting to start him) until he's been at the school for a few weeks.

That's what my parents did, and it turned out to be a bad move.

The elementary school initially placed me in first grade based on chronological age. We had just moved into the state. (Mom, are you still reading this thread?)

The upshot was that they had no procedures to move a student at anything other than a semester boundary, and moving me from first grade to second in the middle of the year was awful. You see, in second grade they learned cursive writing, and they were up to L or M when I came in... cursive letters confused me for weeks, and I still dislike that sort of handwriting. Now, of course, I have actual proof that cursive writing is meant for printing presses, not for humans...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Possibly you could then check with Z's potential school and see what procedures they have for such a move, before enrolling him?

I have a sort-of-related school experience: I was advanced in a couple of subjects when we moved states before 4th grade, so I was put in 5th grade subjects for those. When I was done with the 6th grade studies in those subjects (in 5th grade) they had no plans for what to do with me. So they put a 6th grader in 4th grade social studies. (And had me do independent study for reading, which was also a joke.) Abject stupidity. I could easily have been humiliated, but I didn't mind it -- but the 4th grade teacher was completely unprepared for the kind of social study questions a 6th grader would ask. I recall on more than one occasion, the teacher sputtering "We're not going to talk about that!"