What the... Is this what Kindergarteners learn?

My guy in K is bored with the work. He excels in it, and is probably at 2nd grade reading level, and 4th grade math level. You can't expect a teacher to be able to challenge the highest kids, and dumb down for the lowest. Although the public school system expects it, and claims to acheive it, I beg to differ.

There is nothing wrong with complex, or easy challenges. PARENTS are the real teachers; the buffers of capability. Help your children through. Try to make it enjoyable, after all, they are only five.

I wish they pushed science a bit more, but I handle that on my own.

Has anyone read "Nurture Shock" ?
It is a very good book.
There is a chapter on IQ tests being done for preschools, and how they aren't relevant for success.

Originally posted by UnlimitedSky
reply to post by Sublimecraft

 

I agree with you that using adult language when communicating with other adults is definately enriching to the child. This is vital for their learning process. When he grasps the conversation around whatever is being discussed but doesn't understand a certain word, and the asks for an explanation of that word, he is most definately ready for it's meaning. But introducing sophisticated words into a questionair directed at the child may not be such a hot idea.

Okay, then. You keep going on about how you don't agree with teaching children at such a sophisticated level. I have to ask per your post up a couple from this one. What the hell is a child that age in the picture you provided doing wearing makeup like that? Isn't that something that should be left for adulthood?

You can't have it both ways. Shelter your child from learning adult things, while parading them around in adult makeup!

What the heck is that teaching your child?

reply to post by Sissel


In that photo she is not 'parading around in make up' but taking part in a professional photo shoot. It is not that I want to have it both ways. There is a balance and I am open to what she really wants. I allowed her after she pleaded for almost a year to do modelling. This was the first time she ever wore make up and still insist on going out in sneekers and jeans with no make up even to eat out. She has retained her child side but is experimenting with modelling. (Which she apparently is a natural at.) Are we not naturally drawn to the things that we are good at?

It was very difficult for me to allow her to do this. I was scared of ego, growing up to soon and so forth. But after 4 months of modelling I can say that my fears were for nothing. She is still her good old down to earth, plain self when not at modelling school.

I was dead set against it. But then I remembered that the more you resist something that really pulls them, the higher burns their fire for it. And eventually they resent you. (Something from my own childhood.)

Why do I have to be wrong and you right? You seem to be getting agressive or something.

It is just possible that we actually have the same views on child rearing but you are going into defense mode. No need.

Originally posted by UnlimitedSky



Why do I have to be wrong and you right? You seem to be getting agressive or something.

It is just possible that we actually have the same views on child rearing but you are going into defense mode. No need.

This isn't about you being wrong. It was about pointing out something obvious. Guess what? I had 3 children do runway modeling well into their teens. Never once were any of them required to wear makeup to improve their looks. I never would have allowed it, anyway.

Originally posted by boot2theface
reply to post by jheated5

 

Children NEED to be conditioned for social life. It's called raising them...

The fact you got so many stars really disturbs me and my outlook on the average person..... You basically said it's OK for the government to raise your children and you got starred for it..... Perfect example of this Nanny state everyone is talking about, condition and conform your children into nice little robots, don't take personal responsibility for raising your own children........ This is now the norm, this is why we are failing and this thread has just proved it....

reply to post by Sissel


I am respecting her pace. If she was not ready for modelling, she would not have been drawn to it with such force, and achieving the recognision of the modelling teacher that she is a natural, ready for it, and with great potential. Like the child asking to have a word explained, she was simply asking for what she was ready for. I refused for a whole year, and I think that she demonstrated persistance and passion.

And by the way, she grew up very suddenly the past year. (Perhaps because she has Italian blood? born in Italy?) I just feel it has something to do with it, as my older children, now 24 and 23, from my first marriage, were born in South Africa and not as mature. Every child is different.

Why should I hold her back just because I think children of 5 may not be ready for abstract concepts yet? I learnt this through my studies at Uni and saw it when I taught foundation faze at school. On the other hand, if a child has a higher aptitude for abstract concepts at an early age, I agree, one should not hold them back. But such cases are rare.

In recent years schools have instituted new teaching techniques and new programs. Most (48 states) are doing the common core program. They have completely reinvented early education and I am glad. The teachers I talk to love the new system. Yes, the kids are challenged and us parents need to participate in our children's education, but when I see my 5 year old sounding out six letter words and getting through entire sentences after 3 months of school I'd say it is well worth it.

These young children will probably be the generation that brings our education system back (I have some reason to not be convinced, though). I have spent time in class rooms using common core and the difference from when I was in elementary school (early 1980s) and today is remarkable.

As a side note I'd like to mention that the problem with education today is far from just the educator's and/or institution's fault. Parent's, look at the spoiled, undisciplined, disrespectful kids you send to school these days. I'm not above that either. My daughter says things to me that I would have gotten my head slapped clean off for and too often I let her get away with it.

A typical high school today offers a degree of education far beyond that of 20 years ago. Like the old saying goes though, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. What happens if a student fails a grade? The parents come to school raising heck. It isn't their kid's fault. That's if the parents are involved enough to come to school even then.

I remember kindergarten being a lot less scholastic and more involved with finger painting and learning about stuff like the food of other cultures. Singing songs. Things that stimulate the growing mind.
And I still became a bookworm, see. There's no guarantee that literary analysis homework during the finger painting years will produce a classroom of advanced readers.

Even if it did, let me tell you, vast vocabularies and college level reading skills cease to be a novelty after grade school. Ooh, look at me, I can speed-read and complete the NanoWrimo challenge. So what?

reply to post by Sissel


Well good for you!

reply to post by mr10k


It depends on what level the story is, because most kindergarden students are not readers and they're enountering simple words such as "the" on cards with very basic stories. Most will not be reading by the end of kindergarden either. Most learn to read between K-Grade 2.

Most books aren't even worth reading and should be scrapped. Bring on the history books or your fathers WW2 journal.