Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Dumbing down in Kindergarten?

My DS5 is in Kindergarten and he has a fabulous teacher who has done a great job of differentiating for DS in class, but I think we may have hit a wall. He definitely is exhibiting poor behavior on a daily basis like we saw in the first few weeks of school before his teacher made changes for him.

My bigger concern is his apparent "dumbing down" of his abilities at home, and probably at school. He no longer reads with expression, but instead with this monotone voice. The librarian at their school won't let Kindergarten students check out anything but picture books from an approved section of the library (what a joke! His teacher talked to the librarian and she stands firm on her rules.) This week he brought home a book titled, "Me Hungry". There were two words on each page and we ended up reading it to his two year old brother who ended up memorizing it. My son used to love to read this magazine he subscribes to, but now won't even read the captions. He used to read chapter books at the 2nd/3rd grade level but now refuses.

Also,(and this will be hard to admit to this forum!), we have a Wii gaming system that has been fun for the whole family, but he has become OBSESSED with a game he was given at Christmas time, Super Mario Bros. We limit the time to 30 minutes a day and he is allowed to play more on Saturday mornings. But I'm telling you he is obsessed. When he's not playing it, he is playing make believe games where he is in Mario World. His teacher tells me he has made up a Mario game the kids play at recess, and he talks about it all the time.

I want to take the game away because I feel it is contributing to his dumbing down, but I also think it could be that school is contributing. Is this possible? We have had him tested by a psychologist and he is probably a 3++ on Deborah Ruf's LOG, and I was going to seek a grade skip next year. Now I'm doubting myself. Any thoughts would be helpful.

I'm kind of new to this board but find it invaluable. Thank you!

LOL! My DS6 was like this last year when he was in preschool and had his afternoons free. His particular obsessions were Wii Lego Indiana Jones and Wii Lego Star Wars. But, honestly, I don't think it was all bad. Playing these games allowed him to concentrate for long periods of time, was good for small muscle control and hand-eye coordination, and helped him to develop his strategy skills. I remember one day, we were riding on the chair lift when we went skiing, and he starts talking about two alternate strategies he was thinking he could use to get past a particular part of one of the games. Obsessed, clearly! But, strategizing as well. So, we let him indulge sometimes and eventually he (temporarily) moved on to other things in life -- once even going three whole months with no desire to play the Wii at all. Now, he enjoys it, but only plays once a week or so.

Okay, so my answer has nothing to do with your original question!

Your answer makes me feel a whole lot better! And really, part of my question was how concerned should I be about the Wii. So thank you.

I'm not an authority by any means; but I am sure that everyone will tell you that a lot of our kids go in spurts, pick back up where they left off and go from there. My DS4 hasn't wanted to read for a while; but we have been reading to him a lot before bedtime and now he wants me to "finger-along." He doesn't call it that; but you know what I mean. He then starts mumbling it along with me and I will stop and let him fill it in every once in a while and he'll read. I can tell his interest is picking up again. Maybe your DS just needs/needed different types of books??? and/or a break. Best wishes!!!!

LOL Wolf was like that about the Zelda games and he never even played them, just watched me! He would beg me to play.... Now he's like that about Lego Star Wars, well about Star Wars in general really. We have a Wii and we get stretches where he wants to play all the time and then he'll forget about it. However his fine motors skills and hand eye coordination have improved greatly because of it, so has his patience level witl games, losing and trying again. He does have some fine motor issues, so this is a big plus for us. Personally I wouldn't worry about it much.

I don't know about the school part though...

Eleanor, I also would not worry about the wii games. I see LOTS of kids making up mario games on the playground, and I, personally, was excited when my son joined in because he knew a character! Our school library also has sections based on grade level and I agree it is ridiculous. I just got in the habit of going to the public library and letting my son roam free to pick his own. He also would come home from kindergarten with simple books, and read them in a minute, but then have others available to read if he wanted. I also was a little worried when he seemed to choose to read dumbed down baby books, but I think they are like candy or something at times. I would not doubt your son's ability, just keep giving him stuff at home. My son (now 1st grade) just read my copy of The Hobbit and was so proud to get 16 AR points for it on the comprehension test at school. (The "baby books" are 0.5 points....) So THERE school librarian!

About skipping, I would do it if I were you...don't let the things you mentioned stop you. My son STILL asks me why I "made" him go to kindergarten. Nan

We're going through the *same exact thing* with our DS5 right now!! His behavior the past few weeks has been bad at school. Our DS5 started Kinder at 4, so he's already young for his grade. We're having the same reading issues w/monotone voice and reading levels.

As for the Wii, he's also obsessed with SMB. However, anytime he gets anything but a green (good behavior) in class, no Wii. So lately with the bad behavior, he hasn't played it much. I also limit the time he can play. Mine is the same way about it - he writes stories about it, talks about it, pretend plays about it...

I have no real advice for you, other than it's funny how much your story is like what we're going through right now.

We don't have video games at home, but DS5 can get this way about whatever it is that interests him at the moment. After he watched Star Wars, which I encouraged because it gives him something in common with his age mates, he talked feverishly about Star Wars for weeks, read Star Wars books, created his own Star Wars comics, drew countless Star Wars battle scenes, etc. It seemed to me he was more "inspired" than "obsessed," though. In fact, his drawing actually improved quite rapidly at the time, because he was making his first attempts to draw recognizable characters.

Is there some way you can take advantage of/build on Mario? Get your son reading again by finding some Mario books or comics? Have him design his own games on paper? Use this interest as a springboard to programming? Introduce some strategy games that don't involve the computer?

As for the books your son is bringing home from school, I'd talk to the librarian directly, show her what your son is capable of reading, and let her know that you're ok with him reading books for older kids. I think some schools/librarians are afraid to let kids read above their age level because they're worried parents will complain about inappropriateness of books' subject matter. For example, my DS5 reads 6th grade level books on Greek mythology, but his teacher, who encourages this type of reading outside of class, doesn't want the books in the classroom because they're considered too violent for kindergarteners, and she's worried some parents will object (incidentally, the same teacher later assigned an innocent story about a monster that scared my son so badly he wouldn't finish it!). Your librarian might relax her rules a bit if you give her something on paper (even just an email) stating that you won't hold her responsible if your son brings home something that might be deemed inappropriate for his age.

That's our rule too!! So comforting to know. But yesterday when I asked him how he did he said he got a green, and after he finished playing he said he lied and really got a yellow. Stunned!!! Before I could even say anything he said it because he just had to play. It's something about the "worlds" in Mario that have him fascinated. He's opened up worlds 1-5 and I'm thinking once he clears 8 he will relax a bit.

I have used Mario for other creative projects. We wrote a story about Mario and His Worlds. It was very long and took us a long time. My DS did the illustrations but we wrote it together. He desperately wants to begin programming but I don't know where to begin to find something for beginners. I'm pretty good with the computer but never got past Basic and DOS growing up, as far as programming goes. Any suggestions??? Could be a great project for us.

About the librarian. I talked to her! She suggested we come after school together and he could check out any books he wanted so that's what we do, but frankly we mostly go to the public library. And my DS's teacher sends books home with him every weekend and every other Friday morning she has a Bookclub with him. She's amazing.

Thank you all for giving me my courage back.

OMG!! That would have really upset me. I think if that had happened at our house, the Wii would have been taken away for at least a week. Our DS5 has lied about the color he's received before, but luckily he has a sister in 1st grade, which is right across the hallway, so she's ALWAYS there to keep him in check...