I am registering DS for kindergarten next month. There is a part of the form that reads:

Please give any information that would help us to know your child better:

I am not sure how to respond. Should I describe what he knows? Or should I be more genric and describe his interests?

If your child has special needs, allergies, or learning disabilities, you may want to lead with that.

If your child has mastered much of the kindergarten curriculum and/or is reading at a known grade level or lexile level, you may want to mention that.

Mentioning interests is often helpful, too, as it may be used for grouping children, starting conversations, and building rapport.

We also filled this type of forms for both K and grade 1. We were optimistic and put down DD's true abilities, but sadly the teachers did not believed them. This likely affected DD in negative ways, as it took the teachers quite long to reverse their opinions.
For next year, we will probably just keep quiet about DD's abilities in the beginning.

We supplied clues. Like:
DS is really excited about learning new things. Sometimes when he is deep in his thoughts, it takes a few attempts to get his attention. We've been working on helping him see other's interests in play as he can get quite grandiose in his plans. Lately he's been much more interested in reading magazines than chapter books.

Thank you all. My fear has been that something I write may affect DS negatively. I do not believe he is HG or PG, but he has mastered a lot of the kindergarten curriculum. I will probably start off with general interests and mention what he knows at the end. I like the idea of "supplying clues."

Never, ever state a specific reading level. School reading levels almost always assess to a significantly lower level than what many kids can actually read and enjoy. This is because most reading tests level a kid out to their weakest skill, some not always having an impact on silent reading ability (oral readin speed, for instance).

When you state a reading level, and then the teacher assesses your child lower, you lose credibility.

"Reads Ladybug magazines independently"
"Has begun reading by sounding out words."

Other specifics give better information. Besides, it's February and kindergarten won't start for another 6 months. For kids who learn quickly, this can lead to misinterpretation down the line.

ZS's response is good. I also included things like, "we have difficulty understanding DS's speech, while those who he doesn't know as well seem to understand him fine." And, because there was a chance we'd get afternoon kindergarten, I wrote "often rises before 5 am to play or read. 1 pm is not his finest hour." We got morning.

I wouldn't over emphasize it but I would mention it. It just gives them a baseline.

Don't go overly into details or harp on it but say something like
"_____ loves reading, the books he is currently reading are ____, _____, ____"
"___ also loves numbers and enjoys adding them and ___(fill in other math he is doing)" ect.
"He is an eager learner but needs help ___ (fill in: making friends, staying focused, not disrupting ect....)
Then I agree definitely list hobbies too.

I agree with many of the responses, but in my experience, the teacher does also want to know the interests of the children. Then, s/he can design lessons with topics that will interest the class. I filled out forms like this through second grade.

If your child can read (independently, with a little help), then let them know. The reason I feel it's important to list books/series he's read and enjoyed is because then you've created a paper trail. You've informed them of your child's ability in reading and then they can't pretend to not know later.

The kindergarten teacher we had told me straight up that the sole focus of kindergarten was to get everyone reading by the end of the year. Math was not a focus at all, nor any other subjects, really. So... when you have a kid that can read, you kind of are left wondering what they are going to do with them all year from the get-go.

This is all very helpful. DS is not yet reading independently--at least I dont think he is. He knows the letters and sounds and has a lot of words memorized, but I have never seen him blend. He is much more focused on math (and art!) now. He enjoys patterns, addition and is beginning to understand subtraction. I realize I am turning this form in almost five months before school begins, so I dont know where he will be then.

This reminds me to add... parents may wish to keep a copy of any information they supply to the school. School related papers can be arranged in a ring binder, tabbed by year, so there is a record ready if/when needed.

Reading ability has been discussed on other recent threads including stages of reading here and phey's booklist here. The point of sharing these threads in this discussion is twofold:

1) to help parents who are new to this to understand that a child may be at one level (or range of levels) in books they self-select at home... and assigned to a different level at school for a particular skill acquisition (such as fluency, vocabulary, comprehension). Knowing this information may prevent a parent from crying foul if their child may be assigned a "lower" reading level in school. A parent may wish to explore the reading skill being practiced/mastered at the "lower" reading level in school. In some cases, such as F&P, a teacher may be able to share a comprehension rubric, the results of which are separate from the reading level letter score. Further conversation may lead to the Continuum of Literacy Learning, a book which the teacher may have received included in the professional framework, part of the benchmark assessment system. Learn how your child is assessed. Ask for examples. Become familiar with their evaluation process(es).

2) to help parents remain undaunted if a teacher/school/district may state that an advanced reader "will run out of age-appropriate reading material", therefore needs to be "slowed down". There are many books in higher lexile levels which contain mild content appropriate for many children.

Here's my first draft:

DS loves math and enjoys counting, adding and creating patterns. He knows his upper and lowercase alphabet and their corresponding sounds and has memorized many sight words. He enjoys exploring (especially outside) and doing arts & crafts projects.

Too much? Too little? Should I add anything else or take something out?

that sounds good!

If there are no known allergies, learning disabilities, etc, then it seems lovely and complete.

Follow your gut instinct. Know what your priority is and what you have to achieve. It is different planning for your child rather than for yourself. I was very street smart and felt confident that I could handle bullies. As it seems to happen, I try to give my child a less stressful experience with bullies, building off of my lessons learned from managing them literally my whole life. For my child, I did not 'out' my child. Every time, it became evident and had to be addressed, but it was helpful to me to see how schools handle it and, consistently, the schools (parochial, public, cyber) were not up to speed.