All I can say is HOLY COW as well (things that the child should know before entering K (20 of 25 sight words, 1:1 number correspondence, shapes, letters and sounds, and recognize name in print)
I taught Kindergarten in Florida for almost 15 years and these are pretty high expectations for kids entering K. I can't find my old link to the national standards, but the items listed above are standards/expectations that are expected by END of the year Kindergarten in most states.
These are more along the lines of what is expected when a child enters Kindergarten:
speaks clearly
recognizes rhyming sounds
recognizes size and position (big, small, up, down, over, under)
manipulates buttons and zippers on his belongings
traces and copies basic shapes
holds conversations using complete sentences (five or six words)
identifies some letter sounds
identifies letters of the alphabet
sorts objects by color, size and shape
recognizes groups of up to five objects
counts and recognizes numbers up to 10
recognizes his first and last name
writes his first name
uses crayons, paint, paste, scissors, pencils and clay appropriately
draws rather than scribbles
Goodness, I hope that they honestly don't expect all K children to know all their letters and sounds!!! For a lot of children that is not even developmentally appropriate in the fact that some children developmentally can't even make a few sounds correctly by that time. There are late developing sounds for some children that are considered developmentally appropriate to not have yet by kindergarten....such things as L, R, S (sea/C sound that S makes)...along with several blends.So to expect all K children to know all their letters and sounds before entering K seems a wee bit ridiculous!!
just went to Yahoo.com and typed in Kindergarten readiness checklist and found many state education/county departments that came up and no where on any of them did I see any of the expectations such as knowing all letters/sounds/sight words..hope this helps!
