oh boy I met my DD4's new teacher last night and she seems very nice but when she talked about how the big thing this year is learning upper and lowercase letters and that they will still be focusing on things like colors and shapes--things both my girls had figured out when they were 1.5--I felt a sweep of dread pass over me.
The good thing is they will be doing a lot of crafts and singing and dancing and playing which means less time sitting for academics that are far too easy for her. I think it will be harder next year when they will be plodding through things she mastered years ago.
Is it a play based school? If it is, and the letter/color recognition is a short and simple part of the day. You should be fine. In my DD's 4yo class there were a range of skills from not even recognizing all the letters and not hearing beginning sounds to reading fluently. It wasn't a problem for any of them. Phonics were limited to an exercise at circle time where they'd all think of words starting with the letter of the day and the teacher would write them down. Then they'd decorate a cutout of the letter of the day during craft time. Mostly their time was spent playing, singing, having stories read to them. They all loved it. Sure, some went home and did first grade math or read a fifth grade book, but preschool was for playing with their friends.
