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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 7,207
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Joined: Dec 2005
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He said he heard her say, "You're a smart one, aren't you? You'll have to help the teacher out with the other kids."
Should warning bells be going off like mad, or what? Translation: Don't even think about being accepted as an equal by the other children, I'll never let that happen, you may as well align yourself with me, if you want to socialize with anyone. Also, I don't generally see children as deserving any bit of respect, only as 'babies' to be managed. Warning bells? Well, it's hard to know if you'll find better locally - this may be a perfectly normal example of what's available. Also - she is bound to have some hidden strengths that she didn't demonstrate at the open house. That's why we call it the 'least-bad' option and go with it instead of driving ourselves crazy because it is so not a perfect world. Which is why I'm such a big fan of moving the child into settings where they don't stand out, but are just 'high average plus' - whenever possible. DS was very very sensitive to what I call the 'Pat Conroy/Prince of Tides' treatment,as in, 'don't tell the others but you're my favorite,' and resented it from an incomprehensibly young age. Of course I'm not saying that the teacher's behavior is as extreme as that character....but I do see it as a continuum, even thought the mild end is totally socially acceptable and normal to most people - I don't like it. On the other hand, I've made a lot of parenting choices that are totally inexplicable to lots of other people, so I guess we just do what we can, and be the parents that we are. ((shrugs and more shrugs)) Grinity
Coaching available, at SchoolSuccessSolutions.com
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Joined: Dec 2005
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The ironic part of all this is that I think giving a child a legitimate job, such as being a helper to younger kids, is a tremendously valuable life experience.
Asynchronous development truly presents some challenges that we don't know how to meet.
Coaching available, at SchoolSuccessSolutions.com
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 462
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He said he heard her say, "You're a smart one, aren't you? You'll have to help the teacher out with the other kids."
Should warning bells be going off like mad, or what? We had a similar experience with DS's new 3rd grade teacher (so it doesn't stop at preschool) who asked him what he did over the summer. He told her about his math camp and that he learned "advanced math topics" (don't know where he heard that expression) so she said, "Well you will have to help me with the advanced math when I need it then." So here is your choice: helping the other kids or helping the teacher? ha ha Kate
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Joined: May 2011
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It's making my warning bells go off...
both because she used the "smart" label (which I would avoid like the plague as much as possible) and because she thinks it's okay to utilize him as a teacher's assistant.
What does your dh think? I told him I was concerned about the teacher singling DS out in front of the other kids, and he said he didn't think that would happen because there is a "Child of the Week". Apparently, I missed that. If there is opportunity for each child to be the teacher helper, I can see his point. That's assuming there won't be any other times where he's made to stand out. I'll call the teacher in a couple of weeks after things have settled in and see what's what.
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 155
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They, of course, have "Letter of the Week", and will be learning their numbers and colors and shapes. I expected that.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear that there would be no story-time in which a teacher would read to the class, but a time for stories in which the children are encouraged to get a book from their bookcase and "read" (or in my son's case-read). She said she knew that seems strange for some to hear, but she said that the reasoning behind that is children find out that they are better readers than they thought. I assume the teachers go around and supervise this story reading time, to see which children actually DO read.
What do you think of this?
I should have looked closer at the books on that shelf. If they are like the free book that was offered last night (A BOB book), I can see why the teacher would say that. Maybe they will let him bring a book of his own?
We were sent home with a Scholastic book order form. I didn't see any books in there, other than one on learning to tie shoelaces, that would be on my son's level. I would hope that the academic curriculum would be age appropriate, and if it is it should still be appealing to a child who already knows how to read. I know that we personally avoided any school that boasted academic curricula, because like you said, our kids are well beyond the typical preschool stuff. DD's favorite subject is snack and playground. Last week she enjoyed an "awesome video about bees" up on the smart board during snack time. And, honestly I could not be happier about this. After snack they are to pick up a book from the reading corner and page through them quietly while everyone finishes up, but the still have story time. DD loves being read to at circle time. Actually, thus far the most positive feedback I have gotten back on her has been about her answers to the comprehension questions. I think I would be upset if they did away with that. The directress is very anti- worksheet at this age and raves about their implimentation if HWT. But, this is the 3-4-year-old class. These kids will not be going to kindergarten for another two years. Is your DS closer to 5? I am not sure what the 4-5-year-old class looks like. I will say that we are currently trying to get DD on the waitlist for the city-wide gifted pre-k next year, so we should be observing that class soon. But, that might be a worse fit for our DD than what we got going on now! I never liked the books offered from scholastic.
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 741
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Posts: 741 |
They, of course, have "Letter of the Week", and will be learning their numbers and colors and shapes. I expected that.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear that there would be no story-time in which a teacher would read to the class, but a time for stories in which the children are encouraged to get a book from their bookcase and "read" (or in my son's case-read). She said she knew that seems strange for some to hear, but she said that the reasoning behind that is children find out that they are better readers than they thought. I assume the teachers go around and supervise this story reading time, to see which children actually DO read.
What do you think of this?
I should have looked closer at the books on that shelf. If they are like the free book that was offered last night (A BOB book), I can see why the teacher would say that. Maybe they will let him bring a book of his own?
We were sent home with a Scholastic book order form. I didn't see any books in there, other than one on learning to tie shoelaces, that would be on my son's level. I would hope that the academic curriculum would be age appropriate, and if it is it should still be appealing to a child who already knows how to read. I know that we personally avoided any school that boasted academic curricula, because like you said, our kids are well beyond the typical preschool stuff. DD's favorite subject is snack and playground. Last week she enjoyed an "awesome video about bees" up on the smart board during snack time. And, honestly I could not be happier about this. After snack they are to pick up a book from the reading corner and page through them quietly while everyone finishes up, but the still have story time. DD loves being read to at circle time. Actually, thus far the most positive feedback I have gotten back on her has been about her answers to the comprehension questions. I think I would be upset if they did away with that. The directress is very anti- worksheet at this age and raves about their implimentation if HWT. But, this is the 3-4-year-old class. These kids will not be going to kindergarten for another two years. Is your DS closer to 5? I am not sure what the 4-5-year-old class looks like. I will say that we are currently trying to get DD on the waitlist for the city-wide gifted pre-k next year, so we should be observing that class soon. But, that might be a worse fit for our DD than what we got going on now! I never liked the books offered from scholastic. He's going to be five in February.
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Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 114
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We are sending/have sent both of our children to a play-based preschool, where no academics are presented at all, and we love it. They focus on learning through play, and each child is able to process whatever is important to them. My kids explored/are exploring the academics that they're ready for, at home with us.
My kids are probably more in the "pleasantly" or "optimally" gifted range, so I'm speaking from that level. The play-based model helped us miss our eldest's giftedness until the summer before he started kindergarten (I don't have early readers, and had no idea that our adult conversations at age 3 were unusual), but it also meant he wasn't bored stiff listening to the teacher teach numbers when he could already add and subtract fractions. Their classmates have ranged from "regular" preschool aged kids to gifted early readers, or early math kids like my eldest, and it's accommodated all of them very well. Hopefully you'll love your preschool, but if you find yourself looking for a change, a play-based preschool might be worth investigating.
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 263
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We are sending/have sent both of our children to a play-based preschool, where no academics are presented at all, and we love it. They focus on learning through play, and each child is able to process whatever is important to them. My kids explored/are exploring the academics that they're ready for, at home with us. We also had good results with this approach. Our kids (twins) went to an "Emilio Reggio" preschool - play-based with an arts focus, where they encouraged child led group projects. For example, DD's class put on a play and the kids each chose how they wanted to contribute. DD chose to create the program to hand out to audience members at the performance. The program included advertisements she created that were very clever. She was really into dinosaurs at the time, so one was for a jewelry store called "Giant Jewels". She was totally engaged at her level, and that preschool set the tone for both kids for creative/imaginative work that has persisted with both kids for many years since. (They are now 11 yo and just starting middle school (6th grade). Tomorrow is their first Honors Algebra class - yikes!)
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Joined: May 2011
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Today was the first day of preschool. DS was all smiles when I picked him up. The teacher said he did really well; "hitting it off" with another little boy while they both wrote words together. 
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 7,207
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 7,207 |
Today was the first day of preschool. DS was all smiles when I picked him up. Yippee! That's a great start.
Coaching available, at SchoolSuccessSolutions.com
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