Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Kindergarten Jitters...

We meet ds' teacher this Thursday! DS has the same teacher his good friend had last year, so I got some inside info on her (all good...yay). I just had a sinking feeling when the mom was telling us about how "ahead " this teacher's class was at the end of the year: sounding out words, counting by 5's, telling time. Ahead? Don't most K'rs have some grasp of this at the start?

I just have to concede that this is a how-to-do-school learning year for ds. Not that we won't supplement at home and ask for some challenge at school, but I'm feeling more and more that public school may not be the right fit (and I DO hope I'm wrong) .

There is no gifted anything until 4th grade - no exceptions.

I've got the starting pre-k jitters. Will my kid behave and have fun? Will the teacher like my kid? I'm also excited.

Thanks for the perspective La Texican. Will my kid have fun? Check. I do have a very very happy kid - there is no way she would not have fun even if she learns nothing - so I guess I can relax just a bit. I also have the advantage of having a very assertive five year old who has already had the experience of telling her preschool teacher, "I'm not doing this- this is too boring - let's do something else." Somehow when it comes from the kid it sounds cute... when it comes from me... not so much.

My jitters are not academic at the moment. I am worried that my petite four year old may be bullied, that she won't get along with her teacher because of her strong personality, that lunch/snack time will be a mess because she has a restricted diet. I am worried that we won't be able to find her in what we have been told is an elaborate drop off and pick-up method. And I am worried that instead of smiling and waving at her confidently on that first day, that I'll bawl and send her off poorly.

DD is chomping at the bit to go to kindergarten and I think its going be a great experience for her. I just have that small list of worries.

Editing to add: DD's school scores poorly on math. They have the class do math as a group with a giant touch screen. I figure DD will learn to speak and problem solve in front of a group from that activity and we can do math easily at home. I'm planning to do a fair amount of fun afterschooling at this point and to take each year as it comes.

On worries....

DS is a happy, confident kid who obeys well (though will probably struggle with his fidgetiness and need to process EVERYTHING verbally).


I considered why it is that I'm nervous. And here is my conclusion: Deep down, I am scared that my this mystifying quality my DS has to hunger for answers and think such big thoughts might somehow slip away from him with the advent of school. Or worse, that somehow I've imagined the whole thing. I adore my kids no matter what and yet I've often felt like i've discovered this amazing thing, and it is still yet to be confirmed.

We got the more information about the curriculum this week in the mail and now my son is excited. Yay!
The school has an academic core that doesn't change year to year. This includes reading, writing, math, and keyboarding. There is a sequence and the students work through it at their own pace. The science/cultural curriculum changes every year and the whole school (PK-6) studies the same focus areas with increasing depth. I think it is on a four year rotation. Each month there is a new focus for science and cultural. Each week the K students are given 10-15 academic goals that are mainly from the core academic areas with a few from the science/cultural. These are different for each student and they have have to complete 2-3 each day. Once the goals are complete, the student can work on whatever subject they want.
We got the science/cultural curriculum for the year this week and it includes many areas of special interest for my son.
When he was in Pre K, he would either know the science material before it was presented or learn it faster than his classmates. Then he was stuck doing more of the same for the rest of the month. Or just working on weaker areas (like handwriting) the whole time which made him not like school very much.
The teacher's plan is to increase the depth available to him in his interest areas so he stays motivated. Basically, "finish your handwriting assignment so you can work on the 12 piece head, arms, legs, feet type human body puzzle" doesn't work as well as "finish your handwriting assignment so you can assemble a 3D skull model".

Here's my concerns about school, ready in case they ask.  

I always find something for my son to do several times a day or else he starts getting into mischief.  I've really worked with him a lot on practicing to entertain himself because it didn't come naturally to him.  

He's very good at being able to follow directions.  Conversly he also likes to debate you to death.  He's not very good at leaving other people alone, especially, he wants to tell his sister what to do rather than let her answer to me.  I try to tell him,  "you worry about you let her learn to listen to me".

La Tex...sounds line a clear intro to your ds for school.

KJP...sounds amazing. I'm jealous

We're getting close and NOT close to K here. My DS met his teacher last week for orientation. DS immediately took to several kids in the class (they were allowed to play while the teacher went over some 'this is how we do school things'. My DH was disturbed at the errors in her powerpoint presentation...and I think probably didn't learn or listen to a thing she said because of them.

We've been told this teacher is very nice and really does encourage a deeper level of learning for her advanced students. We haven't talked with her specifically about DS, but I don't think it will take her long to realize at least his reading: he went around the room happily reading aloud the posters/signs (at first just out of habit). As several parents started to praise him, he began to read louder and LOUDER until we shut his little performance down.

Humility is up next on our after-school enrichment curriculum. Oddly enough, he's never been one to show-off, he used to HATE if I had him show my family that he was reading at 2 and 3 years old(then of course, they thought I was delusional).

So the not great news is that it's likely that our teacher's union is going to strike. The teachers say it's about class size, the board says it's about pay. We got notice on Saturday that my DS' 26 student class was lowering to 21 kids as the superintendant just brought on two more kindergarten teachers for the district.

Sadly, they can't legally strike (has to do with due notice) until the 23rd but school starts on the 15th ...so the kids will START school before the strike. Grrrrrr.

You are so lucky to only have 21 kids in a kindergarten class. We are going to 31 this year.