Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Uh oh, how much trouble are we in?

We just had one of those "I didn't know you could do that!" moments. Hanni (2y6m), who spent an entire year getting from the concept of "two" to the concept of "three," just did spontaneous one-to-one counting of a row of seven things, with complete accuracy and confidence.

Unsure whether this was unusual, I got on the web. Ack! Apparently the first FOUR MONTHS of kindergarten are spent on the numbers 1-10! Is this for real? Maybe I spend too much time on this forum, but do five-year-olds typically not yet understand the single-digit numbers?

If it is for real, I don't see how anything except homeschooling is going to be realistic for her.

First off, congratulations!! It's a terrific feeling to see your child grow and progress like that!

But I've never bothered with age-abilities. A lot of things in What To Expect in The First Year was so out of sync with what I was experiencing that I stopped checking after a while. It could be this forum, but I also feel that published age-abilities are too generalized and often take the lowest common denominator of what is possible, ie, "the child should be able to do such and such no later than this age". Schools in particular subscribe to this thinking because of NCLB.

Your child has made good achievement and you're doing a great job. Enjoy it!

Most 5yos have trouble writing letters and numbers. For my DD at least, the emphasis was on writing correctly, not so much on counting. But yes, there were kids in her K class who entered not knowing the numbers to 10, or the letters of the alphabet, and who went on to first without having yet learned to read.

Probably too early to tell if you'll have an issue in K. Mine was fine in K, although I consider her to have been a late bloomer compared to many of the kids here. (Entered K generally ahead, but not yet reading.) She also had a teacher who used a lot of play in her teaching, so it wasn't a huge change from the play-based preschool we used.

I think we have all gone through this: deep breath and realization that I have my hands full. I think it helps us get over denial.

I stopped looking at milestones a long time ago when DD had completed everything for 3 month olds by the time she was at the most 2 weeks old.

As for your question, it depends on your area and the PS. Most kids in my district definitely know their numbers by preschool (age 4) and by kindergarten all know counting up to 10. I first thought we had a lot of gifted kids in our area but I.have come to realize most are high achievers (which is different). High middle class families with time and ability to give their children an early start. Even though our local kindergarten is more advanced than others around our district it still would never be enough for my DD who was counting before age 1 and knew her ABCs before age 9 months. This is why we chose a more academic route where at age 4 they are doing 1 st grade material but all is taught in Spanish and even this is.not enough of an advancement for her.

yes and no. Kindergarten is doing that, but it's also intentionally easy. And it's more than just counting 1 through 10. And your child will probably spend the next couple of years getting from 7 to 20. And most five year olds I know can count way higher than then.

To sum up: don't panic.

I ran into a similar problem with my DS. Had no idea what to expect from kindergarten, but I wanted him to be prepared. So we spent maybe 15 minutes a day working on letters and numbers. He had a fantastic kindergarten teacher who was so adept at teaching to each student's abilities, I didn't realize he was ahead of the rest of the class. Now he's in first grade, and while I like his teacher, she's just not as experienced as the one he had last year. It's November, and he has yet to do ANYTHING in school that he didn't learn last year. I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that school (at least for this year) is just allowing him to socialize and learn to interact with other kids, and we've been supplementing at home.
Anyway, my point is that if your child is ahead of the class in Kindergarten, don't panic. You still have options. Most schools have a gifted program (which, in my son's case, is 40 minutes a week - so he is bored for the ENTIRE rest of the week). Some will allow you to skip to the next grade. You can supplement at home. And if all else fails, you can always consider private schools or homeschooling. Good luck!