I am sure this has been asked....

[moparop]

What do you mean by sight words? She already knows how to read. I really hope they are going to challenge her.

Gosh I hope it is harder than when I was there ~ we only went 2.5 hours a day and I remember coloring and learning my ABC's

I figure early is better to take her out.

My son is finishing his K year right now. He does daily reading both whole group and leveled books according to ability. They also do daily writing in structured activities - how to books, narratives, etc. There is also math, science and social studies in their weekly curriculum.

 

[Happy Mom2]

DD will be in kindergarten when we go to Disney in December. It was a hard decision to make. DD has been in pre-K for two years. We had the option of starting her at a private school at 3 years old and did. Education is very important to us, and DD has not missed a day of pre-K. We know that after kindergarten taking her out of school will not an option. This is a one time thing for us, and we will be doing the school work while we are gone.

 

[Suellen]

DD will be in kindergarten when we go to Disney in December. It was a hard decision to make. DD has been in pre-K for two years. We had the option of starting her at a private school at 3 years old and did. Education is very important to us, and DD has not missed a day of pre-K. We know that after kindergarten taking her out of school will not an option. This is a one time thing for us, and we will be doing the school work while we are gone.

Sounds like us..... although she has missed some PreK ~ but she goes to a Montessori school right now and they go year round and were there 5 full days until I stopped working a few months ago. The school is closed "maybe" 12 days a year total including Christmas and Thanksgiving. They switch to a summer program ~ but are still have a curriculum. In the summer they plant and harvest a garden that the students maintain. I love it and while they were away from us a lot ~ it was a good thing for my child. I know it isn't for everyone ~ but she really needed it.

I know after this year it will be too hard to do.

 

[Suellen]

My son is finishing his K year right now. He does daily reading both whole group and leveled books according to ability. They also do daily writing in structured activities - how to books, narratives, etc. There is also math, science and social studies in their weekly curriculum.

Awesome! It does really sound like the old 1st grade.

Do they have leveled ability for all the subjects or just reading?

Science and Social Studies will be "kind of" new to her depending what kinds of Science they do ~ but Math is something she is already pretty good at (basic adding and subtracting and dividing)

I feel like she has already done two years of what I would call "kindergarten" at her school now. It is tempting to keep her there one more year ~ but it is so expensive. Scary how much a preschool program can cost (it is totally worth it) and it is hard to justify when we live 1/2 mile from the public Kindy center.

 

[SnowWhite607]

Kindy teacher here........we start the year with letters and letter sounds and handwriting. By December, we are going to reading groups and reading with leveled readers. By January, we are also doing daily journal writing.

In math, we do graphing, sorting, patterns, adding, subtraction, money and time.

Definitely NOT coloring or doing play dough all day like when I was in kindergarten.

 

[Suellen]

Kindy teacher here........we start the year with letters and letter sounds and handwriting. By December, we are going to reading groups and reading with leveled readers. By January, we are also doing daily journal writing.

In math, we do graphing, sorting, patterns, adding, subtraction, money and time.

Definitely NOT coloring or doing play dough all day like when I was in kindergarten.

Definitely not what we were doing.

Do you run into a lot of children who already know these things? They only thing there my now 4 year old doesn't know is graphing. How would you handle that in your classroom?

I am sorry I know I have this WAY off topic now.... but it is something I have been concerned about. We were reading a book about a butterfly and cocoons and she explained to my two year old that between being a caterpillar and butterfly it first had to make a chrysalis. I don't think I have even heard that word since 4th grade. Everyday she exhibits something that makes me wonder.

 

[rhpools]

I think it really depends on the school. My DD goes to a private school, and they appreciate family time as much as school. They said as long as she made up the work they would be ok with it.

In some classes they did not even have her make up the test because they drop the lowest grade anyway. They just dropped that grade and we went on from there.

My motto is if something happened tomorrow, would you say I'm so glad we went on that family vacation and made unforgettable memories or would you so I'm so glad they didn't miss school.

 

[moparop]

Awesome! It does really sound like the old 1st grade.

Do they have leveled ability for all the subjects or just reading?

Science and Social Studies will be "kind of" new to her depending what kinds of Science they do ~ but Math is something she is already pretty good at (basic adding and subtracting and dividing)

I feel like she has already done two years of what I would call "kindergarten" at her school now. It is tempting to keep her there one more year ~ but it is so expensive. Scary how much a preschool program can cost (it is totally worth it) and it is hard to justify when we live 1/2 mile from the public Kindy center.

Our school only levels for reading. They actually do test for gifted programs starting in K here and will start working with gifted teachers in 1st grade.

I know you asked about who knew what -- when I was teaching special education, I also worked with K students who were considered at risk. If they didn't know all of their letters (upper and lower case) and letter sounds in the first month of school , they were in the at rick group.

 

[plimsoll]

I know you've heard it before how so many schools have this rule or that rule, but let's be serious. It's Kindergarten your talking here. Take your child out of school and go have fun.

I have Lupus and I don't do really well in the sun, so we usually take our vacations in the spring and fall. I always took my son out of school. I would say that as long as your child does well in school -- go for it.

I always told the school beforehand. They may not like it, but they can't really do anything about it. Be warned however, that some teachers will give tons of work to do. In kindergarten, it won't matter, but as the kids are older it will. I always asked for the work a week ahead so that my son got it all done before we left.

We don't have this problem anymore, because now we homeschool him. Learning isn't just in the classroom.

Go for it! And have a blast.