Skipping Kindergarten... an update

[mytwotinks]

I think that the most telling part of your posts is when you say that he is just now interested in sitting and trying to write his letters. A first grade student is expected to be much more patient than a K student. There is a lot of behavior teaching in K. They are teaching the kids how to be students, how to be responsible for getting themselves to the potty, responsible for eating their lunch when it is given to them.

I would never ever ever skip Kindergarten. I also don't beleive that as a parent you can expect the school to teach them without a lot of parental participation. If my daughter is bored in school, I take her to the library and get her more challenging books to read during free reading.

Maybe a teacher can tell me if this next idea is way off........ Does it guaruntee that a child will be gifted in the futre, just because they are reading early? My daughter is really bright and has never really had any problems keeping up and usually staying far ahead of her class as a 3rd grader. My main concern is this, she has never really had to try very hard so as the work gets more difficult will she have trouble learning? I mean, since everything has come so easily to her so far, is it possible that when she needs to really work to learn something she won't know "how to learn"???????? That may not make any sense!

 

[challada]

I work in education and can tell you that we hardly EVER (actually never ever) place a student in an alternate age grade level. In other words, we do not skip kids NOR do we retain kids. Developmental age is VERY important and research indicates that moving grade levels does not help students in the long run. Adressing their needs where they are at is what works better.

My advanced son was in a K-1 combined room when in kindergarten, which helped address his learning. He is now in advanced middle school classes at his grade level and fairing just fine.

My advanced daughter was in a half day k this year and received advanced work from the teacher. She is leaving k (graduation tomorrow) reading at a third grade level...I would NEVER consider moving her a grade.


FYI...both of my kids came into kindergarten already reading. I would say in DS's class six years ago, there were a couple of the kinder's who could, but in DD's class this year, I would say almost half have entered w/those skills. Kindergarten is NOT what most people remember it being of their childhood, NOR even what it was ten years ago...standards are going UP!

 

[Nicolepa]

Maybe a teacher can tell me if this next idea is way off........ Does it guaruntee that a child will be gifted in the futre, just because they are reading early?

My MIL is a gifted teacher and she has told me over and over that early reading is not a sign of a gifted child. (My dd taught herself to read at 3.) Many parents confuse reading w/intelligence. The truth is it just clicks for some kids earlier than others. But a child can be gifted and not reading early and vice versa.

 

[cakesnkids]

I honestly think that K is not about intellegence, it's about educational maturity. It's a stepping stone, to teach a child to interact well in a standarized learning environment. I would not skip a grade with a child but encourage you to continue your enrichment of his education at home. Many children go into K at different levels, and generally it evens out by the end of the year. Good luck with your decision, ulitmately it's one you will have to make and be comfortable with ( I say this not meanly but with KNOWING that I had to make a decision to send my YOUNG child, going to be 5 in the first grade, to 1st or retain him for transitional 1st, and chose 1st, only to be told, "well, if something happens don't say I didn't tell you so...) We have to make our best educated decisions to help our children..and I know you will do this.

 

[golfgal]

My MIL is a gifted teacher and she has told me over and over that early reading is not a sign of a gifted child. (My dd taught herself to read at 3.) Many parents confuse reading w/intelligence. The truth is it just clicks for some kids earlier than others. But a child can be gifted and not reading early and vice versa.

I agree. My "most intelligent" child was the one that started reading the latest. It has nothing to do with intelligence. I am glad the OP is having her son tested but I hope she has realistic expectations and understands that her child really isn't gifted, bright, yes, gifted, no. I also think that the OP is seeing the MINIMUM requirements for passing kindergarten and thinking that her son can do that so he should be in 1st grade, well, 99.9% of the rest of the kindergartners will be WAY past that level too and probably 80% past that level when they start kindergarten. Those are minimum standards for grade promotion, not the only thing they teach in kindergarten.

Do you know how much time they spend on things like, lining up in a straight line in kindergarten? It seems pretty basic but is is something they have to learn.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Kindergarten is NOT what most people remember it being of their childhood, NOR even what it was ten years ago...standards are going UP!

That is very true. My 4 kids are so spread apart and I really got to see the changes in the 13 years between my oldest and youngest children's kindergarten experiences. My oldest was still 4yo going into K, as was her brothers who were 3 and 6yo younger than her. I was glad that her youngest brother was 5yo going into K, turning 6 that Dec (my DD is also a Dec birthday, but she turned 5yo that Dec).

Kindergarten now at our school is basically what 1st grade used to be. The problem is, some kids are coming in with no school experience and need to learn the basics of how to sit in a group, some kids kow how to read, and most are somwhere inbetween. So the skill level is so different for the kids.

 

[bananiem]

I stopped teaching preschool 11 years ago. At that time I had been a pre-k teacher for 6 years. Granted it was in a childcare center so the kids had the preschool curriculum for 12 months, but my goals were to have the kids doing the following by the time they left me for kindergarten:
-recognizing and writing letters A-Z, upper and lower case
-recognizing and writing numbers 1-30+ and counting to 100.
-knowing letter sounds and some blends
-basic reading to those interested
-small and gross motor skills
-being able to sit for story time
-following a list of 3 instructions (Go to the cabinet, get a kleenex, and bring it back to me.)
-cooperative play
-etc.
According to what was happening here over a decade ago the OP's son is on target for kindergarten. Like another poster said, standards have only gone up.
My children both entered kindergarten reading a little, but after a year in half day kindergarten both classes were reading on a 2nd-6th grade level. A child who had skipped kindergarten would not have been able to compete with them as first graders.

 

[swilphil]

I'm another one who doesn't see the advantage of Ethan skipping Kindergarten. My son's pre-K class this year was doing all the things the OP listed and much more. The fact the Ethan doesn't like to sit and write is another reason he should stay in K, and it really is much more than academics at that level. I'd recommend telling your principal that you are concerned that he might be bored. Hopefully, they will place him with a K teacher that will challenge him beyond the curriculum.

 

[lbgraves]

And are you sure they won't? Now that I know our school will do this, I will insist that my son go to the correct place for math next year (his K teacher is the one who told me he will probably be sent to 2nd grade for math). I didn't realize this could be done for his older brother and he just wasn't challenged in math even though he went into elem school strong in math.

I am going to find out for this year...that's for sure! I would have thought that since he was tested in September that if it was possible, he would have been placed in that kind of group. He has been in the AG program since Kindergarten but they don't do academics yet. I do think that the skills he is working on there will help him later though. They came up with the idea for a play, wrote it, and then made the animal puppets, memorized their lines, and performed it for the K & 1st grade students & their parents. He also participated in the invention convention this year & learned how to stick with a plan & follow thru to finish a project. They usually don't have 1st graders actually finish their projects for that.

 

[lbgraves]

This is so not true. What is sad is how many educators believe it. DD was extremely bored. She came home truly upset and frustrated every day. We tried for weeks to get her to tell us what was wrong. Finally, one day, through her tears, she said "Do you know how hard it is to learn the same things over and over, Every Single DAY?" She spent her days paired up wth the kids who struggled. She "helped" them through, thus they learned. DD learned how to help others, but didn't learn.

This is exactly how I feel about DS. He comes home saying that reviewing material is OK. He always has to help other kids finish their work. After looking back on the past year I am upset. I am happy that DS is good at working with others & helps them BUT he is in school to learn...NOT to teach other kids how to do the work.

 

[Nicolepa]

If a child is truly gifted, he/she will not be bored whatever the placement. A gifted child will always think of a way to challenge themselves or find some way to stimulate his/her mind.

I have to agree that this is so not true. In my research 70% of gifted children will become underachievers if they are not challenged. If a gifted child is not challenged they give up on ever being challenged and get used to life being easy. It is a rare child who will keep themselves challenged when no one else cares.

I have personal experience with this. When I was a child I was failing 4th grade, they tested me for remedial classes. They were quite shocked when I was on the other end of the test! They immediatly put me in a gifted program and I excelled immediatly.

I also see it in my 6 yo. She has gotten used to not having to work at school that she gets upset when I challenge her at home. She will be going to the gifted program next year and I can't wait. (Our district doesn't start until 1st grade.)

 

[buddy&wooz]

There's just no easy answer. My oldest skipped 3rd grade (the teacher actually recommended it) and I can't say the ride since has been smooth. No major problems, but it's not easy being the youngest kid, especially once in HS. He does well academically but he's not a superstar by a long shot.

He's never complained, at least not to me, but I can tell it's been difficult for him at times. Although going to his senior prom as a 16 year old with an 18 year old date seems to have been a highlight! Still, in NJ you have to be 17 to drive so he couldn't drive her.

We did what we thought was best with the information that we had at the time. It all worked out in the end, he's going to a very competitive college in the fall, he has a group of good friends, he's really a happy kid.

Now his little brother could easily skip a grade academically. But I'm not even going to explore that option based on his brother's experience. I find other ways to challenge him.

 

[taximomfor4]

here is a good list of myths and facts about gifted students. The more profoundly gifted, the more profound the differences from other kids may be.

gifted Myths

 

[paigevz]

I never saw your first post, but just thought I'd comment on this, as I tried to have this done. Not with my own kid, both bright youngsters, but socially not above their age levels. But with one of my pre-kindergarten students, I did try to get him straight to first. This kid was physically tall, socially advanced, motor advanced..........everything advanced. He was from a poor family, so hadn't had a lot of EXPERIENCES, but in every other way was ready. He was going to be bored in K. I had been sending him, with district permission, down the hall to K classes for both Lang. Arts and Math, and he was top of the class.........actually, top of all the classes. I had, at that point, taught more than 300 Pre-kindergarteners, and had NEVER asked this for any of them.

None of that mattered. They wanted to test him, on 1st grade curriculum, and he had to score 95 percent or better in every area. Now, I wasn't asking to send him to 2nd (though he probably would have done well there), just to first grade. Why did he need to take a 1st grade curriculum test? Then, 95 percent? That could be just a bad day or a mismark (yes, he'd have to bubble in answers). I tried to talk with these people, I asked them to meet him, to talk with the teachers in K who had worked with him. No. He takes the test and gets 95 percent or no go. I asked if all the Kindergarteners had to do this to be able to go to first. "No, but we want to be sure that it's not too overwhelming for him". Well, if the others don't have to, and they can do it, might he do just as well?

Reluctantly, I gave up. As I told his mother, I didn't want to set him up to fail. I didn't want him to think he couldn't do something, just because he made a mistake on this test. He hadn't been exposed to some of the math he'd been tested on, and some of the science/social studies concepts. We just don't study those things in Pre-Kindergarten.

I hope you have better luck, just thought I'd let you know. You might want to get something like the Core Knowledge series of books and see what he may be expected to know, just to be sure he's been exposed to those things. Or check the school website, they may have the requirements for different grades up. Ours does, so if yours doesn't, do a search and find what other school districts may have..........not sure about all states, but our requirements/study concepts are the same statewide.

 

[lady9]

If you read all the studies on gifted children, yes, you will find many that find underachievement in gifted children due to lack of stimulation in the classroom. These are studies of UNDERACHIEVING GIFTED STUDENTS, not the norm for giftedness. If the gifted child is given support at home and allowed to explore their interests, then boredom and underachievement is not usually a problem. It is definitely in the best interest of a gifted (or any) child to have a teacher that is able to provide challenging experiences for him/her. There are many teachers that do this. My DS has been lucky to have such teachers each year. However, realistically, teachers today focus more on the average child and lower achieving child because of the state mandated tests. As of right now, each school must have each grade pass each test at a 75% passage rate. Supposily, "No Child Left Behind" wants to increase that to 100% in 2014. This includes most LD children who have to take the same test, with little modification, as their classmates. It is the gifted child that is left behind when this happens. As a parent of a child who appears to be gifted, I will not leave it up to the school to provide all of her academic needs. Parents have to take some responsibility in the education of their children. Like I said before, my daughter has found many ways to challenge herself in the classroom. I do not believe gifted children should be paired all day with children who are having problems learning. In some cases, it does help the child in need learn but does very little for the gifted child. In my son's classroom, the teacher ability grouped. There were 5 in my son's group who all were working above grade level. The entire class was learning the same concept but each group had a different activity to go along with that depending on if the group needed remediation or enrichment. I think this is a much better way to teach and I applaud my son's teacher for meeting the needs of all her students.

 

[momof2inPA]

I think you should leave him in Kindergarten where he can be one of the "smart" kids (although you will be surprised how many of the other children are beyond the level of your son). If he's in first grade, he might become comfortable with the academic middle of the class. I also find that age in boys is a big factor in their ability to write legibly. Their small muscles have to mature enough to be able to form the letters correctly. Girls don't seem to have this problem, but maybe traditional girl activities focus more on small muscle development instead of large muscle.