<p>I have a family member who is color blind. It was undetected till he was much older than Kindergarten. </p>
<p>I think it’s a good idea for all kids to see a vision doc before they start school - even if there is a vision/hearing test screening offered through a school. There are too many things that can’t be detected in a simple eye chart reading. Particularly for those kids who are very young and don’t know their letters/shapes, yet! There are muscle and vascular issues and eye doctors can detect at a much earlier age. </p>
<p>Focusing and tracking problems can be significant issues for young kids. I remember we had to have one kid use an index card or ruler under the words to keep him focused on that line, only. His was a vision problem, undetected.</p>
<p>Kids eye muscles don’t always develop properly when they are youngand can end up with lazy muscles eyes which need patching or surgery. There are also other issues that can be significant.</p>
<p>I personally have never seen a kid who was bored due either to giftedness or academic problems - only due to social challenges.</p>
<p>I’ve seen both- often with same kid.
For instance my oldest was reading chapter books before K- however- she has a math computation dysfunction.
If she had been in a classroom where they were working on learning the alphabet & letter sounds- there wouldn’t have been anything for her to do- except sit there quietly. * bored<a href=“this%20was%20our%20local%20school%20&%20I%20liked%20the%20K%20teacher-%20but%20she%20was%20quite%20upfront%20about%20it”>/i</a></p>
<p>In a little older class, writing math problems or learning the times tables, she had difficulty, because the numbers didn’t mean anything to her- & made it really hard to remember. So when a class was working on that- she could have been completely lost, and appear bored.
( luckily- she attended a school for highly gifted children with mixed ages which was very child focused)</p>
<p>My youngest is also quite bright- but not as linear. Despite having attended excellent schools, she did not know her letter sounds by the beginning of third grade. However, during that year ( she turned 8 at the very end), something * clicked* and she was soon reading Harry Potter books like she had been reading them for years.</p>
<p>Expecting children to make exactly the same milestones at exactly the same time- is not reasonable- IMO.</p>
<p>Both my kids had been in pt time co-op preschools that were primarily about socialization. I believe many if not most kids, have some preschool/day care experience now before school, however, I also feel that the very long day some of these kids have can overstimulate them to the point where they step back and go inside their head as a protection mechanism.</p>
<p>Of course some kids can’t even do that & by dinner time they are literally bouncing off the ceiling.</p>
<p>I have to agree with you that giftedness or disability can lead to various issues in the classroom, but in Kindergarten it really should not be too much of a problem (especially half-day). The intervals of time spent learning are so very short. I guess there is a chance it could be one of these things alone, but I have seen a whole lot of extremely gifted kids sail through a typical grade level Kindergarten, bored or not. Many of these kids are unchallenged throughout elementary and middle school in GATE classrooms, which are typically only one to two years advanced. The same for kids with LD’s. There are just a lot of highly engaged and even wildly popular kids who are gifted or seriously struggling. </p>
<p>Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to at least investigate weaknesses on the social side, since there are many peers with mismatched academic talent or preparation who still thrive in Kindergarten. It couldn’t hurt. </p>
<p>I feel so bad for little ones who have a hard time making friends. It is a way more important thing to address than academics, and can be a red flag for troubling issues that crop up in adolescence.</p>
<p>Consolation - one of the dangers of posting is that you lose nuance. </p>
<p>I was being somewhat facetious in my observation (not an assumption). After three years (about 80 kids per year) of participating in k screening (and as I said, we welcomed all kids) to have a baseline of skills when they entered - I found that so many of the little girls loved coming in for the screening and were eager to begin the types of tasks found in kindergarten. They liked to sit and draw and put sparkles on their papers. The little guys - not so much. A couple of quick lines and then they were making guns and cars out of their crayons. Which I happened to love. </p>
<p>So my remark was tongue in check, but I did consider gender (among many other factors) when a parent asked whether they should wait to send a child to school. By the way, my dd’s closest friend was a fellow who was almost a year younger than classmates and did extremely well in school - no need for him to have waited.</p>
<p>I have 23 kids in my kinder class, in a tiny, tiny portable building. Before school started this year the school principal returned the block center materials, and house-keeping center to the central warehouse. There is no “dress-up” center. Daily instructional program guides are set by the district, and we are expected to teach lessons at the time of day prescribed and scheduled by our principal, without departure from those lessons or lesson times. All of Friday is spent “assessing”: i.e. testing. Holidays are ignored. Students are expected to sit on little round hard seats in a loud cafeteria for 30 minutes a day without turning around or getting up while they eat lunch. They have one 15 minute recess a day, and no nap. There is no “free choice” center time (“play time”) allowed. Coloring, cutting and pasting is frowned upon, and projects must be focused on the TEKS or state standards. Most of the children lack social skills and whine, hit, cry, tattle, take, grab instead of using their words. What’s not to love?</p>
<p>When D2 was in kinder, I picked up her good friend from another town for a play date at our house. They yaked(sp?) all the way, mostly about how difficult kinder was, and how much homework their teacher gave. They sounded like bounch of higher schoolers. We decided to stop off at our local video rental store to pick out some movies for the sleep over. Those two were still yakking away when we walked into the store, then they just stopped short because their teacher (wearing normal people clothes) was standing there picking out a video. The look on those two’s five year old’s face was priceless. I said to the teacher, “Hi, Mrs. XXX, I think you should give these kids more homework, they have so much spare time that they are watching videos.”</p>
<p>Oh yuck, Anxiousmom. That classroom sounds AWFUL! This is why we need charter schools. Parents deserve options. Bureaucracy sucks the life out of everything.</p>
<p>anxiousmom - Your post is so sad. You made me realize how lucky I am to teach at a supportive school with a developmental approach. What you are describing is so developmentally inappropriate for 5 year olds. I guess the administators in your system never heard about learning through play? How are these children going to grow to be creative thinkers?</p>
<p>Our preschool teacher always said that what you look for in kindergarten readiness is large motor skills (can they run, jump, hop?), fine moter skills (can they hold a crayon, can they manipulate scissors?) and verbal skills. Then when they get to kindergarten we tell “Sit down, stop fidgeting, and be quite.” No wonder kids hate school.</p>
<p>Anxious. I agree with everyone else, it is pitiful the situation you are in. It appears to me they have taken every rule to the letter regardless of the age of the child.</p>
<p>In our school we had silent lunch, but never in the K-1 grades. They had to behave, but we expected them to be 5 yr olds and squirm. SIlent was held for the 3-5th at the teachers discretion…trust me no kid wanted that because it meant the teacher was giving up their lunch to sit with the students…that was a threat kids quickly understood meant crappy day for them if it happened.</p>
<p>We also had 2 15 minute breaks (full day) to go an play on the play equipment, (K-1 were always in their own wing with their sep equipment) plus nap time. On top of that they were also smart enough to realize that it would be best to have bathrooms in the classroom because it is better for the teacher not to have to round up 30 5 yr olds and walk them to the bathroom every 90 minutes. Their final smart decision was that music, art and library were conducted in the classroom instead of taking them through the halls. Only computer and PE were classes that the kids left the room for.</p>
<p>Again, it really seems that the BOE has taken policy to the Umpteenth degree.</p>
<p>I couldn’t figure out why my son’s preschool teacher was spending time teaching all the kids how to skip. It turns out it was one of the things they tested at Kindergarten screening. Amusingly he was the only one I observed during the time my son was there who could actually do it. (But only because he’d been shown how.)</p>
<p>When we moved to Kansas back in the mid-60s, kindergartners were expected to tie their shoes and tell time from an analog watch (was there any other kind?). I was absolutely terrified I’d be thrown out of school. We moved there during the school year and hadn’t learned this stuff, and I was nearly six already. Instead, I got in trouble for leaving the playground to sneak off to the library – which was why <em>I</em> wanted to go to school!</p>
<p>Our school system here has also pushed 1st grade educational goals into K, not unlike what anxiousmom describes. OTOH, the school system unabashedly tells parents that teachers will not teach multiplication tables – do it at home.</p>
<p>I think silent lunch was a punishment for those who misbehaved.</p>
<p>I have a friend who is a school teacher. She tells me that schools really can’t impose detention as they are required to educate all students but can’t mandate they stay late. So the teachers are instructed to give detention to the students who will actually serve it and be role models, but not to bother with the students who will refuse anyway as the school can’t enforce it.</p>
<p>Silent lunch on the other hand they can enforce because that is in the middle of the day.</p>
<p>Silent lunches are a dumb idea. I would love to chat with any educator who thinks this is a good idea and should continue. Do teachers and administrators have silent lunches? If any of you believe this, go check out a faculty lounge. Doesn’t happen. There is gossip and noise. They are asking for kids to get into trouble and recidivism by these troublemakers by expecting silent lunches from their students. </p>
<p>Another not genius idea is s benching kids during recess.</p>
<p>Nothing like stifling kids very human urges to fit in with the model of seen and not heard.</p>
<p>Developmentally, kids need to move around and are going to be fidgety. I am fidgety when I sit for too long!</p>
<p>The best thing for the kid who is a little exuberant in class and can’t sit still is not more of the same. I would probably want them taking a lap or doing something where they could use their whole bodies. Stretching. Jumping up and down. Getting their wigglies out, is what I would call it.</p>
<p>Back in the 5late 0s when I was a kid, there was no such thing as kindergarten (in our area.) My mother taught me to read before 1st grade with words like “cat, bat, hat” etc. (I think she wanted to be a teacher herself, and had more common sense than many educators. This was just before the fun Dr. Seuss books came out (Hop on Pop) and during the boring Dick, Jane & Spot era.)</p>
<p>My aunt said “Don’t teach her to read, she’ll be bored in first grade.” Ha.</p>
<p>Anyway, I agree with posters who said the solution is in a parent-teacher conference re the child. There could be many many reasons he is “bored.”</p>
<p>Before I decided to send my kids to private (religious) school for K-8, I did go visit the local public school kgn to see what my tax dollars were buying. </p>
<p>28 or so kids in class, no aide, and while it seemed <em>okay</em>, it would not have suited my kids because everyone worked on the same tasks at the same time. Everyone was learning the same letter of the alphabet, for instance. Well, my kids already knew all the letters (and indeed, were reading) so they would have been bored and probably acted out.</p>
<p>In the Kgn class my kids ended up in, kids went through “letter books” at their own pace, and read easy books (if they could) of their choice. They had math work as well, and of course, various play areas they could use when they finished their seatwork. The big mantra was “Everyone is Learning.” Everyone had their own work to do, so no one was “behind.”</p>
<p>Of course, towards the end of the year all the kids knew who had already finished ALL the letter books, or was a whiz at math, but still the idea was “Everyone is Learning.”</p>