Kindergarten readiness

[Sandbox Sally]

See, that's the thing...why should we have to "work with" our kids?? The things I mentioned before - shapes, colours, etc are more absorbed and learned from natural curitosity than a parent actually having to sit down and teach a preschooler.

My own kids aren't that old. In fact, my youngest is only in grade 2. I never got any notices home about having him or my other older two ready for kindergarten.

[Emily3]

Hi, my questions sort of relates to this thread so I'll post here! I have 3 children around 20 months old and one older sibling who will be 4 in April. My kids here learn through play mostly but I was wondering if I should do more with the oldest child? He can count objects up 20, use glue to assemble crafts without help, recognize and write his name, sometimes hold a pencil properly etc. Honestly, he just wants to run around with the little ones and has no interest in sitting still for more than 2 minutes so I have worked these things into play! His parents seem thrilled that he can do so much more than before so I'm really just wondering for future reference if anyone thinks only being around younger children would hold someone back at all?

[waterloo day mom]

The only actual "learning" time that we do where we sit and focus on something is 1) if we are doing some kind of science experiment (what happens if we mix 2 different colours, we made a composter, we tested what things float and what sink, etc) where the kids are actively discovering the concept that I am teaching or 2) during circle time I will have them find me the colour and shape that we have been working on. Once the kids are about to start kindergarten, we play some computer games for letter recognition and practice writing letters when they are painting or colouring. People of any age learn best when they are actively engaged (not just listening) and when they are enjoying what they are doing.

[Momof4]

I have different learning themes every week and cover A and #1 in the first week of Jan. and work all the way to Z and #20 in the last week of August. This is my way of preparing the children for JK and the repetitive way I teach indoors and outdoors as we craft and sing and walk and talk and play is planting all the little seeds into their minds that they can call on later in life. Yes I agree that shapes and colours and letters and numbers and fine motor movement is all important.

However, I am not responsible for making sure a child can print their name or even one letter! I just had a little boy graduate who would not even try anything regarding sitting and working on printed pages. But after just a couple of months in JK he can now print his name, recites the alphabet over and over (which he would never even try for me) and so much more. It was IN THERE! He just didn't want me to know he was paying attention.

Don't sweat it, just do your best.

[Judy Trickett]

I don't think it is our job to "teach" children. I DO think it is our job to offer a stimulating environment where in they can learn about their world by just being IN the environment.

I think it is really UNfair for society to pay us what they do and then expect us to TEACH children and have expectations for academic readiness.

Sorry, but when someone drops their child in a care situation and pays the provider a mere $3-4 an hour for that care with NO benefits, NO retirement plan, NO paid vacation, No Employment Insurance etc etc etc, it is absurd to also expect them to be a kindergarten teacher as well.

[dodge__driver11]

Here here Judy!! While we do crafts, reading, songs and take every chance to learn we are not teachers! I couln't have said it better myself....

[carla]

judys reason above is why i left the headstart program. children who barely spoke english came to the program and the first day we met them we had to sit them down and do kindergarden readiness. the children were not allowed to play unless it was to work on goals for there iep. i had enough and quite. I am all about learning through play and the children having fun doing it.

Children may not know they are learning but they sure know they are having fun.

[playfelt]

You make a really good point Carla in that sometimes when we think of kindergarten readiness we think of sit down at a desk paper based work. We can do what we have done for the last two years with the children just using different materials such as letter cards in the pocket chart instead of just pictures or matching hot wheels cars by colour and naming them so they learn metallic and gold, silver, burgundy as well as the basic crayon box colours. It is just about realizing that year before school we need to take note of just what they are grasping from their play and set up the environment so the correct materials are there so the learning takes place. It doesn't mean we have to change our programs to suddenly start drilling these concepts into the kids. If we have done our environments right all along they have naturally grasped what they needed to learn already and now we just need to check and confirm the learning. The new Ontario Kindergarten program sounds like they may have started to realize that it is possible and more beneficial to learn through play rather than just worksheets or at least that is what is coming through in the documents I have been reading.