Too Smart for Kindergarten?

[rmc20021]

My grandson is extremely intelligent when he began kindergarden. My daughter worked with him from the time he was born and he knew EVERYTHING a kindergardener should know upon starting school.

He knew everything possible about dinosaurs...could name off every one of them you could possibly show him, knew what they ate, when they lived and could describe them in detail if you just named one.

He also knew about the planets and universe. And could read.

This boy is beyond intelligent for a 5 yo...but even though he had attended a home daycare most of his life, he still was not able to socialize in a larger group so he is in kindergarden this year to prepare him for first grade.

I had thought it would be best for him to skip kindergarden as well since he was so beyond all the academic levels and was afraid he would become bored. But now I see he needed the kidnergarden experience...and not just the socialization, all of it. So I feel his mom made a good choice on her own not to allow him to be moved into first grade.

[rmc20021]

Oh...and to add something cute and funny from an intelligent 5 yo view (even though he's smart, he's still only 5, well 6 as of December 6th...5 days beyond the cutoff for beginning a child in school when they're 5).

He attended his first day of kindergarden and then thought that was it for kindergarden...one day and then you move on the first grade.

[Preschool/daycare teacher]

Oh...and to add something cute and funny from an intelligent 5 yo view (even though he's smart, he's still only 5, well 6 as of December 6th...5 days beyond the cutoff for beginning a child in school when they're 5).

He attended his first day of kindergarden and then thought that was it for kindergarden...one day and then you move on the first grade.

Haha, that is soo cute! After she registered this week, this little girl told me the next day, "I went to Kindergarten, but I didn't learn anything." And she thinks she is "in Kindergarten" now. I don't think she really knows what it means to be in Kindergarten

Thanks everyone for your input!

[anamikac]

Day care

My son is 3yr old. I have admitted in the most awesomeness school ever

[Leigh]

I have a child in my care who will be going to a different school district than any other child I've had in my care yet. She just had her Kindergarten registration this week, and in any other school the children are required to take an entrance test, showing they know everything required for Kindergarten entrance. This school is very top notch academically and expect a lot of the children, so I was expecting a very detailed, difficult test showing that she is completely 100% ready for school. Turns out they didn't give a test at all. In fact, they gave a letter to each family, telling what they will learn in Kindergarten. Every last thing in that list is stuff that children learn in preschool. This girl in my care who will be going to that school is way beyond those concepts. They will "be learning their numbers and to rote count..." She recognizes numbers up to 20, and rote counts to 100, counts by 10's to 100. Knows every one of her letters and which is uppercase and which is lowercase, knows all their sounds, etc. It also mentioned learning their basic colors... seriously?! Most children learn their colors by age 2 or 2 1/2! Learning left to right progression.... this is covered in a child's very first couple months in preschool (around age 3). There's several other things on the list, and every bit of it is usually what a child learns around age 3 or 4. This girl can do simple addition and subtraction already, tells time to the hour, knows the names of each coin, her address, phone number (with area code), birthday (month/day/year), and so much more.
She is going to be SOOO bored in Kindergarten. She's one who has to be challenged with new things or becomes bored, sulky, and "gets creative" in a not so good way. She is very very smart about academic things and things in life. And when she's not challenged, she becomes lazy and doesn't try to do a good job. She gets bored with it and just gets sloppy. I'm afraid that if she spends all of Kindergarten learning what she has known for a couple years at the least, she will get used to not having to try and then when school does become a little harder, she'll be so used to having it easy and being lazy with it, that she won't care to try anymore. She'll be so used to knowing everything already.

Until standardized testing became more important than developmentally appropriate schooling, this was what Kindergarten was all about. My son hated Pre-K for the first several months. I sent him because he needed time away from me. He complained that they teach him what he already knows and he wants to learn math and biology. I talked to his teacher about it, and she agreed that he was emotionally, intellectually, and academically ahead of his peers, but he was learning critical social skills (I agree, and this is why I kept sending him). What they did was cater to his interests after that conversation, and when kids were working on counting or days of the week with one teacher, the other would work on subtraction with my son or read a book about animals or whatever he was obsessed with that day. They'd discuss the book, and work on reading comprehension. I found that his Pre-K did a very good job of teaching to EACH child as an individual, and they all accomplished what was necessary: Getting ready for Kindergarten. Some kids needed to learn numbers, some needed to learn how to interact with new kids and follow directions.

I would rather send my son to the Kindy that you describe than one that expects him to read by the end of the year (like our school district expects). Kids DON'T need heavy academics in Kindergarten-they are taught because of those tests. I'm guessing that this child may not feel challenged by the curriculum, but will still end up with a meaningful experience. She can learn the big stuff in 1st and 2nd grade-where that stuff belongs.