What do you do when you find out that your child is not being taught at school? I couldn't believe it when I saw what the other Kindergarten classes were teaching their children... READING! What!?!?!?!?!?!?!? KayBree is only on letter names and sounds (which she knew before she went to PRESCHOOL), why am I the lucky one who gets a teacher that doesn't teach.
Here's my question to you, and I am not just talking about Kindergarten, but the pattern that it sets for the rest of her school career...If she is not truly being educated... if she is learning nothing of value to her... why would she wish to be in school? Do you like wasting your time? And if you were forced to do things all day long that you were bored by, that you found unchallenging and useless, week after week, month after month, year after year.... well, wouldn't you find a way... and I mean any way possible, to get out of it? And how would you feel about the people making you do these things... say your parents and teachers? Can I really expect her to feel like I am looking out for her best interest? Would she or could she appreciate and/or respect me at all? Am I setting her up to be a Kindergarten drop out?????
I want to pull my hair out, but instead I did the mature motherly thing and bribed her.
"Oh sweet, smart KayBree, if you will do your "HOME"work everyday, trying your hardest, and learn to read all the sight words before summer, you, my dear daughter, will be blessed with your very own Wii!"
"YAY!!!" says KayBree so excitedly.
So everyday when she comes home from the JOKE that is school, she starts on her reading, 72 sight word flashcards, 2 sight word books, and 2 pages of Kindergarten reading curriculum. She is already starting to improve she only has problems with 17 of the 72 sight words, she can read her books that I printed off the Internet, and she does the worksheets with no problem (we just started doing this on monday). Tell me why they aren't teaching her what she needs to know, she's obviously ready, and has been for the last year. I hope that I don't have to do this her whole school career, if so I'll just home school, since that is what I am doing anyway...
p.s. I do like KayBree's teacher, she is very very nice. KayBree loves her too. I just wish KayBree was learning something... ANYTHING!
10 comments:
Awesome post! I love how honest you are! I think there's a lot of sweet, nice teachers out there who don't know what they're doing and aren't educating well. Savanna has had 2 kindergarten teachers so far. The first was AMAZING! In just two months, Savanna was reading so well and would come home with these fabulous projects plus had enough homework to keep her learning and let Danny and I know things were going well.
Her teacher now however...she is nice but Savanna comes home with tons of workbook pages just torn out and I'll ask what she learns and she says, "the letter T!" Haven't you been learning the letter T for 3 years now!? So irritating! Danny and I read with her now more often because I feel like she is regressing.
That is seriously SO awesome that you are doing all that stuff with her at home though! You are such a good mom!!! I think often times a child's success at school is measured by how involved their parents are and wow, I'm not worried for Kaybree at ALL!!!
Oh man that scares me to death! Thanks goodness you are on top of it. I hope my kids can get a good education in public schools, I don't think I would be good at home schooling, and private just sounds expensive. GOOD LUCK!!!!
Ash, call me. We'll talk!
Love, Big Sis
It could be that the teacher feels that the majority of the class is at a lower level then Kaebree. Which is sad for her because she's not learning, but she's a very lucky girl to have a mom who cared enough to teach her the basics when she was ready and is willing to continue to teach her what she is ready to learn. The school system is often thought of as a conveyor belt. Expecting everyone to be on the same page at the same time, which is not true and our kids suffer for it. This is why we have chosen to home school or send them to a private school if finances allow. Good luck with everything.
With our neighborhood, Kaybree's always gonna be ahead of the other kids. Lots of these kids don't have any parental support.
I know quite a few people who have liked the Thomas Edison Charter school...it's only a few blocks away, and it's still considered "public school", so it's free. You might wanna look into it. :)
That is so frustrating! I feel the same way. I don't want to do homeschool but sometimes I feel like that is going to have to be a real option for us. Yikes!
P.S. I'm going private on my blog so please send your email address yowendi@hotmail.com or post it on my blog. Thanks!
I was really worried about Andrew's class. When I went and volunteered there were kids who knew maybe four letters in the alphabet. I have my pros and cons to the school but I know they are doing more than I would at home.
Will you let me know what you found? I'd like to maybe try some stuff with Grace. Also, I don't know at what age they start pulling gifted kids out for accelerated learning, but you may end up just needing to work with Kaybree one on one at home until she's old enough to be pulled out for gifted programs.
What a frustrating bridge to cross. I bought a series of phonics books for Max if you would like to borrow them. he is loving them!
I am working in a kindergarten class right now every morning for a couple of hours and I am shocked at the huge gap of what kids know and what they don't know. I am working with two boys who, when I started, didn't know most of their alphabet and the corrisponding sounds. I am also working with about 8 kids who are amazing readers. The kindergarten books are to easy for them so we are going on to harder things. The rest are somewhere in between. The fact that Kaybree is doing so well reflects on you guys as being wonderful parents who take an intrest in their childrens learning. I wish more moms were like you. This poor teacher is beside herself because of the huge gap in learning. I am there to try and help close that gap.
All I can say is keep working with her at home. It is a pain in the butt I am sure but it will be well worth it.
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