Pre-K Getting Ready for Kindergarten

Hi K.!

I am a mom of three. I have a daughter going into Kindergarten this fall and a 3 year old and an 18 month old. We discovered LeapFrog videos. My oldest caught on to her letters easily, but I was really worried about my 3 year old. Her attention span seems very short to me. A friend of mine was telling me about LeapFrog videos. (They make all kinds of great learning games and electronics). I think the series is 5 videos, but the first in the series is called "The Letter Factory." My 3 year old quickly learned to identify each letter as well as learn the sound each letter makes. She now can sound out simple words. We let her watch the video once every day or so and she picked it very quickly.

I know it sounds bad to have a video to help teach, but all kids learn differently, and this is what worked with her.

I hope this helps you.

Hi. My son learned his letters before he was 3 by watching a Blue's Clue DVD Alphabet Power. He learned the sounds the letters make by watching the DVD Leap Frog Letter Factory.

Wow, it looks like you have gotten alot of great advice from all of these moms! I always thought that the best way to learn was with games.. My daughter is 9 months and we learning games and sing all day long. Don't worry- you acually have some time and these other moms have given you some great tools. It's kind of funny don't you think; I remember not knowing my alphabet until I was in Kindergarten, and I wasn't out of place. It's strange how things can change in 25 years....;)

My daughter had to take an evaluation to register for kindergarten so I know how you feel. I think as parents we worry more than we need to because we want our children to answer every question right. Your daycare should be trying to teach these skills as well. Schedule a meeting at his daycare with his teacher and the centers educational director. You can discuss your concerns and get feed back on how he is performing in class. Have a list of your concerns prepared ahead of time so you don't forget anything. Together you should be able to come up with a plan. Then ask the new school what they do with the results and if it will keep him from starting kindergarten. Our school does the evaluation to see where the children are and do not discuss the results with the parents. If they have concerns they will discuss it with us when school starts and we know which teacher they will have. You are not alone and should not beat your self up.

The No Child Left Behind Act has created this sad atmosphere where children are pushed to do things they are not developmentally ready to do. What you are going through is perfectly normal, and does not mean that you are doing anything wrong. Your child's brain simply isn't ready to know the letters yet. He shouldn't even be expected to go into Kindergarten knowing his letters, but NCLB has all the teachers so stressed they are then putting pressure on the kids. Your child will know his letters when he is ready, and not a minute sooner. Support his development, but don't worry about it. Point out letters on signs or license plates while you are driving around, or use some of the fun activities other respondents mentioned. Just be careful not to push him. If he starts getting bored or frustrated he will shut down and not want to learn. Also, he might develop a negative attitude about himself and not learn because he is convinced he can't. Letter recognition is just one part of learning to read. I'm sure your child is developing in other ways. He won't be behind! Remember, reading used to not be taught until 1st grade, when children's brains are more developed and ready for reading. Your young child will get it, just give him time :)

It's possible that your son may have dyslexia. I know that sounds extreme, but you might want to have him checked. I know that children with dyslexia have a hard time identifying letters and numbers. They see everything backwards. Or it may be his short attention span, or even his way of pushing your buttons, because he knows if he doesn't get it, you will spend more time with him going over it again. Don't worry so much, wait and see what happens when he gets into kindergarten. Sometimes kids that don't seem to get it at home get it at school or amaze their teachers because they know so much more than other students. And the evaluation probably doesn't have anything to do with whether he gets in to kindergarten or not. It is probably a tool used to see where a child's weaknesses are so that the teachers will know where the child needs extra attention.

when my son was in pre-k going into kidnergaten, he didn't know all his letters. they teach them that in kidnergarten. they learn numbers, letters, adding, reading. so it shouldn't be a problem him not knowing them. hope everythings works out for you.

K. D,

Don't worry it's not college he'll do just fine kindergarten is where they learn so very much GA state law requires that a child be in home school or private or public school by age 6. They have no laws, rules about a child knowing every letter or number. They test them to see if they need any special services, speech therapy , ot that kind of stuff and to know what they will need to work on with that child. Please don't worry yourself so much your child will do fine sometimes they can suprise you with what they know and tell someone else without you standing over them. I have a child that needed speach therapy couldn't get the doctors to give him ear tubes 'till he was 2 he couldn't speak but 4 words. They called it developmental delay a few years of speech therapy now he tells me if I say a word incorrectly. Don't push him or over load him he's only 4 and by the way my 4 year old that is getting ready for kindergaten this up coming year forgets flash cards 2 minutes later he's right with the majority of 4 yr olds and this 2nd child of mine didn't talk much 'till about 8 months ago. It will be fine 6 months from now you'll wonder why you worried so much. Remeber let him have fun at learing use songs, drawing and play he'll remember more and short very short stories. He'll get it he really will. You might want to consider holding him back until the following year I did that for my oldest child no regrets each child is different I'd rather hold a child back in kindergarten then, them have problems and have to be held back at an older grade level. Sometimes it's better to be the big fish advise from a very wise doctor of ours. He was right my 6 year in kindergarten worked out best for him.

I'm sure he'll be fine. Try to find ways of making ABC's more of a game than "teaching". I know my kids resist any effort of my part to teach them anything. You could try puzzles, magnets... we even have a "go fish" card game with letters on it. Computer games have helped us too. Maybe talk to his pre-K teacher about your concerns and see what kind of feedback you get. Try not to stress out about the K test.

Hi K.. While my child is not at that age yet, I am a physical therapist that works parttime with pediatrics but I do a lot of cotreats with occupational and speech therapists so I have picked up a few things along the way. We all have different learning styles and from what you said he may be more of an auditory learner versus a visual learner which would makes it hard to recognize letters just from sight. Some things that you may want to try is tracing the letters with his finger and describing the shape of the letter. make letters out of different materials such as playdough, yarn, sticks, etc so that he may have more of a tactile and auditory sensation with letters. hope that helps!

Hi K.,

About your little boy you have to understand that boy's are a little slower on the speech than little girls they may not catch on as quickly as others. I have a little 3yr old boy that has difficulty pronouncing his words properly. I think your are being a little to hard on him and your self. He need to let them see the level he is on and not pretend to be on a different level because the test most likely is only to see what they need to concentrate on when he starts. They aren't going to say no you can't attend because you don't know your letters. They will just know that this is a area they need to put more effort towards and he might also be having trouble comprehending because he feels the pressure and tension from you and the anxiety of it all is making it difficult. You should stop drilling him and let him do his best. He will be FINE!!!! DON'T WORRY HE IS NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT WILL NEED HELP WITH THIS! Let us know how the test goes and CHILL OUT...you are giving you and him unnecessary pressure and stress. Good luck and I will be thinking about you guys. A. www.busymomsworkathome.com

Hello K.,

I agree with Lisa, see if he works well with someone other than yourself and your husband...maybe with a playmate even.

Also, you may get him checked for dyslexia. I have a family member who had a very similar issue with her little girl all the way through Kindergarten. A teacher ended up referring them to do this and indeed that was the issue.

K.

Everyone has given you great advice, I taught childcare for 7 years and have a degree in early childhood education. One of the things that I did with the children outside of all of the above, Is I have musical tapes and dvd's with numbers, letters, and lots of songs. I would play the tapes or dvd musicals in the car on field trips and during music time for the children, My son was born early and he is an audio learn. This helps a lot of children. Try leapster as well. It truely is one of the best learning tools to have. You can purchase musical cd, dvd and cassettes at Walmart, Target, bookstores in your area.

my son is the same age and had the same problem. I tried to use flashcards, writing it out, got coloring books with the letters.....everything and it didn't seem to work. My son is smart and catches on quickly to everything so I couldn't understand why he didn't get the letters. Talked to his teacher and she loaned me the LETTER FACTORY dvd - by leap frog. I put it on for him to watch every day....within a month he had his letters down. Plus it teaches phonics so he not only knew the letter but the sound as well. Worth a try.........amazon.com has it.

Hello K.,

First off stop pushing, he will get it. There not required to know all that stuff upon entering pre-k. I thought so too with my first son and he was soooo ahead of his class he was bored and almost a trouble maker. My second son was delayed some due to chronic ear infections so he talked late and was just getting into the swing of things when he entered pre-k. Now this last time around son # 3 I have let the older 2 boys teach him and help him but mom has butted out. Nature has taken its course sort of speak. His teacher has said several times hes on of the brightest in the class. He can read simple book, knows several sight words, all his ABC's, can count endless, all his shapes and colors..and the list goes on just let him learn at his pace because each child is different. I wish someone had been there to tell me that YEARs ago.

Hi K.,

You have had good responses to your question. I have a 5yr old daughter starting kindegarten in the summer/fall as well. All kids are different in how they learn best, you just need to find that one thing that works best for you and Hanson.

One of your answers suggested making a game out of it. This is the one that works best for us. At dinner time, we play the ABC game. We start off with the letter A, the person with A will say a word that starts with A then they make a sentence using that word, then the next person does B and so on. Our daughter loves this game, we dont usually get through the whole alphabet, so we start where we left off the next night.

If we are out to dinner we play hangman, if we're driving a long distance we play eye spy or I'm going on a trip. This is similar to the abc at dinner time game, except you chose the letter A for example. I'm going on a trip and I'm bringing an Apple, then you rotate through the rest of the family. To make it harder, everyone has to repeat each item of the alpahbet on your trip.

We also use "Jumpstart Kindergatern" DVD, we bought a "kids Kindegarten activity book" that our daughter loves to do the activities, and if we go to dinner we bring it with us and shes content with it until our meal arrives. I hope some of these ideas help. Good luck

Suz

I don't know if this will work for you, but it did for me. You can buy big floor letters at the dollar tree, they come in packs of 4 letters and I helped my girls put them together. Then we took little bean bags and would throw them and have to yell out the number. After they got that I started asking them to stand on the letter that cat begins with then dog etc.
We then started spelling words with the letters. I think you have to make it fun or they just tune you out.
Don't stress, all kids learn different things at their own pace. Just invite him to play games and incorporate letters when you can, but don't push too hard or he will hate it.

I hope this helps.
K.

I am a kindergarten teacher and the test we give our entering kindergarteners is just to see where they stand so that the teacher has a better idea of where each of the students stands so she knows exacly how to start out her year and what each child is going to need... if you have been working with him and using everyday things to teach him then i wouldnt worry about it...it sounds like you are doing an awesome job to me! every child works at their own pace and he will catch on and when he does you are going to be AMAZED at how he takes off! I know some things I tell my parents to use environmental print like street signs, store signs, product boxes, etc. if the flashcards arent working hang the cards up around the house so he can constantly be exposed to them and then do letter hunts where you call out a letter and he has to go find it. Just keep working with him and dont give up and i promise he will be great!

The best advice I can give is cont to be repetive with him. The more he sees it and the more he does it the easier it will come. I would only do about 5 min a day on numbers and 5 min a day on letters. I will come to him but his attention span is really short. Just keep your cool and it will all come to him.

Hi K.
Sometimes our kids dont always what "we" want them to do but if someone other than you or your husband sits down w/ them then he will probally get them right. I know Ive had the same problem w/ my 8 yr old son and to this day we will be studying for his tests and w/ me he misses several questions but the very next day he will go to school and make a 100 on the test. Im a huge fan of Leapfrog DVD's(they have them for Pre-K---1st grade I think) and the kids love them too! Im sure he will do great! It sounds like you are doing the very best you can do! Good Luck and I know he will do fine!

The "test" they give only determines whether or not he will be half day or all day...it's not a big deal. Most kids only get to go half day...but if he's behind...which I don't think Hanson is....every child is different...he will get to attend all day. There is no need to worry...the test will also show where he needs the most help...and that's what they'll work on at school. I talked with my children's pre-school teacher and she told me that some children come to school who have never even held a pencil in their hands. So I'm sure Hanson will fit in beautifully.