Kindergarten or Not???

I LOVE reading the questions from Mom's like you!!. My suggestion is - look at the preschool/early childhood program at Sorenson Early Childhood Center - it's up on the hill close to Bothell High School. Technically--- you'd be looking at having your boy an inclusion student in the special education classes. ( I retired from Sorenson after 19 wonderful years 18 months ago and miss it terribly). The program there is excellent - and the young women who are new teachers finally got me to realize that my best years ( of running, and leaping and having a blast) were --- shall we say transitioning??? ( 63 does not run as well as a few decades ago - just thought I'd mention that) I would give anything if my 'almost 4 ' year old grandaughter could be an inclusion student - but she's in Ohio and the commute is too long. Your boy would not only learn the K skills he'll need - he'd have a fantastic experience- and so would you-. If you're interested- call the Northshore School District main line ( ###-###-####) and ask them to transfer you to Sorenson- and run your question by -- Blessings,

( oh, I'm home sick all over again.)

J.

A. - You didn't say how old your son is or will be. My son is in Kindergarten this year and he started at 6. He was one day after the cutoff date.
My advice is this. Academics will come. My son just had his conferences last week and his teacher said my son knew all letters and sounds ect, but there were some children in his class who only knew the letters they had studied (there were 4 letters). My son has not mastered handwriting all that great either, but they are in Kindergarten!! No worries. What I would really focus on is how he handles things emotionally. Does he cry easily? Is he very sensitive? Does he make friends easily? I would worry more about those things.
I think above advice is for if he will be 5 1/2 or older when Kindergarten starts. If he is younger than that I would probably wait one more year. You don't just want to focus on now but also focus on how he is going to feel as a teenager. It may be better if he were the older child than one of the youngest.
I struggled with this question as well and was SO HAPPY that I decided to wait the extra year.
L.

Not exactly what you're asking for...but...

The absolute best program I have EVER come across for letter recognition and reading is in your own home. In fact (unless you're reading these on your black berry), you're using it right now.

www.starfall.com

After you introduce him to it, and he's comfortable, try and walk away and read a book or do dishes or something. The best reason why it works sooooooo well is that the kids can do them over and over and over and over and over....& it's almost impossible not to say "Why don't we see what's underneath the "T" block now...", or even "Please God, no more "T" Tiger!!!!! Grrrrooooowl!!!!!!!!!" Which negates them learning and LAUGHING at their own pace.

;)

Hi A.,

I live in Mill Creek too, and my son attends Brighstar Kids acadmey on 164th. He's getting pre-K preschool there and I just love the gals there. So, if you live in Mill Creek, you should be in the Everett school district, right? They have a program in which they work with kids that need that little bit of extra help, and it's free. I have just gotten my son evaluated with them. We still have a few more appointments with them, and if they do think he needs extra help, then he will go to his future elementary school a few times a week to get one-on-one extra schooling. I can send you a private email with the contact info if you wish. I was told about this program by the teachers at Brightstar that were concerend he was just a little behind his peers. I had been saying that for a while, so they just confirmed my thoughts. If you are interested in the info, shoot me a private email and I'll get it to you. ;-)

-A. V

My suggestion would be to put him in a Pre-K program, don't rush him into Kindergarten. You don't want him to get lost in the shuffle of our public school systems. I have heard amazing things about Nancy's Noah's Arc program. My daughter went to the Everett campus (on 128th) of Cedar Park Christian School and the Pre-K program was fabulous!
Good Luck!

A.,

You could always do what my best friend's (at the time) parents did with her. We are the same age, but after one year of Kindergarten her parents decided that she just wasn't quite ready for 1st grade, so they re-enrolled her in Kindergarten. It was the best thing for her.

All too often I think that there is too much expectation that our kids be able to read and write before they start kindergarten. At the end of the year they all have the knowledge anyway. Kids are little for such a short time, let them BE little.

I would continue on the track you're on. If it doesn't work for you you can always pull him out and try again a year later. A lot can happen in a year anyway.

Hope this helps,
Melissa

I just read the other posts and had another thought. Go to a Target store (that's where we got ours) and see if you can find Caillou's Ready for School 5-disk computer games. There are pages you can print and color, it teaches colors and shapes, the alphabet, thinking skills, and counting. My son has been playing it for a couple of years and loves it.