Normal for a 5 Year Old?

Sounds about right. Ive always considered my daughter to be "gifted", but shes probably a quick learner with a mom who loves her enough to think shes special.We cant help but compare, but be careful. You are coming off a tad braggy, and that might be a problem.

Yes makes sense and I am anxious to see the responses you get. I will have that same question probably next year.

My son is 4 1/2 and can do all that also, plus name all our states and planets and brush his own teeth LOL! BUT I don't consider him gifted. I've always considered him a very quick learner with an amazing memory!

By 3rd grade I believe most kids have caught up with one another with the exception of the advanced students. As with your son, you just never know! Keep nurturing his curiosity =-)

The teacher mostly likely will suggest a change if they feel it's needed. Sometimes children can be very mature intellectually but not so much socially. Thus parents place their children in an older class and the child just isn't prepared for it. Use to kids learned all those things in Kindergarten but now it seems they need to know them before Kindergarten so he may be just ahead of the curve.

Best of luck, sounds like a delightful young man.

I don't know about gifted but he will definitely be ahead of the curve in a kindergarten class.
Some children start kindergarten not even knowing their letters and numbers.
It sounds like he is definitely ahead for his age, maybe at 1st or 2nd grade level.
You will soon find out from his kindergarten teacher when they have had a chance to evaluate where he is academically.

My daughter is 4 1/2 and can do a lot of what you just said. She doesn't write sentences yet, but can spell/write tons of words, count to 100, bathe herself (although we are always within earshot for safety reasons), add and subtract (up to 10). I guess what I'm saying is that I don't know if they are gifted or not, but it's kind of fun that they can do these things. I have been trying to figure out what to do with my daughter since she misses the cutoff to start kinder this year, but I have determined that it really doesn't matter. She will start kinder when it's age appropriate and I will work with her teacher to find ways to keep her engaged and challenged. I also try not to focus on it too terribly much (other than to encourage her to learn at HER pace) because I have a perfectly normal 2 year old at home too and I don't want to start the "your sister is smarter than you" feeling with him. It's hard not to compare kids, but in my case, I want to be especially sensitive to it so that my son doesn't feel like he isn't special too. I also feel like at some point, my daughter will even out with the other kids in her class. If not, then we will look into gifted classes at the appropriate time. She just seems to be like a sponge and able to pick up on concepts without a lot of effort, but who's to say she will always be that way? I'm not trying to discourage you, but just to let you know that it might be too early to tell if your son is gifted and if he is, I don't think the school system starts gifted classes (in our district at least) until 2nd grade. Continue to encourage your son and challenge him without pushing and I hope you continue to have fun seeing what he's capable of. I'm surprised at least a few times a week at what my daughter knows, but again...she's only 4. We have a long way to go! :-)

God bless the quick learners. Once a child "gets" something, there is no holding back. My son started kindergarten a few days after his fifth birthday and was reading and writing already, could could well past a hundred and was doing simple math. Between my working with him and day care lessons, that is just where he was at. By the end of the year he was reading chapter books, geared toward 2nd graders. But that does not mean that he was ready to be plunked into a gifted class...I did not want it anyway. Gifted classes usually mean more work for the child and less play. He needed the play the first year of all day kindergarten, and he was in the right place, maturity-wise. He still does well in all his classes, he will enter the third grade, but considering his maturity level, he is in the right place.

Since yours is one of the older kids, he will have lots of advantages. Don't be so eager to give that place up. Studies show that older children are leaders in the class, which is really good as they progress through school and when they get to college and beyond....good luck with kindergarten!

Giftedness cannot be identified unitl the end of third grade, and most early gains that the quick learners have will have disapeard completly by that time, thus the truly gifted children can be idenified with reliable results.

One word of caution. Your son will be one of the oldest in his class, a full year older than some, and while it may seem incocievable to you now, even very bright children who learn quickly can have learning issues. Be aware that his advaced age will not be the criteria that is used to decide if is behnind in any issue, he will be judeged only by grade level for the purposes of intervention, so for you, it is absolutly essential that you act on any indication of an issue as early as you possiby can, so that he gets targeted intervention as soon as his grade level allows, even though it will be a year later than the children who are at typical age/grade. He will not have any time to wait and see if he has an unforeseen Learning disablity, so don't wait on intervention, especially for reading and decoding.

I see this scenearo often as an educational advocate, both kids who were labled as gifted too early and were not really gifted when they started 4th grade, and kids who were held back for kindergarten until age 6 and ended up having an LD but did not qualify for intervention based on what 8 year olds should be able to do because they are being compared to 7 year olds.

I guess I would say that he is doing a lot for a child without kindergarten instruction, but not as much as he would be doing if he had attended Kindergarten last year.

M.

My son just turned 6 in June and will enter kindergarten in a few weeks. He can spell some words, doesn't really write sentences, can count to 100, can do simple addition/subtraction. I tend to think he is a quick learner who is anxious to show off what he has learned.

He's gonna be BORED in kindergarten! If he gets in trouble, have them test him for TAG. I would not advise skipping to 1st grade, because of the social maturity difference, and he would be smaller than his classmates.
It is great to hear of a proud step-mama!

He sounds gifted to me. My twins both passed GATE in 1st grade and they could do similar things like you described. A normal kindergardener can not spell many words or write in full sentences. They can usually count to 100 and do simple addition. You will really realize how gifted he is when he starts kindergarden and you see how far behind most of the kids are from him. How is his reading comprehension? That is one of the real keys. Have him read a book and then check the lexile count on it and ask him questions to see how much he is understanding.

Your SS was eligible to enter public Kindergarten last year. Why did you choose to hold him back? If he is capable of learning all of this at home, he could have learned more at school.

Sometimes children who are held back by their parents have unidentified learning disabilities that parents misidentify as social immaturity. These parents hope that holding their child back one year in school will help the child, but in reality, the child will benefit by having their learning disability identified. Just because a child can read doesn't mean he doesn't have some type of learning issue.

I am asking you think think about why you held your SS back a year in school when you indicate in your posting that he is clearly bright enough to learn with last year's Kindergarten class.

My five and a half year old can do all of the above mentioned things, except the write full sentences and spell words part, and I think she's pretty darn smart! ;-) I'm not sure about your child, but I think mine is just one smart cookie, I wouldn't necessarily say that she is "gifted"! Be proud and keep up the great work! :-)

i think his not so blessed mom has done a very good job with her son getting him ready for school. you will be surpised at what they do in kindergarden. way to go R.

I have a lot of experience with school aged children from ages 5-11. Most 5 and 6 year olds learn simpe reading techniques like hooked on phonics, and are learning to read and spell words like cat, dog, fish and things like that. They usually don't start doing a lot of adding and subtraacting until first grade. Bathing himself can pretty normal thing, but counting to 100 is great, that is usually taught through out kindergarten. Writing full sentences may also make him advanced because they really don't start developing those skills until first grade and up. They have apptitude and IQ tests out there for children to kind of determine their level of advancement. I would suggest if school wants to bump him a grade, that you go for it. But he will need lots of help at home with homework and assuring that he doesn't fall behind. Encourage lots of reading, of all types, learning sign language or another language, keep pushing in math and language arts. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation will be very important in middle school and high school and many children struggle with writing and math. But it's about constant sensory input, sounds like you've done a great job so far, keep up the good work and always encourage learning and exploring!!

ya thats normal esp if you work with them