Putting 3 to 4 Year Olds in Preschool Room of 4, Mainly 5 Year Olds

I am a pre-k teacher. I teach 3 to 4 year olds in the AM and 4 to 5 year olds in the PM. As my morning class fills up, I often get a 3 year old in the PM class. In my opinion age is just a number. The real question would be, where are all the students developmentally? Often there are 3 to 4 year olds that are developmentally equal to some 4 to 5 year olds and some 4 to 5 year olds that are developmentally equal to 3 to 4 year olds. In your child's class there is likely an array of abilities. I may do a group activity on a letter but then break up into smaller groups to do more developmentally appropriate activities. As far as the 3 to 4's coming in at the letter O, I don't see that as a problem at all. There is no research saying a child must learn the ABC's in exact order. In fact, if you are teaching how to write them along with identifying them, it is best not to go in exact order. Instead you should start with letters that are easiest to write with all straight lines like I, T, L, and E. Then move on to lines that are slanted (M, N, W) and curved (C, J). So I guess what I'm trying to say is that as long as the teacher differentiates the children's teaching appropriately, age shouldn't be a huge issue. Hope that helps!

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I have no real expierience, but maybe an outsiders view, first no child needs pre-school before kindergarten, second I have a 3 year old who could hold her own with most kids older then her, it is possible that these children are cabale of doing the work which is why the school had allowed them in.

I have a different story, when my know 15 year old was 4 they were starting a new pilot program for head start, my dd didn't quailify for head start programs as a norm and I hadn't even thought about it ( we lived in Los Angeles at the time) anyways a friend of thier nana worked for the program and thought I might be interested, here is the program it 6 "regular" kids and 6 severly challenged kids, some had emotional issues, autism and physical disabilities and what they were looking for was....did it hinder the regular kids? Did it help the kids with disabilities. It was a really scary thought, even knowing that there would be 3 teachers in the class, finally I decided to go ahead and try it, I could always pull her out. It was the best expierience for her she loved it, she was able to stay on task with her work but was also motavated to help the other children, It in no way hindered the regular kids but the benefit to the other kids was amazing, us parents of the regular ones (I hate using that word) could even see the difference in the other children.

I know that is different then what you are asking....sorda. But I do think the "theroy" is the same, give it a try, and if it isn't working then bring it up to the school, some 3-4 year olds are very bright for there ages.

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Hi B.,
Guess what-the move your pre-school is doing is actually great. Over the past few years montessori learning has become really popular and one of the reasons for this is with the mixed ages, the older kids actually will get a cahnce to teach mentor and correct as children do between themselves socially anyway. Think about how your younger children grow and learn from their older siblings,they can even be more receptive. Not only that but the younger kids at some point, I'm sure will catch up-without holding the kids back,maybe they gave the younger kids parents more notice so they could get them ready.BUT I DO NOT AGREE WITH DECISION ALL PARTIES SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED AT THE SAME TIME, at least I think so. I can definately see why this caught you off guard so sorry that happened.

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This isn't necessarily a response to your question, but rather a concern of mine: Why are we training children for kindergarten? Wasn't the whole reason kindergarten was invented was to prepare children for 1st grade. Now it's a whole grade itself and parent's feel the pressure to have their children know everything before they enter.

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B.:

I have been a preschool teacher for 11 years and an elementary school teacher before that. I have mixed feelings about your situation.

I have taught 3,4 and 5 year olds in the past. Those precious 3 year olds should not be in a structured school setting. They are too young! I know that people will argue with me and say that their child is brilliant and needs the stimulation. But, studies have shown that even if your "brilliant" child can read at age 3 or 4 and is doing addition & subtraction problems in preschool; he/she will slow down and be equivalent to his/her peers by the third grade.

I guess I don't see the hurry to push education down our children's throats. Let them be children!

By age four or five, most children are ready to sit and pay attention for a while. I do so much with my four and five year olds that a three would be lost in my room.

Hope I haven't offended anyone, just the way I feel. I love my job!

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Is that what you paid for when you signed your child up for preschool? You had expectations when the class started. I guess I would talk with the Director and voice your concerns and issues. Can they restructure the other class of younger kids? Good luck!

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Hi B.,

I have worked as a preschool/kindergarten assistant for a few years (until I got married and had a child myself) and I am watching the church I go to start up a preschool program. My mother is a preschool teacher along with being the director for the before/after school program at school where she teaches (her school is associated with a church).

Every child learns at a different pace and has a different attention span. Maybe the kids joining the class are ready for the older preschool learning pace. I see preschool as getting the child ready for the school structure (we are going to do this now ex:learn, snack, learn, play and so on). That way it is an easier transition into kindergarten where they are expected to follow the school structure without too much prodding/asking the kids to do something. The school I was a teacher aide for had the 3/4 pre-k and 4/5 pre-k split in the morning and in the afternoon together (if they stayed all day). They mainly had snack and played in the afternoon, because it was treated more as a day care environment because they did the school structure in the morning.

My mom has only old 4/5 year olds, and I know that a few young 3/4 have tried to talk there way into the class but my mom does not want to mix the ages. Even if the child seems ready you say yes to one parent with a young 3/4 you have to say us to others. It is different when in the afternoon, after they went to school in the morning, then the time is more like a day care (playing and such).

A few preschools are putting together 3/4 and 4/5 because of small class sizes and they can't afford to have them split. I have seen a lot of 3 year olds not ready for as much as a young 5 year old, and the teach has to pay more attention to the younger kids. I would say that if your child is still doing well and learning on the combined days then it is fine. If it seems that not much is getting done/learned on the combined days you might want to speak up (especially if your child mentioned that the structure of the class has changed, ex; we don't read any more, the teacher spends all their time with the new classmate(s), we play all day). If the structure of the class is not suppose to change then there should be no change to your child's learning ability, but sometimes adding your children who are not ready for that structure can cause the "learning" level to go down. That is when you want to speak up... but if the younger kids are ready for it then things will go on unchanged (just more in the class). Give it a shot!

Regarding about starting in the middle of the alphabet... that should not be a problem. What I gather is that they learn what starts with that letter. So really it is more about the words and not the order of the alphabet.

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