Tiny reader seeks education.

August 21, 2008 4:11 PM

My daughter is on her 5th day of Kindergarten and it is quickly becoming apparent she is not being challenged at her reading level. What can I do to challenge her growing mind?

My daughter has had 2 years of pre-school. One year was at a Montessori school, and the second at a fancy-ass prep school. We have since moved to a progressive community and made the decision to put her in public school. She is a good reader (as I type she is sitting next to me busting out Green Eggs and Ham like a champ which is a 2.2 reading level book) yet her "homework" tonight was to sit down with a parent and have them explain that words go left to right and up to down. She is waaaay beyond that kind of assignment.

I really like the populism and character building of public schools, yet worry that my little brilliant spawn is not being challenged. I would really like to keep her in her current school as it is a lovely little neighborhood school that is very close to our house.

I already plan on talking about this with her teacher. What else can be done? Hire a private tutor to offer more challenging work? Are there any great curriculum that we could use at home to the same effect? Should I consider asking for her to move up a grade?

Thanks in advance for your help!

posted by jlowen to human relations (43 comments total)

Get her a library card, take her to the library, let her check out and read whatever she wants.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:21 PM on August 21, 2008 [10 favorites has favorites]

Talk to the teacher, see if there is any gifted program at your district you could be moved into, or any out-of-the-classroom resource programs they might have.

But the best thing to do is keep reading to her and with her at home at challenging levels.

Should I consider asking for her to move up a grade?

Depends on her age relative to the other kids, and on district policies. If she's an "old 5," then maybe. If she's only 4+, then probably not.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:23 PM on August 21, 2008

Kindergarden, which is optional, isn't really designed for structured learning. It's basically day care plus "getting accustomed to schoolgoing habits."

Yes, it sounds like your girl should be in first grade.
posted by rokusan at 4:23 PM on August 21, 2008

Just keep giving her stuff to read that's at her level. Keep her engaged. See what she likes to do and encourage her to learn about it. I grew up never being challenged in my classes, but I was held to a different standard when I came home. You're her parent. Making sure your kid is learning isn't solely the school's responsibility.
posted by phunniemee at 4:24 PM on August 21, 2008

I would not worry too much about formal reading instruction at that age. The best thing you can do to challenge her reading skills is read to her and make sure she has a ton of books and time to read them.

If she is bored, if she is restless, then it may be time to consider other options - but probably she'll do what generations of bookworms have done before her, zone out during reading classwork and then tear through books at home and at recess until she's reading even more above grade level.
posted by Jeanne at 4:24 PM on August 21, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I skipped first grade. If you want one person's experience, mefi-mail me. You know, though, for populism's sake, you should get her in a school context where she'll be average, where she'll have to learn to try hard. Just a thought.
posted by salvia at 4:26 PM on August 21, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

This was me in kindergarten. I did a lot of reading at home and started kindergarten in public school with a lot of kids who were still learning the letters. I was a sort of shy retiring kid and my parents decided NOT to have me skip a grade which was probably a good idea. Instead I went to reading and math classes with kids a grade ahead and then was with my grade for everything else. This was good news for reading/math and not so good for sociability stuff. I got a reputation as a weird brain and my social awkwardness was really not helped by this.

So, I'm sure the world of school has changed in the last thirty years but I'd like to suggest taking assessment of your kid's social level as well as her reading level when you decide what you want to do with her. Skipping ahead a grade for me would have been disastrous and as it was things didn't really level out for me socially until junior high.

Really, being at home and reading with your kid and taking her to the library and encouraging her to challenge herself will go far towards raising a reader. There are a lot of ways to be challenged in school and learning to work in groups of different sorts of people is sort of part of kindergarten, so be careful in what you choose.
posted by jessamyn at 4:27 PM on August 21, 2008

Get her a library card, take her to the library, let her check out and read whatever she wants.

This was me in kindergarten. I already knew how to read, but other kids didn't.

Unless she's a socially advanced 5-year-old, see how this year plays out instead of trying to get her moved up. There is other stuff she'll learn in kindergarten that she doesn't know, and won't learn if you get her skipped.

My mom took me to the library every week and let me check out as many books as was allowed (by the library), on any subject - this kind of unstructured but self-directed learning is fantastic, since she'll have plenty of the other kind as she goes through school.
posted by rtha at 4:28 PM on August 21, 2008

This is where you, as a parent, come into play. Get her to a library. Give her fun brain-teasers at home. Get her learning Logo Writer. Give her a nice dictionary, and show her how to use it (I kept mine next to my bed for late-night reference).
posted by TheNewWazoo at 4:32 PM on August 21, 2008

You may be jumping the gun a bit. Kids come into kindergarten with widely divergent skills and typically the teacher weeds them out into different skill levels within a month or so.If you live in a progressive community with reasonably good schools they have encountered early readers before.

I have had three kids go through the same process, one started kindergarten reading proficiently, one entirely resistant to any schooling whatsoever and one starting to read in kindergarten and proficient by first grade. We were lucky to have teachers that were experienced and got each of them just what they needed.

The first month of K is a "get to know you" time. Some kids take time to come out of their shells, wise teachers don't like to judge too soon. They have an incredible job juggling the different kind of kids, some will be reading chapter books while others will be getting the hang of the alphabet.

Don't worry about a private tutor for anything until at least third grade. That's really where the rubber hits the road for most kids and most school curriculums.
posted by readery at 4:34 PM on August 21, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

JLowen, maybe I'm cynical, but your post strikes me as a lot of euphemisms for a very common situation: some schools are so hard-pressed by defective parenting that they cannot educate competently-parented children to their full potential.

If that's so, you know what you have to do, and no, it won't make you into a Republican if you do it -- just a realistic and responsible parent.

If my cynicism is out of place, and it's not that kind of school, you can chill out. If the only way that the class isn't challenging your kid is reading, don't worry. The other kids will be caught up soon enough, and there's plenty of learning to be done -- and fun to be had -- in the mean time. If she's ahead in everything you could ask about skipping a grade, but that's a very hard thing to pull off in most school districts.
posted by MattD at 4:41 PM on August 21, 2008

This is the first week. They are teaching to the entire class. Some of the kids have never been to preschool. Some of them have never written their names. This is how it goes and it's not necessarily a bad thing. These kids that have never been to preschool could very well have a higher IQ. Your daughter was introduced early. She can read. That is wonderful, but try not to worry that she is not being challenged the first week of school.

Since this is the first week and they are only getting acquainted I would not worry one bit. Your child will quickly be moved into a higher level reading group and be provided with supplemental materials. This is what happened to my child in our public school. Soon they will be testing kids and putting them into groups based on ability, that is if your school does it this.

I'm sure you have a smart little kid on your hands, but just because she can read early does not mean she is brilliant. I'm not saying that the kid isn't bright but be careful when you label your child as brilliant just because she can read earlier than some of her peers. There have been studies that have shown by the time a child reaches 4th grade accelerated reading and test scores level off.

Continue to encourage your child's love of reading. Challenge her at home and promote positive attitudes toward school.

Good luck.
posted by Fairchild at 4:45 PM on August 21, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Our solution to the same problem (reading levels well beyond peers) is to homeschool. It's...not for everyone, but homeschooling means that the level of "the rest of the class" doesn't hinder your child in either direction.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 4:46 PM on August 21, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Keep in mind that the teacher is probably also dealing with students who have never had books in their home at all - despite the progressive community (I'm assuming this implies some prosperity), you'd be shocked at how little exposure to books some kids might be getting. Not to slam the school or its teachers, but keep in mind that huge amounts of what public schools have to do in the classroom isn't working with students on an individual basis, but ploughing through a pile of ever-changing state-developed standards. And it's only been five days - as the year progresses, your daughter's teacher will be able to get to know her a lot better, and work with her to develop the skills she needs to work on.

When you approach the teacher, come from a position of offering assistance to both him/her and the class as a whole, which includes your daughter: How can I make your job easier? What can I do to help my daughter in non-reading areas of learning? How can we help other families or parents?

Your daughter will be fine. There may very well be something else in kindergarten that she might not be as obviously skilled at - using more refined motor skills for things like detailed arts and crafts, socializing with others, learning to write - so it's probably a good idea for her to stay there. Help her thrive! The social aspect of kindergarten is perhaps the key reason it exists, and it would be tough to skip, if it were even possible to do so.

Make sure your daughter knows she can learn about anything she wants to, take her on as many cool trips and excursions as possible, have her help you with math in the grocery store...essentially, integrate learning into everyday life. Try to make it a low-pressure, student-driven thing, though: let her read as long as she wants each night before bed - maybe that's five minutes one night and half an hour the next. Practicing writing can be homework, but it can also be a card for Grandma, a map of your house, or "fingerspelling" words on each other's backs and trying to guess what they are. Watch Wheel of Fortune. :)

You also may want to have her tested for what we in California call GATE - gifted and talented education, and being GATE-identified opened a lot of doors I took advantage of, like the ability to transfer to a high school in my district that had the IB program which I wouldn't have been able to attend on the basis of geography alone. Your state may have a similar program. My California elementary school also had a program called Accelerated Reader, where students work through books on their own time and take quizzes to demonstrate that they've read the book. I believe it also "updates" a student's reading level as they complete "harder" books. This is probably something you may encounter later. And though I've never used it as I have no kids of my own, check out Starfall, which is a free learn-to-read website that focuses on comprehension and phonics.
posted by mdonley at 4:49 PM on August 21, 2008

Thank you all for taking the time to answer. We frequently go to the library where she was enrolled in a summer reading program. If all the kids in the library read a certain amount collectively, the library director had promised to eat a bug. My daughter was determined to do her part, which I thought was funny considering that she is an avid vegetarian.

Thanks to several of you who pointed out that there is more to grade level than reading ability. Reading aside, I am sure there are indeed some things in which she may not be as advanced as her classmates and so her current situation will probably all wash out in the end. As an lover of reading myself, I think I just freaked out a little when I saw that impossibly easy homework assignment.

Please keep it coming. I am interested in other things your parents did to foster a love or learning in you at this age and beyond.
posted by jlowen at 4:54 PM on August 21, 2008

She is in kindergarten. Seriously. It shouldn't be necessary to hire a tutor to challenge a kid who's in kindergarten when challenging her should be as simple as finding appropriate books. It's not like she needs to be challenged by abstract algebra.

Also, the playing field will level. Some kids start reading at 4, some at 5, some at 6. And, sure, there are going to be kids at various levels in every grade, but you probably won't be able to tell who went into kindergarten reading and who went into first grade not knowing how yet.

So, yeah, take her to the library. Her brain isn't going to fall out because she's so far ahead of the other kids, many of whom are going to catch up soon anyway.
posted by Airhen at 4:56 PM on August 21, 2008

JLowen, maybe I'm cynical, but your post strikes me as a lot of euphemisms for a very common situation: some schools are so hard-pressed by defective parenting that they cannot educate competently-parented children to their full potential.


Defective parenting because her fellow kindergartners can't read? And because there is easy homework on the fifth day of school? That's absurd.
posted by Airhen at 5:02 PM on August 21, 2008

My parents played a smart trick on my brother and me when we were young. They bought us a whole lot of books and then marked their inside covers with a difficulty level. They never explicitly said, hey, read at the highest level! But who wants to read a dumb old level one book when there are level five books waiting to be discovered?
posted by Bookhouse at 5:09 PM on August 21, 2008

I'd leave her be for awhile before you think about moving up... she's not going to be challenged as far as reading goes in school - but (especially if she's an oldest or only) it can be very challenging to be with other kids and figure out how school works. First grade is a big jump and she might not be physically / developmentally ready no matter how advanced she is at reading. Is she ready for a full day academic program? Does she have the attention span to sit at a desk most of the day? the manual strength and dexterity for all of the deskwork that she'd have to do? that kind of thing. It seems unnecessary to hire a tutor because she's up to Dr. Seuss - it sounds like you're doing a great job of introducing her to things and you should keep doing what you're doing and reading together.
posted by moxiedoll at 5:16 PM on August 21, 2008

So I won't repeat the advice given by everyone else. BUT - if it will console you - in 2 or 3 years you will be shocked at the volume and complexity of homework your daughter will get.

My favorite anecdote which I repeat liberally: a math homework question for my 4th grader was:

"What is the area of a shape with a perimeter of 12? Explain how you got the answer."

It's harder than it looks.
posted by GuyZero at 5:37 PM on August 21, 2008

Her teacher will probably figure it out pretty quickly - give him/her time to get to know the kids and assess their abilities.

But as a parent, you are in the best position to know what your child needs. Encourage her to read more, and write as well. Challenge her! Make sure she has loads of books to read. As she gets older, teach her to play Scrabble and chess. Set projects for her about things she's interested in. You don't need a tutor, you just need to keep feeding her with new challenges. And it's a great opportunity to develop your relationship with her.

I was your daughter - and my parents were given the choice (twice) for me to skip a grade. They declined. I'm really grateful to them for that - it meant that I went through grade school, high school (and puberty) with kids my own age (many of whom are still my friends). My parents provided the academic challenges that were not provided by school. They couldn't have made up for the socialisation that I got from being in a class with kids my own age.
posted by finding.perdita at 5:41 PM on August 21, 2008

When I was in Kindergarten (uh...19 years ago?), I was just starting to read chapter books. I went into a couple special sessions when we didn't have class (it was a MWF setup, so I went in on a T/R) where they tested my reading level. The result was that while other kids where learning that the cow said moo, I was working on 2nd grade level worksheets.

When the time came for 1st grade, my mom asked if I wanted to do the same thing, skip a grade, or what, and I said I wanted to be with my classmates. I felt like I had missed out on soooo much by sitting at a table alone while everyone sat in a circle and read about the red rooster. Kindergarten was really lonely for me.

By the end of 1st grade? I wanted to take back my decision 10 times over. I was so incredibly bored the entire year. I remember falling asleep during oral reading tasks and getting so frustrated that people couldn't read yet.

There are upsides and downsides to both. If you skip ahead, there are social costs, but if you don't...I dunno. FWIW, I graduated from high school with a 4.0, as valedictorian, from (a private, presitigous) college cum laude, and am currently working on my Masters in Research Psychology with a 3.8 GPA. I don't think I suffered any for not being propelled ahead. YMMV.
posted by messylissa at 5:45 PM on August 21, 2008

I should also add that as I moved up in grade level, programs like Accelerated Reader (as mentioned above) and others began to avail themselves. As long as you encourage your daughter's love of reading, she'll always want to take advantage of these opportunities. I will never forget the day when my mom asked if I wanted to pick out a chapter book to buy at the store (Babysitter's Club #38 - Kristy's Secret Admirer). It was like she opened a whole new world to me, after which I would never go to bed on time, or regret a punishment such as "Go to your room" (You mean where the books are? Awesome!). Never ever ever let her run out of good books.
posted by messylissa at 5:51 PM on August 21, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

As parent of two bright kids:
In the early grades, I personally believe that it is important that school is fun, that it encourages curiosity and gives them confidence in their ability to find answers. Don't let them burn out on school due to too much homework and too much memory work - in general, the test is the basic skills they learn, not the number of facts that they learn. (The exception is math, where they do need a solid foundation before middle school.)

In the K-2 classes, you will see many kids who seemed to be behind in the basics, suddenly catch up. There some developmental stuff that happens and until they are ready, they aren't ready. My first child did not start to read until first grade. By fifth grade, he had read the entire Lord of the Rings series and even made a good try at the Silmarillion. I know a few smart kids didn't really get it until second grade. The same thing happens very obviously with algebra. One of my kids was ready for algebra in 6th grade. The other got put on the slower track (which she really needed), didn't get algebra until 9th grade but during that year, she "got it" then was in honors math after that.

Two practical suggestions:
1. Don't stop reading out loud to your child just because she can read to herself. She listen way above her reading level for several years yet.
2. A great resource to support fun math learning is the Family Math series. It has lots of math games that help them build their math sense as well as their skills. I think this one is at the right level for your daughter.
posted by metahawk at 5:52 PM on August 21, 2008

What everyone else said; just make sure she's got plenty of stuff to read. Does the kindergarten classroom have any books around? In my kindergarten they didn't teach reading, but they had books lying around for those of us who knew, which was cool. If there aren't any, you might ask the teacher if your daughter can visit the school's library occasionally (if it has one).

GuyZero: is there something missing from that question? Isn't the answer "anywhere from 0 to 11.459, depending on the shape"?
posted by equalpants at 5:56 PM on August 21, 2008

My parents struggled with this too, 18 years ago. I didn't go to preschool, but early on in half-day JK it was pretty obvious that I was far ahead in both reading and math. My teachers advised my parents that it would be a horrible idea for me to skip grades given that I was an unusually sheltered only child with practically no social skills. What really helped me was the option to attend a couple-times-weekly accelerated reading group with JK, SK and Grade 1 kids who were all reading a few grade levels ahead.

As far as school was concerned, at that point I remember still not being as challenged as I would have liked, but my parents provided a lot of reading material at home and constantly took me to the public library. Even despite the lack of academic rigor, I'm pretty sure that everyone involved thinks it was worth it to have those two years in a half-day program to learn how to be a typical 4/5-year old. As Moxiedoll said, Grade 1 is a big step up in a variety of non-academic aspects, so it might be best to give your daughter as much time to prepare as possible while supplementing her learning.
posted by thisjax at 6:35 PM on August 21, 2008

I'm sure at this point I'm doing little but adding yet another voice to the choir, but I was a crazy reader in kindergarten (granted, I was already six, but still) and - well, for one thing, I had no comprehension of "reading level", beyond the fact that the books I liked to read (Baby-Sitters Club, mostly) were filed under "Young Adult", which made me quite proud. I read a ton on my own - my mother was willing to buy me a book each week, which seems terribly expensive now, but it was probably the best investment she ever made. If I was bored at school (which, yes, I quite often was) I'd just take out the book I'd brought that day and read awhile, or go chill in the library if I could.

Unfortunately, I had much the same experience at school as jessamyn (albeit twenty years later). There was a gifted program at my elementary school, which was fantastic, but during the time when I was in the regular classroom (mostly in first and second grade rather than kindergarten, I suppose) I'd often be sent to the back of the classroom with more advanced worksheets which probably stigmatized me for some time!

SO: Definitely try to enroll her in a gifted program, if possible! Otherwise: keep her with her class (please don't have her skip a grade unless she really wants to!), let her read as much as possible (along with the weekly book, I also went to the library to check out stacks of books at least once a week), and make sure she's doing well socially as well as intellectually. Good luck! I'm sure she'll be fantastic.
posted by punchdrunkhistory at 6:37 PM on August 21, 2008

Does your daughter's school have anything like a Talented and Gifted (TAG) program? I was another person who entered kindergarten already reading chapter books, so I got placed in TAG. Instead of spending all my time with the other kindergarten students, I got to leave the classroom for a couple of hours a week and work on individual projects with the TAG lady. For instance, I was really interested in ballet, so I constructed a puppet show based on "Swan Lake" and performed it for my kindergarten class.

One of the great things about this was that I wasn't just spending all of my time off in a corner reading challenging books. Instead, I was encouraged to make use of the things I'd learned--to synthesize them into a new form. More than anything, if you encourage your daughter to do this, it'll keep her brain engaged and keep her from being known as "that girl who always has her nose in a book." It may also help for her to have contact with older children, in particular other intelligent/gifted ones. The TAG program at my school gave me a mentor, a 6th-grade girl, and I certainly benefited from that.

By the way, after all of this I did end up skipping first grade, and still feel that that was the right decision. Am happy to answer more grade-skipping questions if you have them. I'm not sure which would be more difficult socially/emotionally, skipping kindergarten or skipping first grade...
posted by clair-de-lune at 6:41 PM on August 21, 2008

I was in your daughter's position and skipped kindergarten. And still read well beyond grade level in my new grade, so it didn't really fix that problem. What it did mean was always being the youngest - last to do things like drive or vote or whatever. And I think it took me a long time to catch up socially as well. For me, reading books was not a school-related thing. I read at home, I read at the library, I read in the backyard - but school was always about stuff I had to do rather than stuff I wanted to do. I'd want to keep making sure reading was fun for her, and see what happens in the rest of her social and intellectual growth and development before moving her.
posted by judith at 7:14 PM on August 21, 2008

I was in a very similar situation, thanks to Montessori, and ended up skipping first and second grade. Here's a previous comment of mine - I wish now that I hadn't skipped the grades.
posted by bendy at 7:37 PM on August 21, 2008

I used to teach kindergarten. The general consensus here is right on. Some kids are accelerated readers, for a lot of different reasons; that's all there is to it.

This is a good time for you, as a parent, to learn early on that the bulk of your child's intellectual education will not take place within the walls of school. Encourage her to enjoy learning and interacting with her peers. Continue reading to her and with her and exposing her to ever more challenging stuff. Don't let schooling interfere with her education. It won't damage her to be one of the best readers in her class. Keep her interested in school by finding out what they're studying in their thematic units and locating reading materials at her level that are related - for instance, if they're doing Things That Fly, you can locate your own library books on butterflies or airplanes or what-have-you; she'll be experiencing the topic along with the class, but learning at her level. Don't limit yourself to readings; also, incorporate viewing, exploratory field trips, craft projects. Supply what school doesn't - interest and challenge.

The life story of almost all people includes a footnote that our Taylorized model of education leaves some of their developmental needs unaddressed. I taught in a highfalutin, elite private progressive school where a lot of kids were at your daughter's level - and yet, a lot of them graduated from eighth grade with very poor computation and writing skills. And, also, a lot of them were very slow readers, some of them still struggling with basic short words at the second grade level. Don't think that a private education would necessarily be more challenging; it's not a given. The advantages a private education confers are not entirely academic. And yet, most of the kids I taught went to private or charter secondary schools and to very fine colleges.

Just surround your daughter with enjoyment around learning; it will take. She doesn't need to be challenged every minute - she probably has her hands full getting used to a public school routine, learning to navigate the social environment, and recognizing that in order to work and play with others, she needs to understand that her skill level in some areas is higher than theirs, and learn not to be obnoxious about it. All that will keep her busy. You can decide at any time during her education to change schools or educational strategies. Is she happy going to school? Is she overtly bored, withdrawn, or depressed? If none of the above, then things are probably just fine. If you see emotional changes, address that.

I was an early reader as well, as were many in this thread. Despite a fairly unchallenging public school education that rarely engaged my full attention, I am a literate, happy, functional adult with a very good postsecondary education. As, I'm sure, are many others here.

Don't panic!
posted by Miko at 8:02 PM on August 21, 2008 [8 favorites has favorites]

I was reading at a mid-grade-school level in kindergarten (for show-and-tell, I gave an unprompted book report on a biography of Beethoven I had read for fun and another time I explained how the shark they used in Jaws wasn't a real shark, as I had just read an article in Time magazine discussing the mechanized shark they used). I don't know that it particularly endeared me to my peers (nor did my sighing and eye-rolling during the alphabet lessons), but it did encourage my parents to take me to the library pretty much weekly.

I didn't skip any grades, though the opportunity was presented to my parents at least twice (and I'm very glad that I didn't skip those grades -- I think it would have been a nightmare, socially). Instead, I was often tutored separately in reading (some years times alone, sometimes with one or two other kids) and then was tracked into the "gifted and talented" program once I was old enough. Also, by sixth grade, I was pretty much excused from class to go sit in the teacher's lounge to read whatever I wanted, and then write book reports. I thought it was a blast.
posted by scody at 8:03 PM on August 21, 2008

Kindergarten is for socialization, adjusting to schedules, rules, lining up, everything else that introduces you to elementary school. And for a bit of academics.

She's reading; keep an array of interesting reading material available and she'll keep reading. Maybe you could branch out and work on some math skills, or art, or music, to challenge and stimulate her. And give her the best gifts of all, turn the teevee off, and learn with her.
posted by theora55 at 9:18 PM on August 21, 2008

Scrabble. Quiddler. Spill and Spell. All 3 are games that will grow with your family. My family played with rules that varied depending on a player's age and skills: younger players can take longer to make a play, older players have minimum word-lengths, etc.

I echo what others have said about continuing to read aloud with her. Read books that YOU enjoy so she sees you enthusiastic about reading. My dad and I developed a routine when I was in preschool that lasted well into 2nd grade. As I was getting ready for bed, we would talk about things like what had happened the book so far, which characters I liked, who I didn't like, and what I thought might happen in that night's chapter. Then, he'd read to me. It was special time together that I still cherish. (Our discussions about books and reading continued until he passed away.)
posted by weebil at 9:31 PM on August 21, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

My child is just about to start 1st grade next week and her reading level is also above average. In Kindergarten last school year, she easily flew through her homework each time it was assigned and she often turned in extra (stuff her teacher hadn't assigned) with the assignment. My philosophy is that just because the teacher doesn't ask for your kid to create a nature journal (for example) doesn't mean she can't do it--and your daughter should be able to expect feedback from the teacher on it! We also made sure that we kept her in as much extracurricular activities outside of school that her little heart desired. Most parents I talk with don't let their children do more than one extracurricular activity during the school year but we felt keeping that active helped make up for where the school district was lacking. Luckily, Kindergarten is mostly a social adventure for the kids and next year is when the digging in tends to come in reading-wise. I say keep doing what you're doing with the trips to the library with her, and try not to obsess on your daughter reaching her utmost potential because at this stage in the game, at least in my opinion, reaching so high academically is not really in the goal scheme of Kindergarten.
posted by mamaraks at 10:20 PM on August 21, 2008

On the topic of TAG or GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) programs, we have a friend whose daughter went into one in Grade 4. They definitely have higher reading standards but the downside was that (in Toronto at least) the GATE program has become a bit of a dumping ground for boys with borderline Asperger's. The academics were accelerated by the social atmosphere in class was awkward. Which is not to say it wouldn't be good on the balance, but gifted programs are not necessarily a panacea.

Isn't the answer "anywhere from 0 to 11.459, depending on the shape"?

Yep. Now explain why a circle has the maximum area-to-perimeter ratio of any 2D shape. Merely answering math questions with numbers is no longer sufficient.
posted by GuyZero at 10:22 PM on August 21, 2008

Oh yeah, I forgot to suggest purchasing a Nintendo Wii Fit for the tv (if you use one). Our daughter delights in reading all the screens (i.e., figuring it all out for herself--you know, big kid stuff) and she loves to do the hula-hoops and yoga exercises. It's a mental and cardio blast all in one and it isn't obnoxious like I thought it would be when my spouse first suggested it.
posted by mamaraks at 10:25 PM on August 21, 2008

Kindergarten is as much about practicing being at school as it is about anything else.

I was already reading when I started kindergarten, so was my daughter. But the things that I couldn't do yet, or that she couldn't, could fill the proverbial book.

Take a wait-and-see approach.
posted by padraigin at 10:34 PM on August 21, 2008

I was a ridiculously good reader at that age (we lived nest door to the library) but it was just reading. I wasn't any better at math or drawing or PE or memorizing dates than the next kid.

All the adults thought I was really smart though, which was incredibly annoying to me as I was basically a very lazy little kid who always preferred to fly under the radar. When I was in the corner with my nose stuck in a book it was as much to avoid doing schoolwork as anything else.
posted by fshgrl at 11:19 PM on August 21, 2008

I went to Montessori preschool and was already reading when I got to (public school) kindergarten. The third week of school my parents were called in because in my teachers' minds I was rushing through some of my work and refusing to do other things. It turned out my teachers hadn't realized I already knew how to read. I was a shy kid and afraid to tell them, but a lot of the reading readiness stuff was boring to me.

They hooked me up with the librarian and gave me a special workbook to do after I had finished the rest of my work, which I loved and kept me in my seat. Also, I was in a kindergarten/first grade split class (do they still do that?) so I was able to be put into a "reading group" with first graders while still being a kindergardener in every other way.

My Montessori teachers had always noticed that I was shy (I still have my "report cards" and they are highly entertaining). Socially and emotionally I was not ready for first grade at 5. The next year, first grade was really good for me in every way, and then in 2nd grade we started "Academically Gifted" pull out class twice a week which I loved.

So for now, I agree with wait and see. If in a few weeks things haven't improved, talk to the teachers. Make sure they know your daughter can read. But keep in mind, as everybody else has said, that she's learning a lot of other things, too, and that she's not the first early reader the school has ever seen.
posted by hydropsyche at 6:27 AM on August 22, 2008

I was that child in public school kindergarten -- one of my most distinct memories is sitting in my teacher's chair and reading to my class at storytime. In first grade, my teacher was understanding and sent me to the third-grade classroom to borrow chapter books while the rest of the class was stumbling over "'Hello, Bird,' said Mr. Figg."

I wish to this day that my parents had let me skip a grade. The social problems of interacting with kids a year older would have been no worse than the social problems caused by little punks who resented my intelligence. On the other hand, I became fiercely independent as a result of the bullying, and refused to dumb myself down to suit them.
posted by coppermoss at 2:15 PM on August 22, 2008

We're in a similar situation, so our kid's starting in Spanish immersion on Monday. (At a local public school, because San Francisco is just awesome.)
posted by rdc at 11:00 PM on August 22, 2008

You can teach up with this assignment. You can start with a discussion of how words go from left to right and then down the page. But you can do other things with this. Try reading a book backwards. Try reading a page from the bottom up. Download some Chinese characters. Talk about how their books go in a different direction. Borrow one from the library. Talk about concrete poems. Work on a concrete poem together. Try other ways of arranging words on a page. Put some words on little cards and have fun arranging them into different sentences -- even though the words themselves do not change. Discuss other ways of ordering information or sets. (You don't need to use the word set.) You can do a million things with this simple assignment and still be teaching up to your daughter's level.

And do you really want homework in kindergarten? School is just one part of your child's life. But you could probably talk to the teacher about other ways to challenge your daughter. There are some good examples above.

Also, it may not make sense to use early reading as a benchmark for intellectual development. I am intentionally not teaching my children to read until they enter first grade, because I want them to be well grounded in other areas of development. I didn't learn how to read till I was in Grade One and I was reading at an 11th grade level within a year. Most studies show that early readers do not necessarily hold their early start, so don't assume that your child will never be challenged with the school curriculum. (Of course, your child may very well retain her early lead.)
posted by acoutu at 10:05 AM on August 23, 2008