ABCs of Kindergarten

No doubt, many parents still view kindergarten as a place for kids to familiarize themselves with the three “F’s”: finger-painting, fun, and frolic.

Getting messy, however, isn’t kindergarten’s primary purpose. Kindergarten is preparation for grade school, and with the pressure of standardized tests looming, there’s more focus on academics. Writing, reading and math activities take up much of the kindergarten curriculum…

Skill Mastery is Key

At the end of the kindergarten year, successful children will have made significant social leaps, says Norma Ross, therapist and owner of Smart Parenting Solutions in White Plains, N.Y.

But it’s not just about learning to get along and follow directions. Florida’s kindergarten students must master such pre-reading skills as knowing the names and sounds of all the letters of the alphabet in the correct order and understanding English is written and read from left to right. They must have pre-writing skills, including writing some letters and being able to tell stories with a combination of pictures. They must be able to count and write the numbers from one to 10 and perform basic addition…

No Agreement

Not that there is unanimous agreement on the efficacy of retention. Dueling studies give opposing views. Data from a report issued by the National Center for Education Statistics showed that 40 percent of retained pupils were said to have problems concentrating, more than a third weren’t learning up to their capabilities, and nearly 29 percent were disruptive in class. In each area, the proportions were 40 to 50 percent higher than for children who had not been retained in kindergarten…

Source: SouthFlorida.com
http://www.southflorida.com/sfe-sfp-kindergarten,0,4386247.story