Anyone have any input on when a child should start school, ie: pre-school, kindergarten, what age for what?

Question

I have a late four year old, she just turned 4 in November, what should she be doing at this point? If you have time to break it down I REALLY appreciate it!

Answer 1

I think it is important for all children to attend pre-school or nursery school for at least one year before entering kindergarten.  I volunteered in my son's kindergarten class and could easily tell which kids had been to pre-school and which had stayed at home.  Virtually none of the kids who had stayed at home could stay in their seats, listen to the teacher, or stay on task.  Many of them (the ones whose parents had not worked with them) did not know how to hold a pencil or crayon correctly; how to write on paper without ripping it; how to cut paper with scissors; etc.  My son's school actually had an entrance exam for kindergarten.  Parents weren't allowed to stay in the room during the test, but do remember hearing that one of the things they asked was for the child to draw a picture of a person.  A stick figure was okay, but they wanted to see how many body parts the child included.  That is, did they just put arms or did they also include hands and even fingers, feet, facial features, ears, etc.

Because I had to work, my son was in a daycare from the time he was two months old.  The daycare owner was a former kindergarten teacher who had quit work when she had children.  Even though her professional background was in early childhood education, she sent her own daughter to a pre-school when she was three and recommended that the parents of her day care children send their own children to a pre-school at age three.

Answer 2

enrol her at pre school for 2 days a week. At pre school, the child will learn about socializing with her peers, how to interact with other kids, as well as learning other motor skills like cutting, paste and make something good to show parents when they being picked up. Enrol now, she will like it, but in the beginning, maybe she will be crying, as she is not used to it. Be patient.

Answer 3

I started learning the alphabet and stuff when I was about four years old.

Answer 4

I also have a late 4 yo (Dec birthday) daughter

I teach preschool at home.

IMHO the things you should teach before entering a traditional school setting include:

Shapes: circle, square, triangle, rectangle, heart, star, oval, octagon, hexagon

Colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, pink, brown, white, black and gray

Teach writing numbers to 20, recognizing numbers to 30 or higher, counting a set of objects to 10 - start slow here, perhaps even introduce some addition and subtraction concepts using manipulatives. My daughter can tell time to the hour...one day she expressed an interest, she we played games and learned about it.

It is important to follow your child's interest.

She should also learn the sound each letter makes and be able to write them as capital letters, lower case at this age is still quite difficult...but perhaps the summer before starting school you could introduce this...my granddaughter who is 5 in a couple weeks is just now beginning to write lowercase letters. When you teach writing, use a standard writing program, don't just wing it - it is important to learn to write letters correctly...if you teach your child the letters the wrong way, it is very difficult to re-teach the correct letter formation process. (A good thing to remember is all letters are made from the top down....never from the bottom up.)

She should also know her full name, address and phone number, birthdate, age and parents' names.

Definetly do some phonemic awareness activities with your daughter...read nursery rhymes, can she recognize rhyming words...create them? Play game where you say a word slowly, one sound at a time, and ask her to push the sounds together and say the whole word...for instance, you say /d/ /o/ /g/ and she says dog...be sure not to add /uh/ onto the end of your sounds...keep them clipped. Once she has mastered that, turn it around and give her the whole word asking her to say it back to you slowly. Teach her to listen for the first sound she hears in a word....then the last sound...then the middle. Teach those vowel sounds solid!

This will be a tremendous help to her when she starts to read. My daughter is reading 3 letter words, and spelling them too...just from playing games such as these.

There are lots of resources available online, as well as in your local library on phonemic awareness...educate yourself so you can train your child correctly.

Happy learning! What a joy this age is!

Answer 5

Well at this point, your child should know her name, know how to speak accurately, know her colors, know her abc's and 1,2,3's and also my little 3 year old sister know how to write her name and read words like the, she, he, me, I and so on. At 3 right now, she is in an early start program, and in the state of Michigan, (Detroit) until you are 5 you can not start school. So she has 2 more years before preschool, but she is already at a 1st grade level.