Kiera will be going to the neighborhood school for K. We made a significant stretch to move to this school district for this purpose.

Anyway, we did sign up last month. Apparently THE teacher to get is retiring, so Im just crossing my fingers for a good fit with whoever she gets. Im way more stressed about arranging before and after care than I am about her being in a class, since I figure it will be fairly similar to the Montessori "light" school she goes to now (24 kids, one teacher and one aid, group and individual work times, a lame playground they get to play on once or twice a day, worksheets and such). They will have a home visit closer to the begining of the school year. Most of the families in this area have a SAHM, that sort of stresses me out too, since I wont be able to volunteer as much as others, drop her off, pick her up, etc.

All in all though, I think she will be happy there. She is reading, writing by dictation (like Sonya described) and doing some "double math" as she calls it, but no where near writing her own sentences and I consider her pretty advanced.

3s_a_crowd wrote:

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Thanks Juni for your input. Hes most likely going the EI route.
Do you know by chance if you can just pull your kids out even though its run through the school district. I know that would be hard if it was kindergarten etc, but Im hoping to send him where k goes when hes that age. Im just wondering if its as strict of a program. (ie days of absenses allowed etc.)

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I'm not Juni, but I know from teaching kids with diablities that as a parent you can say where you will and won't put your child.  You can most certainly put Raym in a private school if you choose and if you decide to go back to public they will have to continue to provide and abide by an IEP.

I am not saying to disregard a private school, but if you go that route, I would ask about accomodations and if they provide support services and follow and IEP.  The more support and intervention at a young age, the less is needed in later years.

private schools that do not have ability to accomodate someone in an IEP can receive it through the public school district they live in and still attend the private school

We have kids in our private school that go to school here and have public school teams that work with them. They send in speach therapists, counselors, etc  and it is paid for by your tax dollars. You are entittled to it even if you choose a private/christian school. You just need to test through the public school system and set up an IEP. They meet with the teacher and set up a whole team to work with the child.

-- Edited by CoffeeQueen on Saturday 15th of May 2010 07:28:07 PM

CoffeeQueen wrote:

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private schools that do not have ability to accomodate someone in an IEP can receive it through the public school district they live in and still attend the private school

We have kids in our private school that go to school here and have public school teams that work with them. They send in speach therapists, counselors, etc  and it is paid for by your tax dollars. You are entittled to it even if you choose a private/christian school. You just need to test through the public school system and set up an IEP. They meet with the teacher and set up a whole team to work with the child.

-- Edited by CoffeeQueen on Saturday 15th of May 2010 07:28:07 PM

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This isnt a huge concern for me as our ABA therapist can still work with him on school stuff at home. BUt this is good to know. Thanks.

 

Robin wrote:

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apies wrote:

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Emily is going to kindergarten in the fall, but she's going to be in the special needs room at the beginning of the year.

i was shocked when they told me what K is like now. for example, they said that the incoming kindergartners will be expected to provide a writing sample the first week of school. when i asked about this, she said that most of the kids can write a sentence by the beginning of K. emily definitely cannot do this.

it's hard because i never really know how far behind she is. academically, i know she does pretty well, but she is still behind on her gross motor because of her balance issues. and her lack of balance leads her to be hesitant around the other kids b/c she doesn't want them knocking her over, etc.

i have a pretty strong feeling that she will start out in the special needs class and then up splitting the day between special needs & regular K. my hope is that by the end of the year she'll be able to be mainstreamed into the regular room with the accommodations she needs. i'm not 100% convinced that the special needs room is her least restrictive environment, but we'll only know for sure once she starts in there in the fall.

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I've never heard of incoming K's being able to write sentences.

I know they're expected to write their first name somewhat legibly--capital first letter, lowercase the rest.

Also in the past, when they've done K testing (at the pre-registration), they've asked stuff that has to do with letter/number recognition and being able to recognize the parts of the body.

And I think at Henry's, they may have asked him to do stuff like jump up and down. I don't really remember.

 

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I think that was pretty much all they did at Joe's screening too.  Joe said they had a picture of a man but he was missing an arm and an ear and a foot and he had to draw in the blanks.  They did some letter and number recognition and they took him to a different room from me to do this (I guess to see if he had any issue with being separated from me).  Also they had him write his name, he told me he just wrote "Joe" though cause he couldn't be bothered writing 'Joseph', even though he insists on being called Joseph - I hope he didn't tell them that though.

 

apies wrote:

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Robin wrote:

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apies wrote:

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Emily is going to kindergarten in the fall, but she's going to be in the special needs room at the beginning of the year.

i was shocked when they told me what K is like now. for example, they said that the incoming kindergartners will be expected to provide a writing sample the first week of school. when i asked about this, she said that most of the kids can write a sentence by the beginning of K. emily definitely cannot do this.

it's hard because i never really know how far behind she is. academically, i know she does pretty well, but she is still behind on her gross motor because of her balance issues. and her lack of balance leads her to be hesitant around the other kids b/c she doesn't want them knocking her over, etc.

i have a pretty strong feeling that she will start out in the special needs class and then up splitting the day between special needs & regular K. my hope is that by the end of the year she'll be able to be mainstreamed into the regular room with the accommodations she needs. i'm not 100% convinced that the special needs room is her least restrictive environment, but we'll only know for sure once she starts in there in the fall.

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I've never heard of incoming K's being able to write sentences.

I know they're expected to write their first name somewhat legibly--capital first letter, lowercase the rest.

Also in the past, when they've done K testing (at the pre-registration), they've asked stuff that has to do with letter/number recognition and being able to recognize the parts of the body.

And I think at Henry's, they may have asked him to do stuff like jump up and down. I don't really remember.

 

 

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thanks robin.

emily can definitely do all of that, but when i met with her pre-k teacher in december and she told us about the K program, she basically told me it's like 1st grade now in their expectations.

that stresses me out.  emily doesn't do well when she feels discouraged so i really don't want her having a bad experience in K where she thinks she can't do what the other kids can do.

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 Apies...

I seriously think it is insane what we are doing to our little ones in the early years now. We are not letting them develop at an appropriate rate. Of course there will be some kids that can write, but the fact that it is expected is crazy. I do not think it is a problem at all that Em is not there yet. As Robin stated - some written letters should be expects. Also, identifying her name on paper, colors, basic shapes, counting small amounts of objects in groups, body parts,  and opposites are some things I would expect.  Madi had a little assessment in Prek this year where they assessed some of these skills. They also had to play some memory (concentration) game and name objects, describe, and tell what you can do with some objects. For example, the teacher showed her a blue ball. They were looking for the kid to say things such as ball, blue, circle, round, bouncing, throwing, playing...etc. They did have some simple analogies which I was shocked about. One was girl is to boy as big is to _______. They also did jumping, walking on a line, and hopping on one foot. 
    I am happy that Madi has gone to Prek this year, but I am not happy with what they are doing. I love the teacher and I know it is not her, but what is expected of her. I have first hand knowledge of it since I work in the same school.  They really focus on academics and not enough on creative play or exploration. They do not even have a sand or water table. They are in one classroom all day and have gym once a week. I know the teacher that covers Madi's teacher's prep trys to take them out to the playground just to play. She is a reading recovery specialist and she doesn't even agree with the way it is set up. 
   So all this  to say, please don't feel so pressured for Emily to be ready to do all the reading and writing. If she can do most of the skills above  she will be fine! Work on those with her (which I am sure you are already) and the writing will come soon enough. 

Good Luck with everything !                                                                                                                                      

RedHawk wrote:

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apies wrote:

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Robin wrote:

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apies wrote:

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Emily is going to kindergarten in the fall, but she's going to be in the special needs room at the beginning of the year.

i was shocked when they told me what K is like now. for example, they said that the incoming kindergartners will be expected to provide a writing sample the first week of school. when i asked about this, she said that most of the kids can write a sentence by the beginning of K. emily definitely cannot do this.

it's hard because i never really know how far behind she is. academically, i know she does pretty well, but she is still behind on her gross motor because of her balance issues. and her lack of balance leads her to be hesitant around the other kids b/c she doesn't want them knocking her over, etc.

i have a pretty strong feeling that she will start out in the special needs class and then up splitting the day between special needs & regular K. my hope is that by the end of the year she'll be able to be mainstreamed into the regular room with the accommodations she needs. i'm not 100% convinced that the special needs room is her least restrictive environment, but we'll only know for sure once she starts in there in the fall.

---

I've never heard of incoming K's being able to write sentences.

I know they're expected to write their first name somewhat legibly--capital first letter, lowercase the rest.

Also in the past, when they've done K testing (at the pre-registration), they've asked stuff that has to do with letter/number recognition and being able to recognize the parts of the body.

And I think at Henry's, they may have asked him to do stuff like jump up and down. I don't really remember.

 

 

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thanks robin.

emily can definitely do all of that, but when i met with her pre-k teacher in december and she told us about the K program, she basically told me it's like 1st grade now in their expectations.

that stresses me out.  emily doesn't do well when she feels discouraged so i really don't want her having a bad experience in K where she thinks she can't do what the other kids can do.

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The school here is like that. Andrew can write "The cow is big", and things like that.

But, he really doesn't like to write. Homework used to be a huge fight for us. Finally, I thought, what the heck, he's 4, this is P.S. So, when they have letters to do, he has to write it 5 times, upper and then lower case. That's it. Some kids turn in front and back pages of the letters written. Then usually the next day, they have to cut out words that start with the letter they are working on.

He's also left handed, and I've read that lefties take longer to do writing.

Steve doesn't even think that we should think about keeping him in P.S. one more year. I disagree. If K was 1/2 day, I'd be fine with him going. But, a full 7.5 hours... I'm scared it'll be too much. I'd rather keep him back now, then have him go for a while and then be pulled out.

This is so hard.

 

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 Regarding the red. Bryce is a lefty and has had no issues. So do not worry with that.

Robin wrote:

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Lucy wrote:

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Robin wrote:

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Mark will be starting K in the fall. They don't have preregistration this year but they are offering a Kindergarten camp that is one week in June--from 8:30 to 11:30. Mark is going to that.

Their "orientation" is a staggered start during which 4 of the kids in his class go for one day the first week of school, then they all go starting Monday of the second week.

Mark is excited. And so am I.

I told Mark that kids at big kid school don't wear character underwear, just plain white, and he was VERY excited last night when I brought him home some plain white undies from the store.

I'm also excited that next year, Mark won't have to tag along and hang out with the babies at my work, and he won't have to go in the nursery when I go to church meetings. Plus I'll have 2 days a week that I can run errands and go shopping by myself.

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Robin the red cracked me up.

But seriously do they not? Joe loves his Spongebob undies!

 

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Before Henry started K, my friend (who has an older ds) told me to make sure that he wore plain underwear. Otherwise kids would tease him.

(Also a friend of mine sent her dd with a sippy cup in her lunch on the first day of K, and her classmates called her a baby.)

I'm really wondering about the underwear thing though because ALL the boys in Mark's preschool class have cool character underwear. ?? Guess I'll send him in white the first few days and see what he says about it.

 

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I have never in my life heard of this.

FTR, Bryce still has Spiderman, Transformers then some Gymboree but they have things like guitars, sports, camo, etc