Reading in K

[Unregistered]

Our state just adopted guidelines/standards that all kids need to be reading at a level 4 (leveled books they read in school) by the end of Kindergarten. In the past our state standards was "ready to read" by the end of K. This meant they had all the pre reading skills- like phonome segmentation, first letter sounds, alliteration, nonsense word recognition, knew all capital and lowercase letters etc. Each K kid was tested at the start, middle and end of K to determine if they were meeting this old standard. With the new standard they will still be tested 3 times but with more rigor and much harder demands.

I have young ones now and none going to K next year. How many have readers by K and GOOD readers in K? What strategies do you use to get them ready?

Does anyone know and keep current on their states guidelines (as I do)?

[DCMomOf3]

My two sons who are SA were reading before k (k-1st grade reading levels). Our district uses an a-z scale for reading, not sure how that measures to your levels. Level A is learning sight words. They like kids to be at least a Level C coming out of K. My kids have far surpassed the goal (2nd-3rd grade reading levels).

I just read a lot, have books all around, have been working on sounds since they were old enough to be interested in books, on writing since they had in an interest in drawing actual things . I don't really know what I am doing differently than others out there. I wish i could take all the credit but I honestly don't know what exactly is working other than plenty of exposure and practice.

[nannyde]

Our state just adopted guidelines/standards that all kids need to be reading at a level 4 (leveled books they read in school) by the end of Kindergarten. In the past our state standards was "ready to read" by the end of K. This meant they had all the pre reading skills- like phonome segmentation, first letter sounds, alliteration, nonsense word recognition, knew all capital and lowercase letters etc. Each K kid was tested at the start, middle and end of K to determine if they were meeting this old standard. With the new standard they will still be tested 3 times but with more rigor and much harder demands.

I have young ones now and none going to K next year. How many have readers by K and GOOD readers in K? What strategies do you use to get them ready?

Does anyone know and keep current on their states guidelines (as I do)?

What is the school going to do if the kid can't read by the end of Kindy and how does that affect home child care? Do you get a bonus if your day care kids CAN read by the end of Kindy? If there isn't money attached to their success I would stay out of it.

[Unregistered]

Reading in kindy

I really don't like the way that the public schools in my area are teaching children how to read. I know that there are probably a lot of reasons why teaching sight words works but all I can think about is how when I was a little kid, I learned so much by sounding words out. That's actually discouraged in the schools here. I don't teach my daycare kids how to read here and I don't advertise that I will do it. I don't offer kindergarten readiness lesson plans but I'll give parents the information for junior kindergarten classes and provide care as long as the parents can work out the transportation for the kid.

[Unregistered]

Reading at Kindergarden age,what are your thoughts....

Why do schools want kids to be reading in kindergarten these days? What has happened to the days of letting kids be kids and kindergarten was a fun & exciting time for kids to START learning things and learning to get along with a bunch of other kids,not a time when the kids HAD to be or sort of be reading by then. My gosh, those kids are only 5 yrs old. I guess I have given my age away, not in my 20's for sure. But why do kids have to be so grown up already by that age. Kids should be able to use their imaginations, be able to play and also start the learning process in kindergarten, but not have to be already reading is my thinking.
Why do kids have to be expected to supposedly be so educated by the time they are 5 yrs old these days? Our society today is what is forcing parents to feel as though their child has to be the smartest child or we have failed as parents, which is ridiculous. Does any one else have these same thoughts as I do, or am I the only one who thinks they expect to much of kids these days at such a young age?

[Lucy]

I know that there are probably a lot of reasons why teaching sight words works but all I can think about is how when I was a little kid, I learned so much by sounding words out. That's actually discouraged in the schools here.

Where do you live? That is definitely NOT the case here. They are highly encouraged to sound words out when reading, and to attempt "Kindergarten Spelling", which means they write sentences or even paragraphs by themselves by just sounding out the word and spelling it however they think it sounds. It looks like a bunch of gibberish, but it helps them to learn what sounds the letters make. I'm surprised your school district's curriculum would discourage this.

[countrymom]

the kids here do sight words, so my dd is in grade 1 and she struggles with some words because she has never been taught to sound the words out properly. This goes with spelling, my ds in grade 3 struggles in spelling because he doesn't know how to spell and sound the words out.

[Lilbutterflie]

My DD is in kindergarten right now. She is supposed to be at level C (which coincides with level 4) before she can move to grade 1. She's there right now and still has 3 full months left.

I have been frustrated too with the emphasis on sight words and not so much with sounding words out. They don't want them to get confused, b/c the letters don't always make the same sounds in every word. I agree that this type of teaching will probably cause problems with spelling later on. I myself still encourage her to sound the words out, and she does just fine when she's at home.

[countrymom]

My DD is in kindergarten right now. She is supposed to be at level C (which coincides with level 4) before she can move to grade 1. She's there right now and still has 3 full months left.

I have been frustrated too with the emphasis on sight words and not so much with sounding words out. They don't want them to get confused, b/c the letters don't always make the same sounds in every word. I agree that this type of teaching will probably cause problems with spelling later on. I myself still encourage her to sound the words out, and she does just fine when she's at home.

this is what I do too. I have never heard of sight words till my 3rd kid was in grade 1. My other 2 kids had to sound everything out and now they have to guess the words.

[DCMomOf3]

this is what I do too. I have never heard of sight words till my 3rd kid was in grade 1. My other 2 kids had to sound everything out and now they have to guess the words.

I still teach my boys to sound out their words, including sight words. The reason they are called sight words is because these are the first words they should learn to recognize by sight instead of sounding them out each time they are seen. If introduced properly they should assist in reading not hinder it.

[Zoe]

I'm in MN, and I don't know if this is a state thing, but at the Kindergarten info meeting, they said that the kids should be reading a majority of the provided sight words by the end of kindergarten. It's not exactly a requirement, but more of a goal. So it's not really at a reading book level, just sight words.

[AnythingsPossible]

It is sadly because of new rules like these that have created parents keeping their kids out of kindergarten for one more year. I have had 2 different families not send their kids to K till they were 6. They then turned 7 when leaving K. They expect so much out of kids anymore that a large majority of them just don't have the skills to do yet. My oldest and youngest are 5 years apart in school and the changes that have been implemented in that time are astounding. She was working on things in 1st grade that he worked on in 3rd. It's insane.

[Unregistered]

Actually I live in MN and the state standards were just modified to include the clause that they need to be reading at a level 4 reader before the end of school.

I think it is my obligation to get kids ready for school and yes that means keeping current on what is considered "ready". Obviously twenty yrs ago being ready and now are two different things and I think if would be completely irresponsible to just keep sending kids with out knowing what the standards are and making attempts to get kids to those marks. No technically nobody from the state or school district is paying me to get these kids ready but the parents are paying me and I doubt anyone would be pleased sending their kids to a daycare that didn't know what kids needed to be ready for K and adapt accordingly. Who would want the kids in their daycare to get to K and then find out they are behind the eight ball? Even if you don't like that kids nowadays need to know "so much more than in the past" and it seems they "cant just be kids anymore" it is reality and needs to be addressed before they get to K.

Our district says that if they can't read to state standards (which are very high in MN) by the end of k they have a 1 in 8 chance of graduating. Sure makes that first year at school important huh.

[jen]

Actually I live in MN and the state standards were just modified to include the clause that they need to be reading at a level 4 reader before the end of school.

I think it is my obligation to get kids ready for school and yes that means keeping current on what is considered "ready". Obviously twenty yrs ago being ready and now are two different things and I think if would be completely irresponsible to just keep sending kids with out knowing what the standards are and making attempts to get kids to those marks. No technically nobody from the state or school district is paying me to get these kids ready but the parents are paying me and I doubt anyone would be pleased sending their kids to a daycare that didn't know what kids needed to be ready for K and adapt accordingly. Who would want the kids in their daycare to get to K and then find out they are behind the eight ball? Even if you don't like that kids nowadays need to know "so much more than in the past" and it seems they "cant just be kids anymore" it is reality and needs to be addressed before they get to K.

Our district says that if they can't read to state standards (which are very high in MN) by the end of k they have a 1 in 8 chance of graduating. Sure makes that first year at school important huh.

Hey! I'm a MN girl too! Would you mind sharing where you got that information?

[nannyde]

Actually I live in MN and the state standards were just modified to include the clause that they need to be reading at a level 4 reader before the end of school.

I think it is my obligation to get kids ready for school and yes that means keeping current on what is considered "ready". Obviously twenty yrs ago being ready and now are two different things and I think if would be completely irresponsible to just keep sending kids with out knowing what the standards are and making attempts to get kids to those marks. No technically nobody from the state or school district is paying me to get these kids ready but the parents are paying me and I doubt anyone would be pleased sending their kids to a daycare that didn't know what kids needed to be ready for K and adapt accordingly. Who would want the kids in their daycare to get to K and then find out they are behind the eight ball? Even if you don't like that kids nowadays need to know "so much more than in the past" and it seems they "cant just be kids anymore" it is reality and needs to be addressed before they get to K.

Our district says that if they can't read to state standards (which are very high in MN) by the end of k they have a 1 in 8 chance of graduating. Sure makes that first year at school important huh.

Nah

This doesn't have anything to do with child care.

If the State believes that children need to have these skills before Kindy then they need to work with the parents to get the kids ready. If the parents want to hire it out then great... or they can do it at home with their child.

I don't see where it has to do with child care? Can you explain that? Are you talking about providers getting paid additional funds to do "school readiness" with their day care kids?

If there is money in it I think there will be a HUGE response from providers. If it's expected for free... not so much. :: If it's going to be an "obligation" then it needs to be a highly paid "obligation".