Taking 2 years for Kindergarten??

[katnorman]

Has anyone done kindergarten over 2 years? My ds will just be 5 the middle of August and he has had speech issues the past 3 years so letters and phonics are really slow going. He may surprise me and fly through K and be ready for 1st, but I doubt it. He can only count to 5, but only recognize the number 1, has trouble with any sort of writing, can't recognize his name. Is this normal for a boy, or okay :001_huh: My dd is 7 and flies through anything so this is just different territory for me. If anyone has suggestions on how to do a 2 year K, I would really appreciate it!!

Sorry, this is kind of all over the place!!

[rieshy]

Do you have to register him as k this year?

 

Even if you have to do so, why don't you make it a language rich (workbook poor) reading year. Check out ambleside online's kindergarten list. Or FIAR.

 

Along with that play with a lot of math and do a lot of art and nature studies and then at the end of the year decide if you want to move on to a more traditional 1st grade or not.

[katnorman]

I will check those out, thanks!! No, we don't have to register him until he is 7 on or before Sept. 15th. So, not for another 2 years :001_smile: But, that's a great idea to do more language and not so much writing, workbooky stuff.

[FairProspects]

We did. I did not have to register ds in K as it is not required in our state. We did K work the year he was 5 (or K age by state cutoff) and then since I did not feel he was ready to move on, we "red-shirted" him and did K again the next year. He had no idea how long K was, so he didn't know the difference.

 

The only problem we have run into is with Little League since they have different cutoffs than the school district. It was a great decision for ds and our family, and I'm very glad we did it.

 

ETA: My ds has an end of July b-day.

Edited February 29, 2012 by FairProspects

[boscopup]

My middle son was a bit like that (incidentally, he learned to count by going through R&S ABC series book Counting With Numbers - nothing else worked, including counting objects in real life as we went about our day :001_huh:). He has a November birthday, thankfully, so we have done "light K" this year, and will do "official K" next year. He is catching up quicker than I expected, so he'll have some 1st grade stuff next year, but he'll be "K". If he had had an August birthday, I would totally have redshirted him. It's pretty common to do that with boys close to the cutoff anyway. ;)

[Tawlas]

You've gotten some great advice, and I don't have anything to add except that it's both "normal AND okay" ! :D Kids are so different. You've identified some weaknesses and now you can continue to work with them. Reevaluate as time goes by.

 

You've got lots of time! Have fun!

[SebastianCat]

It sounds like you're definitely doing the right thing - I'd have done it too if my DS had such a late birthday. My DS's birthday is in May, and he's about to turn 10. I see a difference in maturity and in social skills between him and his peers who are 6 months older.

 

In addition to what's already been recommended, I would definitely work on fine motor skills. Play Doh, tracing letters in the sand with a finger, tracing "big" letters in the air - all strengthen muscles needed for writing. Even using the computer for something like Starfall will help him develop eye-hand coordination and some fine motor control.

[extrafor6]

My dd turned five in September. We don't have to register K in our state. Anyhow, I do K 3-4 days a week (phonics, math, handwriting) and she listens in on Bible, science, history and our read alouds. I'll evaluate to see if she's ready for 1st in August. If not, I'll probably not re-do K, but delay 1st until January. HTH!

[Lucy the Valiant]

Yep, we did, for 1 kid! :001_smile:

 

We explained to him that HIS kind of kindergarten takes 2 years. Some people (his sisters) take 1. Everybody is different and "has" different kinds of school.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I believe in redshirting. Unless he had been advanced in August, I would have waited to call him Kindy til next year anyway.

[katnorman]

Thank you so much for all the great replies!! I have been looking at the R&S ABC books and I think I'll order and start him on those. He loves Reading Eggs, but really needs to work on the fine motor skills as he gets really frustrated with the mouse. You all make me feel so much better, and as my husband keeps telling me "He's fine, he's just a boy.":001_smile:

[Crimson Wife]

My November birthday DS is doing "transition" this year because he wasn't quite ready to move on to 1st at not-quite-6. Technically it is considered repeating K for the purposes of our umbrella school, because they don't have an official grade for "transition". But since we are continuing on with where he was in the various curricula, it isn't exactly repeating a grade.

 

At this point, he probably has the fine motor skills and attention span for me to consider him as a 1st semester 1st grader, but since the umbrella school calendar runs August-June rather than January-December, he won't officially start 1st until the fall.

[FairProspects]

My November birthday DS is doing "transition" this year because he wasn't quite ready to move on to 1st at not-quite-6. Technically it is considered repeating K for the purposes of our umbrella school, because they don't have an official grade for "transition". But since we are continuing on with where he was in the various curricula, it isn't exactly repeating a grade.

 

At this point, he probably has the fine motor skills and attention span for me to consider him as a 1st semester 1st grader, but since the umbrella school calendar runs August-June rather than January-December, he won't officially start 1st until the fall.

 

:iagree:This is closer to our situation, and where the OP may find herself eventually. We end up transitioning grades somewhere between Feb.-April. Which is usually around age X.5, similar to the age many kids are when they begin a grade in September.

[rocketgirl]

I taught kindergarten in ps for 7 years. Pretest indicators I remember were that my "youngests" (not always the youngest, but the not quite ready) were not counting 1 to 1 correspondence yet to 10, or not recognizing all numbers 1-10, or didn't know more than 5 or so letters yet before kindergarten began. And that was just where they were, but in the system it was "behind" and so hard to catch up, at the end of the year they had learned a lot but were still behind. But my district wanted all kindergartners to know the alphabet and enough sight words to read simple readers by november or they were put on a plan. That meant they had to know at least half of the alphabet before school started. The cool thing about home schooling is not worrying about someone else's "time line". My school labelled those kids, put them on plans to "help" them but essentially to give them authority to hold them back the next year.

Edited February 29, 2012 by rocketgirl

[3peasinWa]

We started with ds (who turned 5 in December 2010) last Jan2011. So we have done 1.5yrs school years of K (well by May it will be 1.5yrs).

He has verbal apraxia & also has a harder time phonetically. I was still suprised by how much he was able to sound out & read correctly. He's just now reading cvc words , like BOB books, set I.

I think giving yourself 2 years is a great idea & you never know - he might surprise you & you may be able to move on after one year. HTH.:)

[rocketgirl]

p.s. ...we started our 2nd in ps a year late. (I was a public school teacher for 9 years by them & my kids were all in public school until just a few years ago. )She was a may birthday, would have been the youngest in her grade level but she had always been very emotional & I knew I would not be ready to push her out of the nest when she was 4. So we made a decision not to start her in preschool at age 4, but wait until the next year when she was 5. (we did not have a nursery school option - preschool was only for kids going into kdg the following year) As a 5 yo preschooler she was successful academically and emotionally, needless to say she had an awesome kdg year too & probably would have been fine in 1st if bullying hadn't forced us to take her out. Anyway, when we tested her last year as a 7 year old 1st grader, she scored in the 99th percentile! Now I wonder how different that may have been if she was a 2nd grader last year like her peers!

[NASDAQ]

I'm in the minority here. My daughter has a March birthday. She talked at three. At five, she couldn't count to five.

 

I got a good multi-sensory phonics program and worked with her for ninety minutes a day from the time she would have started kindergarten until we pushed through it. When she was about halfway through Saxon 1 we were able to go off script a little bit. She definitely required more repetition, more work, more everything to get her to where she is. Ditto with math. We didn't do anything else until the phonics and math started coming. When it did, we added in Dent's Canadian Readers and Hebrew.

 

It's February of her kindergarten year and she'll finish the McGuffey Primer on Friday. She reads numbers and writes them legibly up to 130 and is working on simple addition and subtraction.

 

I would pick a good Orton-Gillingham-based program. Saxon is one. Spalding is another. Then I'd carve out time and work it.

[katnorman]

I taught kindergarten in ps for 7 years. Pretest indicators I remember were that my "youngests" (not always the youngest, but the not quite ready) were not counting 1 to 1 correspondence yet to 10, or not recognizing all numbers 1-10, or didn't know more than 5 or so letters yet before kindergarten began. And that was just where they were, but in the system it was "behind" and so hard to catch up, at the end of the year they had learned a lot but were still behind. But my district wanted all kindergartners to know the alphabet and enough sight words to read simple readers by november or they were put on a plan. That meant they had to know at least half of the alphabet before school started. The cool thing about home schooling is not worrying about someone else's "time line". My school labelled those kids, put them on plans to "help" them but essentially to give them authority to hold them back the next year.

 

Thank you!! Our speech therapist even asked us recently if we were sending him to K in the fall (knowing we homeschool:confused:) and I told her no?!? She said "Good, I was just making sure you were going to homeschool him too, because he would just be labeled and probably just not do well in school." He picks things up really quickly, which is why he may surprise me, but struggles so much with other things.

[FO4UR]

I think it's pretty normal to wait that extra year. Knowing his struggles going in, I'd wait until next year to even call him kindy.

[BoZeeCo's Mom]

Absolutely! My son turned 5 in October, so I'm kind of working on a non traditional schedule, also. I think it's whatever works for your family. Also, you may find it's a maturity thing. My son wasn't really interested in anything except being read to until recently, so I just kind of went with that. Now, suddenly he's blending all kinds of words and reading all of his Bob Books, we're halfway throu OPGTR, and he's totally willing to do the copy work I give him. If you had asked me about first grade for this coming fall at Xmas, I would have laughed. Now, I'm thinking he may be just fine to start then.

[MistyMountain]

Leap frog videos and preschool prep meet the letters, numbers and phonics is a good way to teach the letters and numbers. Once he has those you can start on a O/G reading method. You can give him as much time as he needs to do kindergarten even if it is 2 years. If he seems to have issues with the sounds or phonemic awareness you can buy the book for LiPs and if he seems to have trouble getting fluency you can try buying the Seeing Stars book. My dd took a while to learn her letters and numbers. I tried lots of stuff but what finally worked was videos. It only took 2 viewings to learn something she didn't pick up at home or after being in preschool. I like the way funnix math teaches counting.

[NASDAQ]

Children don't need to know their letters and numbers to start an OG reading program.

[Ellie]

Has anyone done kindergarten over 2 years? My ds will just be 5 the middle of August and he has had speech issues the past 3 years so letters and phonics are really slow going. He may surprise me and fly through K and be ready for 1st, but I doubt it. He can only count to 5, but only recognize the number 1, has trouble with any sort of writing, can't recognize his name. Is this normal for a boy, or okay :001_huh: My dd is 7 and flies through anything so this is just different territory for me. If anyone has suggestions on how to do a 2 year K, I would really appreciate it!!

Sorry, this is kind of all over the place!!

So, he's just 4? That he only counts to 5 doesn't surprise me, 'cuz he's just little.

 

I wouldn't say that anything he does or doesn't do is because of his gender. :)

 

I don't think it's necessary to say that you want to do kindergarten for two years. I think you just teach him as much as he is capable of doing. The year that he would be entering first grade, you say that he's first grade, and just continue doing what you're doing.

[NanceXToo]

I tried K last year with my son (we started in Sept, he was to turn 5 in early Nov). The only reason I did so was because the K curriculum I use is a very non-academic, Waldorf-inspired gentle one...story/drawing/craft/nature based etc and I really thought he'd like it. He didn't. Too wiggly, too disinterested. We ended up just dropping it, doing another informal year of pre-K (no curriculum or formal expectations, just play-based and interest-led and informal learning) and he learned tons that year. Gave K another try this year and it went much more smoothly. You don't have to report, he's young, I'd just follow his cues, interact with him, see how it goes, and I'm sure that you'll see he will learn tons over the next year or two anyway!

[desertmum]

Our ds has speech issues too. A few months before his 5th birthday he couldn't do so many things. Last year we did "Reception" (light K) and this year we are doing a CM kind of K. We are focusing on the 3 R's.

 

 

All kids mature at a different rate...but they all get "there" in the end. I found ds has made huge improvements in a few months. Some kids mature in fits and starts.

[Slipper]

Our middle daughter has an August birthday as well. She entered kindergarten with all of us knowing that she might have to repeat. We did have her tested to make sure there were no underlying problems (other than age). Two years of kindergarten were perfect for her.

[wapiti]

I would cross that bridge when you come to it, when you're finished with the next school year. He may surprise you. The speech issue, while it may cause a little trouble with reading regarding letter sounds and such, is otherwise irrelevant.

 

I have a ds who could barely write his name in all-caps, didn't know the letter sounds, etc. at the start of K, was small, had no friends, had a history of severe developmental delay, etc. He also has major speech issues (he's still getting speech therapy at school in 3rd grade). But, he's also a late bloomer, and jumped a couple of grade levels in reading during the last few months of K.

 

I say give him the benefit of the doubt for now, and re-evaluate the following August. Eta, many kids, especially ones with "issues," develop in fits and starts rather than in a linear fashion. Even if he takes two whole years to comlete K, he might complete three years in two, or otherwise "catch up" to his grade-for-age later.

Edited February 29, 2012 by wapiti

[catz]

I believe in redshirting. Unless he had been advanced in August, I would have waited to call him Kindy til next year anyway.

 

:iagree: Around here even academically ahead boys that aren't ready to settle in to the school routine are held back. A huge majority of July/August boy birthdays are held back here. I would do it and not even blink. My son has an October birthday, so older for grade level. I'm SO glad.

[Ecclecticmum]

My son has similar problems. He is delayed in Language/speech, but excels in Math, but his attention span/waiting for instructions skills are practically nil.

 

Based on his age (forgetting the school year of "registration") he should start K now, but there is no way he is ready. He scribbled on 3 pages of the math book before I even had a sentence out.

 

Because his brain excels in maths/logic, but is delayed in speech/waiting, its extremely hard to keep up with ideas/activities to build up upon his maths.

 

What I decided upon was to drop everything but the letter of the week/pre-k stuff (same stuff as his younger sister does) and just concentrate on setting aside time for "modelling" language. I re-correct words, slowly and clearly enunciate, play speech games, stop/go & listening games.

 

Sometimes rather than trying to keep up with areas they may be on grade level or above, its better to slide back and work up the areas they are deficient on.

 

"Grade" Levels don't matter, that is one of the great reasons of homeschooling. You can go through an entire education without doing as K, merely by not classing it as kindergarten ;) Put on the registrar what ever you need to, but just concentrate on your individual child's needs.

 

There are some pretty amazing Pre-K programs out there that really could be classed as K/1. All most people concentrate on for K when homeschooling is Reading & Maths anyway. Count 1-10, basic shapes, matching, colours, once/if they have that down, move onto the next. The main thing is to get them reading (some children won't read till 8 or 9, thats fine, if its becoming frustrating or your stuck, leave it for a couple of weeks, then come back to it) with K, less is more. I used a Sonlight core for K + Singapore Maths & supplements. If I went back and did it again, I would just concentrate on a good phonics programme, and Singapore.

 

Ideally, in a great world, before starting 1st grade, you child would at least be able to blend.....I learnt this the hard way. Most of the 1st Grade items count on the child being able to read in some fashion.

 

For K handwriting, the best thing I have found is just whats needed for the Maths book, plus concentrating on pencil grip, and lots of colouring/drawing. Since upping the amount of "colouring" pages we have been doing, my daughters handwriting is coming off in leaps and bounds. Her concentrating on staying between the lines allows for better motor control, thus making handwriting easier (and colouring is a lot less boring than copying out "c" 50 times ;))

 

So to summarise, taking 2 years for Kindergarten is fine. Just concentrate on the less is more approach. Phonics, Maths and lots of colouring/drawing/pencil grip. When they have achieved blending or beyond, move to 1st. :001_smile:

[Desert Strawberry]

I did with #1 and probably will with #3.

#1 did k at 4, but when I tested him for 1st grade for Singapore math, he failed miserably. I added Hwt and ETC, areas he was also lacking, and did k again at 5.

 

#3 has speech delays and a bit of defiance. I'm pretty sure we'll hold off a year and do both #3and#4 together, but I might spread it out a bit between them depending on how they are when it's time.

[Love2teach0307]

We do Kindergarten over two years - but we do it every other week. My dd, who is 5 now, was ready to do something, but couldn't handle a whole curriculum, plus she had some speech issues. We took our phonics and work 2 - 3 days a week every other week, and in between that we work on memorizing and reciting nursery rhymes. I printed them out so she can make her own book she can read all by herself (it's memorized, of course) by adding about 2 or 3 a month. She feels like she's doing school, but she's not getting burned out by being pushed to hard to read too soon. It's slow and gentle and fun.

[ksr5377]

I'm considering this year our second year of K. It's the first official year that I have to notify our school district. DD will be 6 at the end of September. There are just some things that I know she hasn't picked up on well enough yet. The majority of our curriculum choices for the coming year are on a first grade level though. I just told her that first grade takes a LOT longer than K did.