Heya, sorry for the long story.....
My lil princess is not long 5 and attends school in prep. My daughter was able to read and write some words before she started school. Currently at home she is able to read novel like books, eg Roald Dahl, but at school I'm wondering if she her education is actually challenging her at all.
The teachers were unaware that she could read until we showed her at their first parent teacher interview. Since then they have tested her 200 sight words which she of course knew and put her level 15 readers. So while other children receive sight words and readers for home, she just gets readers and nothing else. All the children do the same literacy activities in class.
I guess what I'm asking is it being a pushy parent to ask that my daughter be challenged a bit more? I understand that prep is play based, but I just don't want my daughter to get bored or complacent.
Can I ask for my daughter to have extra extension or am I being a helicopter parent that expects too much from my child?
6 Replies
I have some experience in this from both perspectives.
Firstly it's impossible for a prep child to become complacent. The idea of slacking off on there education doesn't occur to a child until much much older, because at this age children just enjoy doing/trying/learning. If they are good at reading naturally and she enjoys reading and she reads at home there is nothing to worry about.
Most of prep is spent learning how to behave and interact in a classroom. It's about learning how to be independent, find your belongings etc.
Reading is more than just decoding letters and sounds. It's about taking in a story and new information. So even if you don't think your daughter is learning to read at a higher level (which BTW will happen naturally on its own) she will be taking in new ideas, information and concepts. She will be learning how to truly comprehend what she is reading.
Personally I think you are being a little helicopterish. I wouldn't be worrying about extension work until she is much older. Don't squash the joy out of her learning by pushing, she will do it on her own. Plus there are plenty of other areas of learning that age is taking on at school. She will have already been exposed to science, health, PE, language, math. Literacy is actually a small part of the school day.
Honestly, home readers will probably be the extent of her homework for the next few years, as it should be.
As long as she's not losing interest or showing signs of boredom in the classroom, I wouldn't worry.
Prep is just as much about socialising and play as it is about formal learning.
You'll probably find next year in Grade 1 the workload will become more challenging anyway.
If the play is open ended, there is no scope for boredom. If she can do her sight words, why waste her precious play time doing academic work. There is no benefit, as children learn through play.
Yes you are being a helicopter parent. Please don't say anything to the teacher at this point (later down the track it may be required). Please don't be that parent.
Your child has a one strength, being able to read and I can guarantee you that there are other children with different strengths in the classroom. This one strength is the tip of the iceberg, there is so much more to prep than being able to read. There are fine motor skills (for handwriting), listening, social skills, resilience, numeracy, empathy, independence, comprehension, speech, vocabulary, appropriate classroom behaviour, to name just a few.
It is term three of prep, what you want for her is to enjoy learning, to set her up to associate school as a happy place, a place to gain knowledge.
Most activities these days are open ended, giving kids the chance to extend if their level is higher than benchmark. For example, draw a picture about your favourite place and write a story to go with it. So Johnny writes "I like play", Mary writes "This is a picture of the beach, it is my favourite place because I love to swim".
When they are going through sight words and she already knows them, it is really going to build her confidence.
The prep year is so busy doing maths, reading, writing, sport, art, library, I hardly think she is going to get bored.
Level 15, I would start looking more closely at comprehension. After reading reader, questions about the book. Being able to read means nothing if you can't understand/retain the text you just read.
Please just allow her to be a prep and enjoy her schooling.
Our daughter taught herself to read sometime during her toddler years. We think around 2. Her preschool teacher is the one who picked up she could already read. In our defense, our son had been dx with T1 diabetes when she was 17mths old so our lives became consumed with just surviving.
We read to the kids every day to them since birth and she used to sit and watch while her brother laboured over his readers (he needed extra support).
I say all that to make it clear our daughter's language ability has come 100% from her. It's just the way her brain is wired. If your child is not reading novels by yr 1 it is not because you did something wrong!
School was a bit of a disaster for her. In yr one (the year she read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) it was decided to put her with the yr 3-4 reading group and give her different work to do. Shortly after that she started breaking down emotionally. She eventually tearfully asked why she was not allowed to do the same workbooks as her best friend which seemed like much more fun. So, the teacher decided to let her do pretty much whatever work she wanted to do at school and she read her own books at home.
My advice? Focus on the joy of reading. Focus on the joy of learning. A child who has a thirst to learn can achieve so much. There are online groups that provide support to parents of gifted kids. Have a look at Hoagies Gifted Education page. They also have a website. Good luck and enjoy!!
We now homeschool.
If your daughter is happy and keen to go to school, is making friends and fitting in then don't stress for now. If anything changes in her behaviour or attitude then yes I would address it. Just as I would with my kids who need support but in other ways.
Don't let people put you off from seeking access to an education that meets her individual needs, no different to my kids' needing accommodations for their individual needs.
Learning needs to be fun yet stimulating. Maybe leave it for this year but definitely keep a close eye on grade 1, that's when the differences in abilities are more apparent, as it's technically the beginning of school. Does the school do testing, to determine where each student is up to and to teach accordingly?