Decisions Decisions Decisions

Last week I got a little discouraged when I was talking to friends about their kids preschool experience. I began to doubt the quality of education Justin is getting at his current school and I thought about pulling him out and finding another school. With kindergarten looming right around the corner I wondered if he’d be able to keep up with other kids if their curriculum is superior to the curriculum he is getting. And although we’re not sure that J is 100% developmentally ready for kindergarten we think he’ll be academically above preschool and won’t benefit from a third year. So our hope is to send him to kindergarten, knowing that he may have to repeat it if he’s not ready for the first grade. 

 

Of course that brings up a long list of things to consider; will he be sad when he sees his friends move on to the 1^st grade without him, should he attend kindergarten at another school to alleviate that problem, will repeating kindergarten create confidence issues, should we look into Montessori schools, should he attend a 3^rd year of preschool at a new school with a different curriculum that might better prepare him for kindergarten, should he remain in his current ECDD (Early Childhood Developmental Delay) program or should he join the general student population. 

 

Anyway, I thought about it more and realized that we're not getting daily updates so really we have no clue what J learns every day at school. And it's our fault for not asking. Of course I questioned are we as his parents doing all that we can. So I went back and looked at the monthly newsletters that J’s teacher sends home. It lists things she’d like the parents to go over with their kids to reinforce what they’re doing in the classroom. We’re doing some of them like his ABCs, numbers, and shapes but we haven’t addressed the President, states, or his phone number. His teacher also includes a calendar that has an activity to do daily to supplement concepts learned in the classroom. I’ve done a few but I’m not consistent. 

 

Yesterday I met with J’s teacher to discuss his progress report and some of my concerns. J continues to be at the top of his class and the teacher is very happy with his progress. The biggest hurdle she sees is his speech, although she noted it has improved. She stressed that academically he’s doing really well and knows things that some kindergartners don’t so she feels that once his speech catches up he’ll really take off. She gave me specific examples of how she introduces new concepts in class which eased my concerns that he’s not being held back by the curriculum. She was very open to sending me a weekly overview of what’s taught in class so that we can ask J specific questions about what he’s learning. She also provided me with a class list so I can go over J’s classmates’ names. I wish I would’ve asked for it sooner, especially since I loved that last year J’s teacher sent home a book with a picture of each child with their name so we went over that every night. 

 

The only thing I was disappointed in is the fact that they don’t focus on writing daily since I’ve been told that’s a requirement for kindergarten. But she said that kindergarten is when they start focusing on writing and that J’s tracing skills are good and he’s one of the better tracers in the class. That being said we are doing daily lessons with him; working on activity books to practice his writing, working on sight words, matching, counting and I’ve pinned several activities for him to work on to help get him ready for this next step.

 

Today we went to a preschool open house, on the off chance that J does need another year of preschool at a different school and because Nathan will be starting preschool in the fall.  Tuesday we're attending a kindergarten orientation at J's potential new elementary school and they will discuss kindergarten readiness, the kindergarten program/curriculum and special services.  We definitely need to get as much information as possible so we can make the best decision for J.