Kindergarten isn't what it was when I was a kid. When I was in Kindergarten, we learned how to share, our colors, and the alphabet. When our school system went to full day kindergarten in 2004-2005, I expected it to be tough, but I still thought it would be more of the same, with nap time and maybe an extra story thrown in or something. Clearly I was way delusional. Since Trout has a late birthday, we made the decision to hold her back for a year, sending her to a private, half-day kindergarten one year and then moving on to the full-day kindergarten last year. Oh, was I glad we did.
These days in Kindergarten, if you don't start school knowing all of your ABCs, in and out of sequence, upper and lower case; counting to about 30 or so; some basic set theory; how to write your first and last name; your phone number and address, you are already behind the day you start. Knowing this, and knowing that Little Man is going from preschool to kindergarten without the benefit of the extra time Trout got, when the Parent Bloggers Network asked for signups for Let's Get Ready For.... I tried to sign up for the Kindergarten book. Alas, the slots were full, and I didn't think too much more about it until they asked a second time for First Grade students to review Let's Get Ready for First Grade. I told them Trout is currently in first grade, and since the books are supposed to be for entering first graders and Trout is a bit ahead in school I wasn't sure if we fit the bill, but I was willing to take a look anyway. I expected that she'd know everything in the book already. I was delighted to learn I was wrong.
Let's Get Ready for First Grade, available from Cedar Valley Publishing, is a neat little book that introduces the concepts that students should know by the time they complete first grade. It is laminated so students can use a dry erase marker to answer questions and work on concepts over and over again. Inside the front cover is a list of concepts that students need to know coming in to first grade, and based on our experience they are spot-on.
Like the current county curriculum, the book emphasizes reading and math skills, and I wasn't surprised that Trout knew all those concepts, given the amount of drilling that goes on every day in school. What did surprise me was the information on science and social studies that the book covered, like the food pyramid (the new one, not the one we learned as kids), the major organs in the body, the concept of day/night caused by the earth's rotation, the planets in the solar system, and the names of the three branches of government. Thus far none of those concepts has been covered by our school curriculum, and it was nice for Trout to be able to work on them. The book did a good job, I think, in providing a good, high-level review of concepts needed by the end of the year.
So if you want a set of these books, go to www.parentbloggers.com and leave a comment as to why you need them in the announcement for the Let's Get Ready For.... campaign or mid-way through the campaign, and a winner will be picked at random at the end of the campaign.
That Trout is a pretty smart cookie. I mean fish. Whatever. I wonder where in the world she gets it? ;-) j/k
Posted by: Uncle Orca | April 11, 2007 at 11:08 PM