One thing to consider however is that no matter how many times we are told that letter recognition/sounds needs to wait it's an expectation in our schools for them to already be familiar with them. In our school district anyway.

In my area we have an extra "grade" that is pretty much between pre-K and Kindergarten called Transitional Kindergarten. Kids around here are expected to go to pre-K, then T-K and then Kinder even if none are required by law. Here when you enter Kinder the kid's are expected to know how to recognize and spell their names as well as the names of the letters in their names, their colors, shapes, counting to 10 by rote etc and I'm sitting here like ... what? Isn't that what Kindergarten is for? My 1st grade DS is full-blown reading right now and that's great and all but it was difficult for him. He had massive meltdowns at school because I don't think he was developmentally ready at 4 years old (in T-K) to have the rigidness of strict rules like sit still, stay in your seat, focus on your work, raise your hand before you speak etc.

So even though I do work on these things with my daycare kids I do it in a more relaxed way and play-based way because if I don't and these poor kids start school not knowing anything they're going to have a very rough time in school and will be very behind.

Reply