Hello everyone! I posted this in the general section because it doesn't concern CAKE!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!! 
sorry, lol
My 5 year old will be entering kindergarten this year in the fall and I was wondering if anyone knew what children do in kindergarten now. I was wondering, too, about sports. Whatever anyone has to say, that would be great 
!!!!
thank you 
i'm not completely sure, my boys are starting this fall too. i do know it's gotten a little more academic- they like them to ALREADY know the alphabet, how to count to about 30, be writing their name etc. any sports we've had the boys do has been through little league clubs. our school sign up for tball was in MARÇH, so we missed it.
My son is graduating from private K this year... they teach about everything because some kids go into K honestly not knowing a thing. So they start slow. I don't think they do sports unless you put them in Tball or something on your own.
As long as they know their name and how to count to ten and know their colors and basic alphabet, they should be fine. 
My son is currently in Kindergarten in public school in North Jersey. The things he has/is working this year: learning letters, high frequency words (commonly used words that they have to memorize as opposed to sounding out), beginning reading, patterns, beginning to tell time, beginning to count money, not to mention the socialization that takes place. I'm sure there's lots more but that's what I remember. He is only in for 3 hours everyday. he's learned alot this year!
Good luck to your son,
Cindy
What area are you located in? Actually I don't think that matters too much since the curriculum is pretty much standard in public school.
My son is about to finish Kindergarten. They do a LOT more now than when I was in K!!! First off, it's a full day and a full 5 day week!!! They want them writing a short sentence by the time the years up and they start on math and counting by 5's, 10's, and so on. They get in to beginning reading also...how to sound out a word. Many other things too that are basic.
As far as sports go, at least in my son's school, the most the K class does is in PE class. There's not much offered by way of sports through the school but there's plenty of sports activities through the YMCA, little league, and others.
Hope this gives you a little idea anyway. Oh and one more thing, you will most likely cry on the first day when your 5 yr old walks away from you into class. Don't worry though!!! It's VERY normal and almost every mom goes through it!!! Then after the "feeling of loss" goes away, you'll be running up and down the halls in your house jumping for joy because you have the house to yourself!!!! LOL (Unless you have a younger child still at home;o)
Hang in there!
blessings
elly
in private kindergarten you learn to write in cursive (you can only write in cursive actually) to count to 500 hundred, memorize bible verses, and spelling test (i could not believe that) and more stuff then i had to learn in kindergarten! i was a TA for two years at my old school 
He was in headstart, the reason behind that was b/c he'd been home with me and his little brother all his life, so I kinda wanted to introduce him to being around other children, but after a few months, I took him out.
The only things he learned was how to fight & pick even more, which I'm sure this lesson will continue AND he learned that the faster he "colored" a picture, the faster he'd get a piece of candy; and this was first thing in the morning!!! (and by "color", I mean scribble asap)
The teachers let the children run over top of them and the youngest teacher cared more about her cell phone than anything else.
I was very unhappy & told them, but didn't want to get too involved considering it was headstart and that's run by licking valley. The majority of the children there were the same outfit atleast twice a week, came to school looking like they'd never had a bath...I know it's not the childrens fault, but I just couldn't stand it!!!
I was wondering if/when/how tball went, etc. He's very intelligent, been "reading" books since he was 9 months old....so I was just wondering.
Thanks!!!!
My daughter is in Kindergarten (public school) and they started off a little slow to get everyone on the same page. They are reading short stories with words like "fantastic", "laugh", "surprise", etc. They have learned addition and subtraction of single digits written in math-form. They have learned to money (coins) and time. They are writing short stories; spelling is done by phonetics--which can be kind of interesting. 
(definitely not the Kindergarten I remember) We have no sports offered at the elementary school for this age. We do soccer through the city recreation department.
Hope that helps!
kos
I'm in kentucky, actually, and yes I do have a younger child at home, but I'll get rid of him the following year, LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow!!!!! Maybe I should start working with both of them since they will be doing so much!!!!!!!!!!
He can write all of his letters & a lot of numbers, but some of them he really needs to learn the correct way to write them. He has a problem pronouncing a few words, and headstart was supposed to work on that with him, but they never did.
I know I will be crying when that first day comes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks again everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My daughter is in Kindergarten this year and is learning everything cindww mentioned. The teacher just recently put them in reading groups according to level and they are now moving into the books with more than the typical 'See spot run' type.
The kiddos in Kindergarten typically sit at tables with other kids similar to pre-school and have circle time type activites on the floor. Because of this, the transition is easier than if they were expected to sit at a desk. Socialization with others and adjusting to the typical classroom environment is a major focus for them.
My daughter was in Montessori (much different approach to learning than your typical private or public school) prior to Kindergarten and we had the option to keep her there for Kindergarten, but chose to switch this year to make the transition easier rather than popping her in 1st grade where she would be expected to sit at a desk most of the day.
My daughter plays soccer in the city youth association, no sports at school at this age.
Oh and one more thing, you will most likely cry on the first day when your 5 yr old walks away from you into class. Don't worry though!!! It's VERY normal and almost every mom goes through it!!! Then after the "feeling of loss" goes away, you'll be running up and down the halls in your house jumping for joy because you have the house to yourself!!!! LOL (Unless you have a younger child still at home;o)
elly
Oh, that has me laughing!! How true!
One more thing mmdd, you can go online and find websites with preschool worksheets to get him started if you are worried. I have used this site with my four-year-old... http://www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolworksheets.htm
Thanks a lot, kos! I will be checking that out. I have two books here that are for preschool & kindergarten, but there's so many mazes in them!!! Do these children just sit & do mazes all day long.
Also, one more question.....................do they have homework in kindergarten???
We have homework! The teacher sends it home on Tuesday and it is due on Friday...the homework we get doesn't seem real challenging to me though.
We are required to read 20 minutes every night and turn in hars at the end of each month and the kids get a certificate for pizza or Mcdonals if they do this.
A couple of my friends get a calendar each month with a little something to do each day of that month, counting all the lamps in your house, ponting out items that start with a certain letter.
When I registered my daughter, I sent home with a calendar of differnts things to do everyday during summer vacation, to avoid losing anything learned or to help them prepare for info they need to know.
My daughter gets quite a bit or homework. She has to write a few sentences and do a bit of reading. They have us do time-trials on lists of 45 words a couple times each week.
Our school does a Kindergarten orientation the first week of May. They take the kids and have them answer a few questions: alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, so they get an idea where to place them. The parents stayed behind and we got the school calendar, PTO stuff, rules and regulations, etc. Pretty exciting stuff! Good luck!
Enjoy. Oh, and to feel completely lost-and-clueless the first year is completely normal!
kos
My boys are in 2nd and 3rd grade now will be going to 4th and 3rd next year. When they were in K they had homeowrk everynight but friday. We had to read every night for 30 minutes. Our school does offer sports soccer, tball, flag football, and basics of basketball. Everything involving the sports was done after school and no games during the week. My boys pretty much learned the same thing reading, writing, math. We were told this year that the lessons will be alot different next year for all grades. Meaning harder i guess. my son that is in third grade now is doing basic algebra and geometry!!!!!
We just went though screening with my son this week. He had to bounce a ball and catch it, know shapes, recognize and write letters (capital and lowercase), count as high as he could, write numbers 1-10, do some opposite word type things, know colors...things like that. It was pretty basic. Jordan is very shy, and it took him a while (becuae it took almost 1/2 hours for him to start talking to them!), but when we got in the car he said "Wow mom, I hope kindergarten is harder than that or I won't learn anything!
I know I had so many questions before my first son started last fall. They learn so much in such short time. They said that by the end of the year my son would be able to read a book! I was shocked. but they were right. Our public school is in a small community and it is a very close knit type of community. Sports are offered from different community programs. Soccer, T-ball, And even football, and wrestling, which is what my son participated in and was a great program. If you are really concerned that you feel you need to know more, call the school and set up a meeting with his teacher, or check into summer school programs, ours had a kindergarten readiness class they could take. Good Luck!
In the school district for our area, my son's class has been slowly learning to count to 100, they write in a journal everyday, they learned to tell time, they learn simple math, and no homework. The school does not want to have homework for kindergartners. It's almost like a school policy thing that they don't want the kindergarten class to have homework.. but I still try to work with my son on things.
They have gym once or twice a week, recess 3 times a day, they go to art class once or twice a week, and they go to the library once a week.
wow mouse talk about different my oldest son went to a different school than they go to now for his k year. and they had no recess and had pe everyday for like 30 minutes i think, and no naps!!!! the school they are in now my middle son went to k there and they got only one recess just like the rest of the kids at the school. and still no naps. my nephew is in 4th grae and where they are at the took naps in k and had snack tim up until 2nd grade. lol so in 3rd he was like what wheres the snack???
After I read through the whole topic I really have a question: You still talk about Kindergarten 
? If I understand it right it starts when the kids are 5 and last one year and then they go to school????
Over here Kindergarten starts with 3 years and you can go to preschool with 5. School sart is with 6 and before school they aren´t teached any kind of reading, maths or spelling. No to get me wrong, I think a little more "teaching" before school would be great. But i´t´s more common now to keep the children as long as possible in Kindergarten so many of them start school at the age of 7.
Now I know why the German school system has to be reformed.
I'm in kentucky, USA. You can put a child into headstart/preschool at 3 at the earliest. They need to go to kindergarten by 6 years, but MOST people, i think most people, put them in when they're 5.
I contacted my school and they told me that since my son is 5 and will be going to kind. that after 60 calendar days, I could remove him if I didn't think he was ready; and could wait to the next year, when he'd be 6. but they have to go when they're 6.
And, also kind. is "real school" over here. they're in the same building as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, graders.
I hope that answers any questions.
...to keep the children as long as possible in Kindergarten so many of them start school at the age of 7.
Now I know why the German school system has to be reformed.
Tuggy--that's why no one is done studying over here until they are 30 
We start 'em young in the States and most are done with Uni by 22, or 24-26 with a PhD/advanced degree.
Ours is the other way around: preschool is from age 3+ and kindergarten starts with 5+ but it only lasts one year and is actual school, just like the Grundschule.
Hope that helps clear it up a little
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