Requirements for entering the 1st grade...

I agree wholeheartedly.

We have 2 kids, 5 and almost 3. K5 started for us this year. It seems like it's a pretty even split between kids that seem to always be doing something, and kids who's parents are letting them be kids.

We try to keep it to one extracurricular activity at a time, with a break in between. A 5 year old needs lots of time to play. We're pretty happy with the way things are turning out so far, both kids have active imaginations, and you can sit them down with a stack of paper and some crayons and they're set for a while. Our 5 year old comes up with activities on his own - a few months ago, he was really into fish, so we got him a notebook, and every night, we would find a different fish on the 'net, draw it in the book, and he would write the name under it. Now, we're into outer space. One day, he asked for some paper, next thing we knew, he had drawn all the planets and cut them out. We're doing a constellation every night.

Everyone's different. Some friends of ours are go-go-go, all the time, and their kids get bored if they aren't doing something or going somewhere. We're a little more laid back.

 

Inefficient use of space IMO, I’m a big fan of “when in doubt, leave it out”. It probably should have been 2 paragraphs, but it seemed like too much effort at the time. I tend to skip over posts that look too long, because I simply hate to read. At almost 40 now, I have never actually read a book in my entire life, it simply is not worth the effort to me.

 

do cliff's notes count as books?

 

I never read those either....it's only an english class for gods sake, just asking someone in the hall what the jist of it was always seemed to do the trick. The first sentance of most paragraphs is about the best I've ever done. In science and engineering, only the equations matter, the words on the page are just for the people who don't understand the equation. I think the people at work are starting to figured out that if they have more than 2 or maybe 3 important sentances, it's best not to try to email it to me

 

My turn for a rant:
Equating education with good spelling is, perhaps, a touch narrow. None the less the bar of educational success is usually set at that point by those who can spell, a situation that the rest of us find, well, for want of a better word, condescending. Spelling is a byproduct of Guttenberg and his movable type, an invention that demanded standardization throughout a book (though Caxton seemed to have ignored that rule at first). Before then the way one spelled a word was as personal and admirable as one’s calligraphy.
Good spelling is no more a demand of an educational imprint than several accepted patents; it may be a by product, indeed it often is, but the exceptions are legendary.
As for a 1st grader having to type his name........ I believe that if the school want it they should be prepared to teach it. The tendency to foister the learning process onto the parents with unreasonable homework schedules is becoming universal. The school have the child for most of the day, if they can’t teach him when he is well rested how are we supposed to do it when he is knackered? The child is not living to go to school, indeed it is the other way around.
How does one fix the problem? With four children shuffling through the educational system this is what we have done:
Schools admit to giving 10 min. of homework per grade level. Grade 1: 10 min., Grade 6: 1 hr.
Fine. I set a timer. If the child puts the head down then it is play time when the timer goes off. To hell with the homework! I’ll write a note happily. A note probably sodden with misspellings.
Kram

 

M-man you should have left the last sentence out. You needed to use some of your own products. NUANCE

Erich

 

logging on and using a mouse is pretty basic computer skills to acquire in Grade-1. I remember our oldest at 18months was starting up and shutting down W98 and her games - something my parents couldn't do at the time.

Our kids elementary school has 30+ W-NT machines for 200+ kids, and they seem to spending less time in the computer lab now (grade 2 + 4) than they did in Kindergarten and grade 1. There's some amazing educational stuff kids can get their hands on these days. I recall our son virtually disecting a frog online at 4yrs old.

My son (grade 2) wants updated network diagrams for the home network everytime there's a change. Some kids take to this stuff like sugar and Rescue Heroes.

We're only young once, no need to waste it on mini-adulthood.