Public School Panic

Okay . . . I think I'm now officially entering panic mode about Kindergarten next year.

No, not in the obvious 'when-did-my-baby-grow-up' way. But in the 'for-pete's-sake-we've-smiled-through-this-for-three-years-now' way.

Now, let me preface all this by saying that we don't think she's Stephen Hawking. I'm not saying that she's the most brilliant and/or advanced child to have stepped across the public school threshold. I won't even go so far as to say that she'll be the most gifted Kindergartener at her school next year. But, it's definitely no stretch to say that there's no worry of her being "left behind" (to borrow terminology from my least favorite Commander in Chief) anytime in the near future.

But, for 3 years now (since Anna Claire started in the 2-year-old room, 2 1/2 days per week at her former preschool), we've smiled and nodded when they (teachers, administrators, etc) outlined their curriculum goals for each year. Well, we'd think, yes she already knows all that (counting, shapes, letters, letter sounds, numbers, whatever), but she'll get socialization. She'll learn how school works, sharing, lines, taking turns, routines, order, working things out, etc.

My worry now is: how long does this continue?

Before you get the wrong idea, I'm not looking for her to be drilled, and pushed to her academic limits, and tested, and stretched on a daily basis. I'm not looking for any hard-core academics that put her on some sort of supposed fast track to Harvard. She's 5. I want her to play with learning. I want her to enjoy learning. Primarily I don't want to miss this opportunity when she's so excited to be soaking things up. I don't want her to get bored with school before 1st grade - we've got a looooong road of learning ahead of us for that to happen now.

This has all come to a head with a conversation with a friend this afternoon. Her son is already at the Elementary School a couple days a week for Early Intervention Preschool (only available to those who have documented delays, etc and need the extra focus to be ready and on equal footing when Kindergarten begins). They discussed some of the things that the current Kindergarteners are working on (and have worked on):

- They're just beginning Money. Identifying coins, etc. In and of itself that's alright. Except that we're 2/3 through the school year already. And you may recall Anna Claire expressing her quiet disappointment with the "George Washington" she received when she was 3.5.

- But more important, stressed the teacher/administrator is what they'll work on earlier in the year. Like for the first 9 weeks - the numbers 1-20. The first week is 1-5. Anna Claire has currently almost mastered counting by 5's to 100. She knows how to write them. She grasps what the numbers (counting and ordinal) represent. She's adding and subtracting.

- They'll work on beginning to identify the sounds that each of the letters make (after spending weeks reviewing the letters of the alphabet). Anna Claire began reading months ago (not Tolstoy, but she's getting those Usborne Phonics Readers down!).

Now, we're in a good school district. That's one of the reasons why we moved here 4 years ago. But, I'm beginning to think that that simply won't be enough. No Child Left Behind is very seriously proving to be turning out to be No Child Gets Ahead. And, now that I have one of those children who is ahead of the curve, it's no longer just an 'academic theory' argument for me. It's truly scaring me to death . . ..