Kindergarten Schoolwork

Ella came home from school today with a notice about working on math during class. Apparently they are splitting up into groups to work on their math skills.

Now Ella's class is very good about making sure each child gets to work on the skills that they need to work on, but I think they are trying to learn too much too quickly. We're still working on identifying all the numbers. Now maybe I'm behind the times, but I'm more in that group of letting the kids be kids.

We chose to let her play instead of sitting her down when she was little and teaching her words, letters and numbers at a young age. We've been told she (and all the other children) need to work on counting (forward and backwards), reading all their "sight" words, and now math skills. They were previously working on shapes. We're not talking just basic shapes but more tricky ones. The ones that I don't even know. (I was horrible in geometry!)

I have no problem with them learning all of these things. It just seems that every week or so there's something new that we're supposed to work on outside of the class. At this rate we'll have hours of lessons that we need to work on and review. Repetition is very important at this age and they can quickly forget what they have learned if you don't continue to review.

Maybe it's just me and something I need to deal with. Ella doesn't seem to want to work with me too much and would rather play and work on her crafts. I try to find a good balance, but I find myself wishing it were summer break already.

Here's an article I found online that talks about parents, their children and how some have hired tutors for their preschoolers.

It's making me rethink the whole letting kids be kids thing and want to teach Sam some of these things earlier so he'll be a step ahead. I really don't want to go overboard though because I do think letting kids play and enjoy themselves is really important. How do you find a balance?