What to know in Kindergarten?

Question

What is a kid supposed to learn in kindergarten? All I remember is dress-up, reading, and show-and-tell. It seems like a waste of time for my daughter. Will she actually learn something new in kindergarten?

Answer 1

yeah i remember taking a nap.. and playing and stuff.. but my son learned a lot.. they teach a lot more and faster now days.. So I think she will learn what she needs to to get to first grade and be prepared.. good luck

Answer 2

You'd be surprised how much the children are expected to learn in Kindergarten these days. When I went, it was half-days, I believe three days a week. My daughters both went all day, every day. My oldest daughter's teacher HEAVILY emphasized reading, and each day she would bring home STACKS of work sheets that she'd completed that day. They worked on high frequency words, then moved on to word families and such, and at the end of the year, she could read almost fluidly. At first I thought she was missing out on the "kindergarten experience," because there was almost NONE of the stuff that we used to do (sandbox, playdough, fingerpainting, etc). But she really thrived and learned a lot that year.

They will learn basic math facts, such as addition and subtraction. They will learn some basic Social Studies. (My daughter learned about George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and MLK Jr. this past year.) And they will experience a lot of socialization, which was something that my daughter really benefitted from this past year in particular.

So yeah, it's not the same kind of kindergarten we had as kids. Wait and see; you're going to be surprised.

Answer 3

I asked this question a couple weeks ago because I was worried that my daughter might not know ENOUGH! Everyone tells me that kindergarten is the "new first grade." At her school, it's expected that they leave kindergarten reading fairly well.

We've been practicing reading daily for months (she's moved from sounding out simple words to recognizing letter combination sounds like "ight"), we've been couting forward and backward, by 10s and by single digits, learning to recognize all numbers to 100, practicing writing upper and lowercase letters, memorizing our address, days of the week, etc.

Also, they're learning social skills. This is a big age for developing close friendships and starting to have sleep-overs and that sort of thing. I do know some people who are choosing not to send their children to kindergarten, but I think most kids really enjoy it.

Answer 4

In Texas, kindergarten is more difficult. Kids are reading by then end of the year. They also are doing addition and subtraction, have learned about different money denominations, doing some writing, building listening/reading comprehension, and are basically doing what used to be first grade work. Also, she'll learn TONS about how to behave at school and interact socially with her peers and teachers. You have no idea how much you learned playing dress-up, reading, and show-and-tell. Those are the building blocks for what you learn later in life.

Answer 5

My kids learned the alphabet and numbers 1-100 (recognition and writing) in terms of the basics. They knew that going in. What they really learned was the basics of school. They went to kindergarten at the school where they would spend the next 5 years. They had gym, music, art and health, they were assigned weekly jobs, they had some homework, and, most importantly, met the kids they'd be going to school with for the next 5 years. No matter how much you've exposed your child to, they will always learn something new wherever they go.

Answer 6

Kindergarten is different that it was years ago. Nowadays children learn how to read (that's the big one), count, and write. They're expected to know how to read about fifteen words, write their name and I believe a simple sentence. They also learn how to write and identify all of the letters. There's more too but I never actually taught that grade so I'm not exactly sure. It really gets them ready for first grade, which is actually difficult for some kids nowadays. The standards are pretty high!

Answer 7

We will be homeschooling our son this year for kindergarten. I found a great list on the world book encyclopedia for a kindergarten curriculum guide. I had forgotten some of the things they will/should learn. Here are a few of them.

* Interrelationships of animals and plants
* Classification of living things
* Choral reading
* Constructing visual images while listening
* Ordinal-cardinal relationship
* Number-numeral relationship
* Denominations of money
* Basic problem-solving strategies
* Basic chart and graph concepts
* Individual's role in family, home, school, and community
* Relationship of the individual to the group

Here is the link to the whole list: http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum/kindergarten

Answer 8

The biggest thing she will learn is social skills - and that's very different than just being around other kids in a play group or at daycare.
They learn colours, shapes, alphabet recognition and sounds, numbers, games, songs... it's a very valuable year. Don't think your kid is too smart for K - wait til the testing that is done in gr. 1 before assuming anything.

Answer 9

Today's Kindergarten could not be more different than the one you and I had as a child! It's incredibly more advanced. Gone are the days kindergarten was a glorified babysitting service; now it launches your child into elementary school reading, writing, keeping journals, and learning in every area of life. Childhood is now considered to be the optimal time, brain wise, for new thoughts and skills to develop; children can do so much more than we ever dreamed possible in the 50's. Today's educational process reflects that new information and really empowers the minds of children.

Here in my state of Texas children need to know their alphabet, their numbers to 50 and their colors too before even going into the local kindergarten program. They learn those things in a pre-school setting or at home from a parent.

Then, once there, Kindergarten teaches them how to write, how to read, how to get along with others, put away their toys, how to be respectful. They learn to function with Mommy at home and that other adults will lovingly care for them and that Mommy will always come and get them or be waiting for them. They learn to talk to adults like the nurse, they get read stories to in the library and they learn to check out books and lunches and have snacks and stay on a schedule. They learn to raise their hand and that what their neighbor has to say is also important. It's totally amazing what they learn!! Most kids that go in prepared ahead of time totally love it.

The highlight for us was when my daughter understood at last how to read and that she really could read for herself! It was fantastic. We had a big celebration to mark her milestone as a Reader and went out and got books that she would read to us night after night.

Kindergaren is a whole new world for the lucky children of today. Don't let yours miss out!

Answer 10

They learn how to read, some schools started teaching more advanced writing (like cursive), socialization skills, math, science, art, how to sit still and learn in school, listening to the teacher, preperation for 1st grade which gets much harder. Kindergarten today is much harder than it use to be.

Answer 11

It teachers social skills- how to interact with other children, sharing etc.
Emotional skills- how to control your emotions
Motor skills- running, skipping, throwing a ball, threading ect
Cognitive skills- reading, writting, colours, numbers, shapes

and many more, they are just off the top off my head. Everything a young child does is important and is a learning stepping stone in one way or another