Kindergarten requirements tougher now? When is it too much?

I thought this when my son was in kinder last year. He learned how to read write and do math problems by the end of the year. Even some multiplication. Im worried for my other son who doesnt pick up so fast who will be starting kinder in sept. I dont think kinder should be so much. When he came home he has like 3 hours of homework. I think we are going to see alot more kid burn out and sooner.

In a way I have to agree with you. My son now 11 had the cut and paste kind of kindergarten. When my oldest daughter now 7 was in kindergarten I was shocked to seet hat she had to learn to read and wright before going on to first grade. At first I thought it was crazy but when I saw how well she caught on I didnt give it a second thought. She is now in 2nd grade and only gets 1-2 pages of home work a night that she does as soon as she gets home. That way she can have the rest of the night to play. My middle daughter had to repeat kindergarten because she just didnt quite get it the first time arround. They suggested summer school which she totally loved to help and then Kindergarten again. I have to say she is doing an excelent job this year. I am really proud of her. Honestly I have to say I am ok with now that I see that my kids can do the work with little assistance from me.

I heard that there are alot more requirements now.I have not heard anyone complaining about it as of yet. My son will be starting kindergarten this year and I am trying to prepare him by spending at least 30 minutes a day teaching him something new so that when he starts school he will be prepared. I think that he will be fine.

I agree it seems nuts, yet our children are so far behind other nations it makes me wonder what the problem is for sure! My kids are all teens, twins age 15 and oldest 17. I think the difference is that while they're pushing them when they're little, now that they're in high school it's just about the same as it was before, if not less harsh than when I was there.. at the same school even!

My son is in Junior Kindergarden, meaning he is 4. He gets homework. example: he will have to go over a page of sentences and circle the work "is" everytime it appears. I think it is ridiculous in my opinion. I can see teaching this in school but to expecthim to do it at home too at that age is not reasonable.

Yes, kindergarten kids have tougher requirements compared to our normal kindergarten days as you mention. For me, theres nothing wrong with it, I'm happy especially seeing a child very knowledgeable at a very young age, at least at that age, their decision making ability will be sharpened and developed. Even babies nowadays are very different from the past years due to the vitamins and milk formaula pregnant moms were taking and I think if children were nourished from his birth, he can coped up with his school activities and enjoy it... I too spend lot of hours at school before when I was a kid and I enjoy my school everyday with my playmates, what's the disadvantage is that I don't have enough time for my parents, I'm more closed to my classmates and teachers than my parents.

That is quite a bit of work. My son goes to public school and is in 1st grade. He has a few pages of homework, but it doesn't take him very long to complete. You are lucky your son gets "art, guidance, music, and computer" because my son doesn't. We pay EXTRA for those programs and they are all after school. In order to get the same cirriculum your son gets plus a few other courses, we would have to enroll my son in private school.

My kids arent in school yet but will be soon. My best friend has 3 older kids and she tells me all the time about how hard their school work is. They have atleast 3 hours worth of homework every night. The school even sends homework home for the PARENTS to do!...Her children are 8,9 and 11 and some of the work her younger kids bring home she doesnt even know how to help them with it she has to have her 11 year old help them! That's scary! Sometimes I think the schools might be pushing them too hard with that much homework every night!

As a kindergarten teacher, I feel I can offer a bit of insight. Yes, Kindergarten has gotten MUCH more difficult. This is fine for some kids, apparently like your son. Children who have been worked with, read to, taken places, talked to, etc. prior to going to school have no trouble keeping up with the advance curriculum. However, there are also many children who come to school the first time knowing nothing. Some haven't even been talked to much, because they struggle just comprehending basic talk. These kids demand much more teacher time which leaves the kids who can do it on their own with a lot less attention. My class learns to read and write stories, listen, do many different math concepts, and have either science or social studies every day. Be glad your son has extras like art and music. A lot of schools have had to cut these programs due to budget issues. For the whole problem, you can blame the US Government. No Child Left Behind laws and lack of funding have created a bad situation at a lot of schools. Where I worked there was no money for supplies (I ended up buying almost everything myself). There was no money for aide help even though, because of a lack of special ed. teachers due to budget shortfalls, I had many special ed. kids in my room without additional assistance. And then there's the push push to get these kids started early so that hopefully they'll all be up to what the government decided was 3rd grade level by the time they finish 3rd grade. Bottom line, our government has slashed funding and raised expectations sky high. Makes no sense, does it!

I know it seems like a lot but Americans are really behind educationally versus other nations. We really need to get more serious about educating our children or we will remain behind. I think its a good think NOW I do have a problem with them telling the kids what to draw, I think there needs to be a structured and unstructured drawing where the child exercises their creativity. I think thats important as well.

It is crazy. I grew up with the typical kidnergarten most think of, like you mentioned. When my niece went she was learning things I didn't learn till first to second grade. Thankfully she had gone to Pre-K so had some clue but they just seem to think kids automatically go to Pre-K and have that socialization down before entering kidnergarten, which isn't always the case. When she went on to the other grades some of them were good but others, the teachers just assumed they knew the basics. At least that is what I'm guessing since they never taught them it just had them start doing math that was higher then they were used to and had them doing "think abouts." For those of you unfamiliar with that term it means rounding and guessing. So if the problem is 18 + 7 you would do well 18 is about 20 and 7 is about 10 so the answer is about 30. It was designed to help them on the state testing. The same thing happened with English as well. We had to show her how to do things that they didn't bother to teach. My niece is now in 7th grade. Last year she was learning some chemistry in science. This year it is newtons laws and forces, things I didn't get till much later in school. In her first quarter of Spanish, they wanted her to write a poem in Spanish. They do not have a book here (not enough to go around so classroom editions only) for any class except Math and Science. All the others they do in class or they are sent home a worksheet but no book reference for them to check things out in. She gets on average for the week 10 hours worth of homework. Sometimes it's no homework one day but then the next she has 5 hours worth. On top of all that the teachers require that the students have access to a computer and the internet to do their homework, for the parents to access their grades, and in order for you to contact that teacher. I understand wanting the computer and internet access but with limited library hours after 4pm it's not easy to access from there so that means you have to have one at home. Not always possible for some in this area. Yes I think they are expecting too much from the students but also the parents. I know most parents are having trouble helping the child with the work. For most it was a while ago when we learned how to do the things and some of it we might not have learned due to how they are putting more and more advanced things onto younger kids. Added to that parents are expected to check the child's grades at least weekly via the internet. It's all a bit frustrating at times.

I think it varies by where you are. I have a 2nd grader & a Kindergartener. I know my younger daughter has no where near that much homework. She has a sheet or two M-Th. Neither of my girls have homework on Friday or over the weekend. It may also vary by how long your school day is too. None of our schools in the area unless they are private have Kindergarten all day. She does have art, music & gym. They do not go to the library until 3rd grade or so. She does have a "library" in her classroom & checks out a book on Friday for the week. My 2nd grader says she has never been to the library to check out books. She also gets them from her classroom. I think you have to be careful that they do not get burned out at such a young age. I do think it is important to learn & have some homework. It is also important for them to be able to have time to themselves too.

My daughter had to alreadu know how to spell her name sing her abc's and count to 20. Now i'm not complaining by any means but Thats stuff i learned in school in kindergarten! not at preschool or anything else...

I think this is really something we as a nation have to face. In the past, most of our economy was based on our industries, and not so driven on the digital technologies available to us today. There are less positions for trades like mining, textile producing, and others that require manual labor, meaning a high school degree back in the day will not prepare you for work in today's workplace. Our nation shouldn't complain when companies move their factories abroad to lower production costs. After all, in our capitalist society, it's one's prerogative to make more money. We have to step up and tell all the corporations that we, our children and ourselves are qualified to fill those positions. I wish I could have gone to today's kindergarten.

I do not have a problem with the work they are doing but it is not right to expect kindergarten grade 1 kids to do that much homework at night. A half hour tops for work at home, there is no need for that type of work load. Do you normally take 2 hours of work home with you at night not likely

I think the workload for kids is increasing but it's for a good reason, they have to remain competitive. That being said, I think every kid has reached the point where they don't like school and don't want to be there. That's why it's school and not the playground.

My son is also in Kindergarten, and is on vacation. Before school was out, his teacher gave the parent's a folder, made us sign stating that we got the folder, and in it was thirty page's of homework. This has been a great vacation, doing homework. I know it is for the good of my child, but give us atleast a week off, please.

As long as all the work doesn't make him dislike school, then I think it's a good thing. Contrary to popular belief, our elementary age kids are not behind other countries. It's in middle and higher grades where American kids fall behind.

Its funny that you mentioned that just today My son's kindergarden teacher asked my son to count by 2's and fives and for homework he had to do a book report. A book report my goodness I remember when I was in Kindergarden I was still saying ABC's geez he will be able to take our jobs by fifth grade. lol

Wow what happened to kids being kids? I don't think a Grade K student should have that much homework. That's really sad. Maybe 20 minutes of homework an evening would be suitable for them. Does your son like school right now? I hope he doesn't get overloaded.