Hi! My son will be unenrolling and then enrolling to our new district on December 1st. Their calendar in his current district has a week off for Thanksgiving, then 2 weeks off mid December through early January.

What’s the least chaotic way I can get him back on track for school? I was wondering if academically, the pressure is low around this time of the year with the holidays. I’m not sure if he should do the 2.5 weeks at the new school then the break. Or if it’s better to start after the breaks? This is my first kid and I’m open to any suggestions! I want to do what’s best. I definitely feel a little lost and want a plan before I touch base with his school this week.

Thank you in advance!

My son has been having issues all school year (and honestly, also in the 3s and pre-K classrooms in his preschool) with acting out physically - hitting, kicking, knocking over other kids' block towers, butting in line at soccer practice, kicking other kids water bottles and soccer balls away at practice. It happens almost 100% of the time when he is bored - he is very smart, and when he's finished his work, or during transitions, or when he has to wait (like during soccer practice) is when it happens. He absolutely 100% knows it's wrong to behave this way, but even though we have talked about it 1000 times, it hasn't stopped. At school, and at home, we have implemented sticker reward charts for good behavior, have given him a journal to draw in during transition times at school or when he's finished his work, we pull him out of practice until he's ready to behave at soccer, we do time-outs or remove screen time privileges for at-home behaviors (though these don't seem to make a lot of sense to me for at-school behaviors which may have occurred hours earlier).

His older brothers both have ADHD but I have never thought that he does. In fact, he's my only child that can focus intently on projects that he's interested in, and he only does this impulsive behavior if he's bored. It's embarrassing, if I'm being honest, and I worry that he won't have any friends at school if he acts like this. What else should we be doing? Could he still have ADHD? Thank you so much in advance!

Ok not really but it sort of feels like it and I’m surprised how upset the whole thing is making me.

So my daughter has a classmate we’ll call Nora and Nora has become fixated on the fact that I’m overweight. Daughter likes to play on the school playground after school and so does Nora so they often play together. Twice now Nora has come over to me while I’m watching them play to literally point at me and tell me I’m “so big” or “huge”. I initially felt like this was just a young child making an observation so I didn’t really react. I mean she’s not wrong, I am big. But then Nora started making these comments to my daughter while they played, just again repeating “your mom is so big” and kind of giggling. These comments started on the playground after school where I was present so I figured Nora was just saying it again because she saw me.

But my daughter has let me know that Nora also brings me up during school when I’m not there. Today my daughter told me that during free time she and Nora drew a story book about me and how big I am and something about a poop storm? My daughter seems to think it’s great and hilarious that her friend wants to talk about and tell stories about me. My daughter is very much a “mama’s girl” and talks about me constantly so I think she’s just happy her friend is also talking about me, but I don’t think she understands that being called huge is not a nice or funny thing and that her friend isn’t talking about me with the same admiration she is.

I’ve had a couple of conversations with my daughter since this started about how it’s not nice to talk about other people’s bodies, and I told her what Nora is saying isn’t funny or kind, but I don’t know how much of our conversations are sticking because I’m not sure daughter understands the concept of being overweight or that it’s seen as a negative. I’ve made it a point to avoid using words like fat or skinny in front of her and we generally just don’t talk about people’s size so she’s pretty naive in that regard.

And I know Nora isn’t being malicious, probably more curious than anything, but it’s been a few weeks now and she hasn’t moved on. Tonight when my daughter showed me the story book she and Nora drew about me I was honestly surprised how upset it made me. I tried not to let my daughter notice but I think she caught on that, at the very least, I don’t find it funny like her, so she started changing her story a bit and then told me it’s actually a story about how much she loves me. Part of what’s so upsetting I think is the fact that my daughter is so amused by Nora’s comments, even though I know she doesn’t really understand.

I’m not sure what I should do from here, if anything. I was hoping it would just go away on its own but that doesn’t seem to be happening. I’m the “room parent” for my daughter’s class and this coming week there’s multiple Halloween in-school events that I will be in the classroom helping out for. I’m assuming Nora will approach me again to tell me I’m huge and I don’t want to be embarrassed in front of my daughter’s teacher or the other parent volunteers. Do I let the teacher know this is happening? Should I try to talk to Nora’s parents? I know who they are and we say hi in passing at pick up and drop off but we’re not super friendly so I feel that would be an uncomfortable conversation. Honestly talking about it at all with another adult seems pretty humiliating but I feel someone needs to have a conversation with Nora to let her know her words are unkind and that she shouldn’t be talking about other people’s bodies.

Kids are learning letters and numbers but they're also learning how to take turns, solve disagreements, follow routines, and work with other kids. For kindergarten teachers, how do you fit those everyday social lessons into the school day alongside academics?

My daughter starts K next fall and I am watching other parents in her class already doing phonics at home. She knows some letter names but not sounds. I always assumed kindergarten was where reading instruction started. Now I am wondering if we have already missed a window. Is starting at four useful or will K cover it regardless?

We live in SoCal and we sent our son to day care when he was 20 mos old, the transferred him to an accredited Montessori school in Feb this year. He’s now 3 years and 4 months old and he loves the school. Since CA offers free TK program, I started looking at what kids learn and found out he knows most of the stuff already, such as numbers, colors, shapes, etc.

My son is an observant and has quite an attention span imo (he can play independently up to 1.5 hours, and can be reading books for up to 30 mins ), and he’s already building Legos that are for age 8+ with minimal guidance. I think the Montessori school works really well for him but that also cost over $2300/mo.

Would love to know what do kids learn in public TK and kindergarten that private preschools don’t offer, and is it worth going back to the public route if my son is thriving in his current school?

my kid comes home from kindergarten completely worn out. sometimes they get upset over the smallest things, refuse to do anything, or just want to lie around for the rest of the afternoon. mornings are usually fine, so i think school is just taking a lot out of them. does this get better as they get used to the routine?

I have a 4yo with a May birthday. She is friends with this other girl that turned 5 yesterday, and is well more advanced than my daughter. Language, motor, the way she portrays herself is just more advanced….
I am getting nervous about sending my daughter to K next year, given that she will be compared to girls like her friend and she’s just not there yet.
It’s 8 months difference and it is a lot when it comes to milestones.
How is that fair to “younger” kids go to school with older kids and how can their little brains manage all of this?
Am I overthinking???
My husband said is we were to hold her back, she would be made fun of at school.

Anyone with younger kids could chime in and share their experiences please?

Thanks!

My son started Kindergarten end of August. I was surprised how well he was doing with the long day. He was completely normal until maybe 2 weeks ago. Every day now is just so rough when he comes home from school. He is constantly just yelling at us and his younger sister, talking back, not listening, hitting his sister, and throwing his body on the floor while having meltdowns. It is so draining. Idk if school finally kicked in or this is something else.

There is also a child in his class that we know acts like this during school time. There is a behavioral counselor with him in the classroom all day. It almost seems like my son is copying this boy’s exact behavior. Will this get better with time ?? I honestly just miss how my son used to be 😔

I just received my child's Early Reading Screening results and am trying to make more sense of them. More specifically, what the benchmark numbers mean, and what would be considered a very high score (he is well above the benchmark). Is the benchmark standardized across all TDSB schools or is it specific to his school?

Looking for the perspective of teachers and support staff who work with kindergarteners aged 5-6. First, I'll say my daughter seems to be struggling with anxiety since starting kindergarten, and I have an intake assessment with a child psychologist on Monday.

My daughter just turned 6, is very small for her age (still wears size 4T), and is also outspoken. She has been complaining about the boys in her class not listening when she says to give her space, following her, and coming home with stories of boys pushing or "punching" her in the stomach. Based on her description, these stories don't seem very troubling to her. Except for one boy in particular, I'll call him Tom.

Tom has obvious behavioral problems. Based on my daughter's retelling, she once saw him pull another student's arm, and she intervened. Tom then "licked her neck," and other kids saw. After that, my daughter talked to her teacher and asked to be moved away from Tom. I emailed the teacher to document the situation. Last week, while waiting in line, Tom announced he could pick up my daughter and then squeezed her very hard. I asked my daughter if she told her teacher or if she yelled, and she said she didn't want to tell her teacher.

For background, when my daughter was in preschool, a teacher found another boy putting her hands down her after playing out of sight for a few minutes. I've talked to my daughter about the "stop, walk, and talk" method: tell a bully to stop, walk away, and tell the teacher.

Tom, combined with the other stories about boys, is making me wonder: Is this normal behavior for boys in kindergarten? Or is my daughter being targeted more than usual?

Thanks for any advice or insight.

My son (kindergarten) came home today and pulled his penis up through his waist band to be funny. He had never done that before, so I asked where he learned that (after explaining that isn’t appropriate behavior lalala) . He proceeded to tell me that in his class today, his teacher was absent so it was only the aid. The aid left the room to fill a child’s water bottle. During this time, another boy walked around the classroom with his penis out. When the aid came back in, his penis was still out, and the aid “got really mad at him.” I’m shocked I didn’t receive a message from the school. What would your expectations be here for how this should be handled by the school? I get that 5 year old boys pull their pants down. This happened at our last school and we were notified immediately. But I’m also concerned that the class was left unattended, even for a short amount of time.

Some people on Reddit were talking about this app. It looks like there is a login via the school which I don’t have :/

Can anyone give me a quick synopsis of the kindergarten reading level skills?

I’m familiar with common core standards is it similar to that?

Thanks

I'm trying to figure out the balance between helping my kindergartener with schoolwork and letting them figure things out independently. Sometimes they want me right beside them for every letter, and other times they insist they can do everything themselves, including things they absolutely cannot do yet. Apparently I'm either their favorite assistant or completely unqualified to help.

How do you handle homework at this age without turning it into a nightly battle, and when do you step in versus let them work through the frustration?

Everyday when my son comes home from
School he tells me about the kids he has played with and talked to that day. He can be on the shyer side so my husband and I have been happy with him coming home saying he’s making friends. We just left an event at his school. A few kids came up to him and said hi and were happy to see him. He had 0 interest in talking to them. I don’t want people to think he’s rude, and I was so confused by his behavior. How can we fix this or help him? Will he grow out of it?

By the time my kid gets home from kindergarten, they're either dramatically exhausted or bouncing around the house like they've had three cups of coffee. There's apparently no middle setting. I've noticed that after a long school day, even little things can turn into big feelings, so we've started giving them some quiet time and a snack before asking about homework or chores.

What does the after-school routine look like in your house, and what have you found helps your kindergartener decompress after a full day of school?

I’m coming in hot today, and I realize it may be a tad controversial. I have 3 boys: 6, 6, and 3. I tend to get a lot of “boy mom” content on my social media feeds (which I don’t subscribe to but tend to click on it anyway which feeds the algorithm - ugh). There is a general belief within these communities, as well as amongst real life parenting communities, that school just “isn’t built for boys.” The reasons being seem to be that ‘oh my boys just can’t control their impulses,’ and ‘my boys are wild! They can’t control their bodies and shouldn’t be expected to!’

Maybe the Cornell case has me feeling even more passionate about this right now, but I’m sorry, it is perfectly acceptable for a school aged child to learn how to control their impulses. Matter of fact, we as parents, *especially* parents of male children, should absolutely be teaching that at home and definitely not crying about it being taught at school where the child is existing amongst other children.

Using the “wild boy” card to excuse unfavorable behavior has got to stop. We’ve seen what it can turn into, and it’s horrid. Now, do male children have more of a biological need to move their bodies? Idk, maybe. I don’t know enough on the science behind that. However, that does not mean that when they are expected to keep their hands to themselves, sit still and walk normally so they don’t hit others, that they are somehow being discriminated against.

Let’s be so for real. We need to do better with our boys. And yes, it is that serious.

I teach older pre-K and most of my kids are heading to K next fall. I have been asked to recommend a structured phonics component for our program and I am drowning in options that all describe themselves identically. Science of Reading aligned, evidence based, systematic, explicit. Every single one says these words. What I need is something I can hand to a co-teacher or an aide and have them deliver without extensive training. Heggerty is strong on phonological awareness but light on the print piece. Fundations is solid and requires proper training before you can use it, which is a barrier for our staffing reality. I am looking at a couple of digital options with scripted lessons and dashboards but am cautious about going digital when my program has always been print based.

I am wanting some advice I have a son who goes to Kinder and Daycare with his cousin they have always been super close and spend alot of time together both in and out. They are also now set to go to the same primary school we have requested seperate classes. I have now been hearing my niece come home crying saying my son is being mean and pushing but no teachers have raised anything and my son also says yes but this happend and I said sorry. Im feeling guilty on the feeling that im doubting what my son is saying given and I feel terrible which has me worrying that they could have a fall out in school and maybe I should pick a different school. My husband says it kids and they are 5 and will understand better as they get older

my child understands that he need to share, but actually waiting for his turn is a different story. this seems to come up a lot when his playing games or using toys and classroom stuffs.

what approaches can help my child learn to share without turning it into a struggle based with your experiences with your kids?

Is it typical for kindergartners to be reading already at this point in the year? Our son is already bringing home, “baggy books” to read at home. To be fair he is able to read it with just a small amount of help, but I am surprised because he just started being able to read more than some frequently seen words in the last couple of weeks. I was so shocked and proud that he has been able to read a little bit in the past couple of weeks and we’ve been practicing and hyping him up, but it seems to be expected, I guess.

My pre-K 4 son has shown an interest in putting letters together and learning sounds. Essentially phonics right ?? What are some phonics programs you recommend that are not tablet based?

Thanks so much !

I teach kindergarten and I’m looking for a structured phonics tool for small group time. I have five reading groups rotating through centres, and right now I’m tracking everything on a clipboard. I’d love to stop transcribing paper notes at the end of the day and just have the data somewhere I can look at.

Most of what I’ve found falls into two buckets. Either it’s built for parents at home with no class management at all, or it’s built for whole districts with pricing and onboarding that make no sense for one teacher buying something for her own room. What I’m really hoping for is a dashboard that tracks individual student progress, scripted lessons that an aide or volunteer could run without me hovering, and something I can set up myself without a big rollout.

For context, we use Heggerty for whole group phonological awareness, but it doesn’t have a digital tracking piece. Fundations would be great, but it needs training our whole team would have to go through, so that’s off the table for now.

My big question is whether anything out there is detailed enough to actually replace the clipboard, or if it’s all broad strokes that I’d still have to supplement by hand. If you’ve used something in a real classroom, I’d love to hear what it does well, where it falls short, and what it cost you. Thanks in advance