Ready or Not, Here We Come!

When our first daughter started kindergarten many years ago, we felt that she was adequately prepared. By the end of her kindergarten year she had read at least 50 books by herself. Some were very short, but they counted. At that time I worked over 40 hours a week and really didn’t spend much time on her reading readiness skills. I just thought she would learn what she needed to know in kindergarten, and I guess she did.

I am sure things have changed since Sister Darling started to school, but I just don’t know how much. What do I need to teach DD BEFORE kindergarten? She is very eager to learn, and I want to take advantage of all the teachable moments. For example, a few days ago she wanted to work with rhyming words in one of her little books. The instructions said to circle the pictures that sounded alike. There were pictures of a ring, a king, a lady singing, and a clock. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Follow our conversation:

MD “Does king sound like ring?”
DD “Yes Ma’am.”
MD “That good! Circle them. Does ring sound like sing?”
DD “Yes Ma’am.”
MD “Very Good, DD. You’re right. Ring does sound like sing.” (Woohoo! I thought she was getting it.) “How about clock? Does clock sound like ring or sing?”
DD “No Ma’am. A clock sounds like this: tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.”

On another page, there were pictures of a clock, a sock, a lock and a banana. Again, she was supposed to circle the words that rhymed.

MD “Does clock sound like sock?”
DD “Yes Ma’am.”"
MD “That’s right. Now, does clock sound like lock?”
DD “ Yes, Ma’am.”
MD “Very good. Now, does banana sound like clock or lock?”
DD “ No Ma’am. A banana is very quiet.”

Too funny!

I am afraid that home schooling may be out of the question for us!