Is your child ready for 1st grade?

[dukeofhazzard]

I wasn't sure where to put this, but I found this to be a very thought-provoking article: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2011/08/31/a_1979_first_grade_readiness_checklist_asks_if_you r_child_can_tr.html

Is your child ready for first grade? Earlier this month, Chicago Now blogger Christine Whitley reprinted a checklist from a 1979 child-rearing series (http://www.chicagonow.com/little-kids-big-city/2011/08/is-your-child-ready-for-first-grade-1979-edition/) designed to help a parent figure that one out. Ten out of 12 meant readiness. Can your child "draw and color and stay within the lines of the design being colored?" Of course. Can she count "eight to ten pennies correctly?" Heck, yeah, I say for parents of kindergarteners everywhere. "Does your child try to write or copy letters or numbers?" Isn't that what preschool is for?

[swimming with sharks]

I KNOW I walked 2.5 blocks to school from the time I was in K/1st grade by myself. :yes No way would I let my 1st grader do it now. :no

[MomtoJGJ]

I would let Grace walk to school if it was only 2-4 blocks away. She does that in our neighborhood now. First grade is kinda our "mark" for that freedom.

Julianna is evidently there too. According to that list she makes the mark, but only barely at just hitting 10. She doesn't have 2 permanent teeth and she's not 6 years 6 months. Everything else she fits in.

FTR I would be considered a free range parent.

[mum2abby]

Yeah...my kids may never be ready for first grade!

Thankfully, we homeschool.

[abbiroads]

Some of those items are really weird. I know adults who don't consistantly know left from right!

[Sundance]

A few of them do sound weird, but they mark mental-readiness for reading. They make sure both sides of the brain are adequately developed, and that the connection between both sides of the brain is there.

I just not realized that there was a list in a blog post...I'm off to read the blog post now, I only read the list the first time.

[AngelaVA]

It's interesting the value in life skills and motor skills over academics. I do think it reflects a better balance of learning readiness vs cramming it down their throats. Six years ago was my last year teaching first grade and it was considered a red flag if they weren't reading already at the beginning of the year :-/ :no

[ReedleBeetle]

Isaac is not ready according to that. He has 6 or so of the things on that list. Makes me glad that we are gently and slowly teaching reading and even though we are doing formal instruction, it is more out of state mandate and boredom. :shifty

[jewelmcjem]

I didn't read the article, but teh things in the OP quote are required for Kindie, not first grade, here.

[Leslie_JJKs_mom]

hmmmm we homeschool and do part time public. She can read already and count to 100 or at least write it out on paper. But she still has training wheels. Oh LOL I forgot she is 6 years old.

[dukeofhazzard]

I didn't read the article, but teh things in the OP quote are required for Kindie, not first grade, here.

:giggle It was a list written in the 70's. ;)

[DancingWithElves]

I have just read signs of readiness for Waldorf first grade. I liked them a lot better :grin

[teamommy]

Some of those items are really weird. I know adults who don't consistantly know left from right!

True, but isn't that also a sign of dyslexia? Or can be.

---------- Post added at 09:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 PM ----------

I'm pretty sure that list wasn't universal. Especially the 6 years, 6 months part.

The cutoffs in many states used to be such, that children could start first grade at age 5. I did. Yeah, it might have been some time around when that list was made. ;) I had relatives with birthdays even in Jan. and Feb. that started at 5. Today's first graders may be as much as 6 months older.

But I do think it's interesting that K wasn't mandatory back then, and before then, and yet, our educational system is consistently worse than it was then. Lower literacy scores and having to re-normalize the SAT, just to name a couple of examples. (Of course there are many reasons why, yet sending kids earlier doesn't seem to have solved the problem).

The free-range comparison is crazy to think about. I do remember walking home from school now and then with my friends that lived close by, in second and third grade. I don't know any parents in my neighborhood that let their children walk, and the set-up and distance is pretty similar. Around town at other schools, I see a lot of parents walking WITH their little children (not a bad thing), but never alone. I don't know, I think hands-on parenting while they are little is good. There were probably more latch-key kids back in the 70's too, but most people don't think that is a great thing.

[joysworld]

Not according to that list. I was only able to check five things off the list. :shrug3 Fortunately, we homeschool ;)

---------- Post added at 07:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:05 PM ----------

I have just read signs of readiness for Waldorf first grade. I liked them a lot better :grin

Do you have a link:)

I will say, maturity wise, my ds is not ready for first grade, but academically he is. We homeschool, but so that is not an issue. If he were in public school, age wise they would put him first, but he would be so bored and get in so much trouble. So glad we homeschool;)

[Rabbit]

I couldn't reliably tell my left from my right until I joined JROTC in the 9th grade, and the sweet sergeant had to put a nickle in my left hand, to help me remember. Hours of nickle loaded marching later, I remember. Most of the time. Except when my husband is giving directions when I'm driving.

I do not have dyslexia.

[klpmommy]

I have a lot of trouble with right/left and it is b/c I am ambidexterous. I've talked to several other ambidexterous people and they have the same difficulty.

[MarynMunchkins]

My 4 yo meets 9 of those criteria, and has for over a year. :shrug Obviously, as my child, she's super brilliant. :giggle

It's interesting that I got a few comments about her riding the bus - that picks up in my driveway - with her older siblings. :think

[DancingWithElves]

Not according to that list. I was only able to check five things off the list. :shrug3 Fortunately, we homeschool ;)

---------- Post added at 07:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:05 PM ----------



Do you have a link:)

I will say, maturity wise, my ds is not ready for first grade, but academically he is. We homeschool, but so that is not an issue. If he were in public school, age wise they would put him first, but he would be so bored and get in so much trouble. So glad we homeschool;)

are you on my facebook? i shared a link from that blog today, and it's pretty well organized. you should be able to find it :yes sorry, i'm not on my regular laptop, so it would take a while to dig it up. but they pretty firmly stick with 7 yo, or as close to it as possible

[Rabbit]

Whether or not a child walks themselves home is a separate issue from latch key kids. Latch key kids go home to an empty house for two hours or more. They are considered high risk kids, and have very different outcomes from children who go home to an adult who cares for and about them. Yes, many latch key kids are total success stories and many supervised and beloved kids aren't. On the whole, latch key kids have less awesome outcomes.

Over the last 50 years, drugs and gangs have drastically changed the landscape in a lot of cities.

[Niphredil]

My four year old could pass all the academic standards listed, but not the social ones. Interesting how priorities have changed. :think Even leaking into our subconscious. I mean, I didn't point her, consciously, toward any of those things... and yet.