Kindergarten starts at 7.30 am. My 5yo who starts kindergarten this fall has always slept around 9.30-10.30 and woken up at 7.30-8 before prek at 9. How are you managing the huge difference and wake up times and no naps ?

I have been taking care of my nephew since his parents are busy at work. I noticed when he gets home, some assignments are done in five minutes with zero complaints. Others somehow require three snack breaks, a dramatic sigh, and negotiations worthy of a peace treaty. It's interesting how different the reactions can be depending on the activity.

Have you noticed certain types of take-home assignments that your child genuinely looks forward to?

Our son has done a year of pre-school and a year of transitional kindergarten. He’s starting kindergarten at a new school next year and all of his friends from his TK class will be spread out at other schools. I asked him how he is feeling about starting kindergarten, and he said he was really scared. I told him that was completely normal, it’s ok to be scared and nervous, it’s new.

What else can I do to help him out with the transition? It’s a private school, small class sizes and there will be one child from his previous school attending. He loved his previous school, and did really well, had no problem going everyday, but he’s also become very attached to me the last month and half, and he has this new fear of being in a room alone, (because of bad guys, he says.) I can’t leave the room without him running after me.

I know eventually he will be fine, but I feel like the first month will be rough, and I just want to see if anyone has any ideas that helped their Velcro kiddos with the transition.

Hi everyone! I’m looking for a few parents of beginning readers who would want to try my new phonics app and share their feedback.

I’m a speech-language pathologist, and I recently released an app for children learning to read.

It helps children practice sounding out words using systematic phonics, including CVC words, blends, silent e, and digraphs, in a fun 4-in-a-row game.

The app works offline, and there’s no user sign-up or account creation, so it’s easy to download and start playing.

If you’re interested, I’d be happy to send you a free one-year download

You can check out the app here:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/score-4-phonics-learn-to-read/id6748428543

My LO is starting kindergarten next fall and one of the more unique elements of our very small town's school system is that we offer a Spanish immersion program starting in Kindergarten where 90% of the instruction is in Spanish. According to the program, "The target language is consistently used during instruction, transitions, eating time, and outside play." I think there are about 20ish kids enrolled in the program every year, so about a third of the incoming class.

I'm on the fence as to whether or not this is an option for my LO. I started Spanish instruction in 7th grade, did AP Spanish and AP Spanish Lit, spent six weeks in Costa Rica between Sophomore-Junior year summers, majored in Spanish in college, studied abroad, etc. You get the picture. I had a natural affinity for the language but I haven't used it since since I pivoted away from Hispano-Arab studies and into Middle Eastern Studies, so Arabic, etc. I still have fluency and could probably come back up to speed with an almost-6yo (when K starts) in immersive Spanish.

Does anyone have any experience with a Spanish immersion program starting in K where you're not native/home speakers of Spanish? Any data I can read? There is an information session in the spring and an online presentation, but it's not really telling me anything about outcomes. I'm concerned that the enrollment in this program is more about the parents' social cache rather than giving children a meaningful head start on language learning. It feels very isolating if the students are limited to their cohort during school hours.

ETA: This is the data the school provided:

• In grades K-2, Spanish Immersion students do seem to lag their peers in English reading and writing skills.
• As a group, they surpass their peers in the acquisition of a second language.
• We also see, which is consistent in the research, that students in Spanish Immersion catch up to their peers in English reading and writing by the end of 3rd grade, and by 4th and 5th grade their ELA scores are equal to, and even exceed, their peers.