DD hates kindergarten!

[seekermage]

Help, any suggestions for how to deal with my dd who now hates kindergarten? She used to LOVE it and couldnt wait to go. Well they started "writing"and working on words and such and now she hates it. She has been having problems remembering and learning all her ABCs and thus is frustrated and hating school. We try working with her at home, and sometimes its successful and sometimes she gets frustrated. One day she knows a lot of the letters the next day she doesnt know half. The teacher so far isnt much help, but we have conferences coming up so hopefully something positive will happen. I try and talk with her and make everything positive, but it makes me feel bad that she is having such a hard time. What do you suggest?

I dread the thought that she will be held back and keep thinking its a possibility. She is sooo smart in other areas but for some reason just really having a hard time with the abcs and 123s. any ideas?

[kewb]

I would not wait for conferences. I would schedule an appointment now to discuss the issues your dd is having and work on a strategy with the teacher. Kindergarten should be a fun experience, even while learning to write, pre-reading skills & math concepts.

I would not pressure her into working on these skills. If she is having a problem now is the time to find fun ways of learning. If you apply pressure she may just dig in her heals and refuse to do it (I would have). You can bake things together to incorporate math -Bring mommy 2 eggs. Sort laundry-bring mommy 3 pairs of pants, etc. This way she is learning without you making her sit down and learn.

When my dd was 3.5 and was having letter confusion we would play a game on the alphabet rug in her classroom when I was dropping her off for a couple of minutes. All the kids who were there when I dropped off played, too. They would all stand around the edge (it was a circle rug) and I would call on one and they had to jump to the letter I called out. Some got it wrong, some got it right, everyone tried to help the one who was going in the wrong direction. They laughed a lot. Maybe you can do something like that.

[TiredX2]

Is this recent? Have you discussed this with the teacher yet?

When you say she is smart in other areas, but not in ABCs & 123s is she getting a chance to shine in those areas at school?

Would you consider homeschooling?

Do you have any reason to think there might be a physical/medical issue (needs glasses, ADD, etc...) that might be contributing to the problem?

Have you talked to any other parents? I ask that because a good friends DD was "failing" kinder and ended up going to summer school. When she went to 1st grade they found out that EIGHT children had been "failing" and she was the only one to go to summer school but all 8 were in 1st grade (and did fine). Sometimes a teacher is not very good at recognizing and communicating goals (and, IMO, if 8 out of less than 20 kids are "failing" there is an issue w/the goals, not with the kids).