Sunny Hill Elementary School: Master Minds at Play

I will start off by saying that my Kindergarten experience at Sunny Hill was filled with play time, nap time, tying shoes, coloring and learning my ABC's. For most off us learning to tie our shoes was the hardest task we had to overcome in our kindergarten days. Now days, so much more is to be expected of our children.

Being the mother of a Kindergartener, I know first hand how little play is allowed for our young developing master minds. At Sunny Hill Elementary School it is expected for a five year old to know her ABC’s and to recognize them and know what sounds they make before they enter school (according to my child's teacher). They are expected to do well on their spelling test the second month of school and to be able to read short stories. Now if for some reason your child does not catch on to these concepts by the end of nine weeks your child’s Kindergarten teacher may see fit, rather than help your child achieve these task, to tell you the parent that it may be best for your child to repeat Kindergarten. From what I can tell, teacher’s at Sunny Hill are far more advanced than back in my day. They now know 27 weeks in advance if a child will need to repeat Kindergarten.

After a raging conversation with your child’s principal over the issues you may have over your child’s teacher’s teaching technique you can expect to wait up to three weeks for the principal to address these issues with your child’s teacher and to set up yet another meeting with you. The promptness of correcting what may be a developmental delay (according to the principal) must not be an issue when a child is behind in class.

However, if you do agree that your child may be getting behind in class and could use a little more attention and you suggest maybe a special education class to help get your child back on track, you need to know that this is not an option for a developmentally delayed child at Sunny Hill. Special education is only used in extreme cases and repeating Kindergarten is not that extreme (this too is according to the principal).