My kindergartner is behind

My daughter’s first report card this year was awful. She couldnt even write letters. I made a point of sitting with her every day, practicing extra writing worksheets I found online and coloring. Everything is a lesson! EX: How many strawberries are we eating? If i take away four French fries, how many will you have left? It’s now January and she’s advanced. Don’t worry mama. She just needs a little love and attention. She’ll get there!

Depending on what’s she’s struggling with. My kids learned with music, if they can have a dance party while learning they were down. I even broke out the disco ball. Or my daughter loved earning things or places to go. She won’t be behind for long it’s just a new thing, breathe momma!

The good thing is that its kindergarten. You can both fix this like you fixed getting out of that toxic relationship. My lo's school switched the name from needs improvement to something like learning or acquiring or something like that. The point is they are just learning.

Kindergarten is largely about social emotional skills and learning how to learn. The actual educational standards come with time. The first report card is more of a starting point to measure progress over the year and indicate a need for potential intervention services in the future. It isn’t about anything you may or may not have done wrong, it’s about how the school and teacher can help your child grow and learn and how you can support them at home! Do not feel guilty. You did not fail her. Children learn at their own rates, some kids enter kindergarten with no previous school experience who have never held a pencil before and some enter kindergarten knowing how to read. The range of abilities is so vast, please do not be discouraged! Use this as an opportunity to connect with your child and support them in the areas the teacher/ report card has shown as needing the most help!

Honey, it’s ok! First, I’m so glad you got out of that relationship. It’s only going to get better from here. And also, she has plenty of time to learn! You can work at it more over the summer too. Does your school offer any tutoring? Mine has some free of charge for the little ones. Maybe something to ask the school about? You’re doing great, mama!

Try starfalls.com that helped my little one.

I had my son watch nothing but fun educational shows and he’s doing well in kindergarten. She’ll get on track though. Hope this helps 🫶

Girl go to dollar tree & dollar general !! There’s so many crafty ways you can motivate her to learn certain things !! That’s how I loved learning when I was little !! Just make it fun 4 her !! At the stores they have plenty of activity books !! I get mine from the dollar tree !!🌲🫶🏼✨ She’ll be fine, just make it a daily habit 2 get some learning activity in !! Even when she’s watching her tablet, make sure it’s learning cartoons !!🥹🩵

On my rough days where I’m drained, my daughter loves Ms. Monica on YouTube !! She’s safe to watch.

Luckily it’s never too late to start. Find things that engage her interest and turn it into fun learning time ❤️. 10-15mins a day for kids that age is usually more than enough practice. She will get the hang of it!

Things that encourage my LO. The wipe off books to write letters, I had him focus on the letters of his name then moved on to the last name and then practice the rest and buy abc nuggets and will give him diff letters and talk about how letters look similar, like g is a o and j combine. I printed out upper case letters index size and lower case letters, I’ll hide the upper case ones in the house and he has 2 min to find the lower case matching the upper case letter hiding around the house. We do the floor is lava and I tape the letters onto the tiles and he gos to the letters and he has to say the sound of the letter or he melts lol I put them on the wall and we go over them every morning, I spell different words and we practice that word, we also practice that word in Spanish. We play I spy, look for things with words and find that word or something with that word like dog, we find games with the pic of a dog or the word dog. He has the letter game on leap frog that connects to tv

My son struggles with writing and fine motor skills. But just spend time with her if and when you can. We try to do 10 pages or different activities a day. Also about 20 minutes of reading. The reading is a blend of me reading and him reading the easier words or parts. But start with basics. She will pick it up, just give it time and repetition.

Is it really struggling when they are only five years old, though?

I don't feel like it's technically a struggle at this age. My twins don't start kinder until this August. They turned 5 mid-October. One twin knows most letters and can write a majority of them in some form. The other literally just asked this morning to officially learn. I've tried off and on without stressing on it since just being a human with tiny humans is enough for me right now. But the fact she actually asked to learn feels like an accomplishment. When they do write letters, it just feels like they are still building the motor muscle and arm strength. I have noticed over the last year that their pencil grip has settled on what seems to be their life-long way to write. I haven't at ALL showed them how b/c I know I do not hold writing utensils correctly. But without my interference, they've found the correct natural way everyone suggests people write. I think the comments about emotional and social growth is more the focus at this age.

I'm no expert, of course. Just observations of myself, my younger siblings, and their kids in my 42 yrs of life.

What is she struggling with? If it's reading, you can try watching alpha blocks on Netflix, toddlers Can Read YouTube (he goes over the letters sounds and more) and the duoABC app is a game style learning app that helps with sight words, letter recognition and more. For math, number Blocks is a good program. Also practice on Khan Academy. Writing takes practice too. Anything she is struggling with can be improved.