[Bama Girl]

I got a new student on the 43rd day of school who had just been sitting at home with his mother and turned 5 on Aug. 27. His language is really delayed and he really only knows one color-orange, no letters, numbers, doesn't know the ABC song, etc. Our reading program is Reading Streets and it moves pretty fast. The other children already know all the letters and a lot of letter sounds. This poor child is so lost and I feel like I'm not going to be able to catch him up. He's out at least every other day (Mom is due with child number 4 any day now) and when he comes, he gets there about 10:15. The centers that I put out are challenging for my other students, but this child of course doesn't know what to do with the materials, so he's constantly messing up center time. I don't want to isolate him in his own appropriate centers, he wants to be with the other children. I put him on Starfall and the Waterford computers as much as possible. What would the rest of you do in this situation? I've already told the mom to be prepared for him to repeat. I can't refer him until he's been in my room for nine weeks! He's a behavior problem because he's so out of water!

[jacque/Wa/K-1]

Why did mom wait so long to enter him in K? Can you be honest with her and tell her he would be better off in a good pre-k program? I would approach her with how this present situation is not a good one for him---and may cause behavior problems that don't have to be there if he felt more successful. So sad to see this happen.

[Teachin in FL]

I am wondering if your school would let him come for a 1/2 day this year since he is almost definetly going to repeat. He will get the exposure and you can worry a little less about getting him caught up.

[Bama Girl]

Mom said that she lost his birth certificate and social security card and with being pregnant with four children, she didn't just go and get them. My Principal won't let us do 1/2 day and Mom doesn't want to pay for a preschool program. The good ones are already filled up by now, anyway. It is so sad for this little boy. His mother obviously doesn't have time to work with him and he comes in with his shirt buttoned wrong, shoes on the wrong feet, etc. I'll just do the best I can with him and have him repeat next year. I'm so envious of those of you who have the opposite problem-having children who are reading on a much higher level than the rest of your class. I've had that before and they just don't fit into any of your guided reading groups. Thanks for your input!

[SueHue]

I completely feel for you. Every year I have to deal with this type of situation. It creates so much extra work for me to prep and plan for this one child's learning needs. It's easy to feel a grudge. Usually in our area, these late starters usually are brought in by CPS. Or, the parent realized that they've been denied welfare money because their child just turned 6 and is not in school. Usually, they come in January or February when the rest of the class is working on blending or encoding. They can't even recognize their names. It is incredibly frustrating!

You just have to be really, really patient with this child. Make a simple goal for him to acheive. Look for preschool activities you might be able to do. Using tag board, make him a puzzle of his name he can work on when they are at centers. If your class is working on writing, maybe you could do something that is more appropriate - tracing shapes or squiggles to promote fine motor skills? Writing his name? I usually laminate photocopied pages, or stuff I've gotten from www.childcareland.com. No matter what, you are going to have to do some differentiating to keep him busy.

Have a conversation with the whole class to tell them he didn't start school on time, so he has to play catch up now. This gives you a chance to explain why he will be doing different activities than the rest of the class. I like to say, "He needs our help!" Let them know that they all need to learn (insert objectives here - the alphabet, learn to read, learn to count) in order to go to first grade, and he might not make it without everyone's help. Most students love to help or play teacher with students like this. If you have alphabet cards or number cards, have other students help him place them in alphabetical order. Ask them to listen to him sing the alphabet or to count.

Writing this makes me what to write to politicians. I feel like every child needs adults to put so much effort into their education. It should be divided between parent/teacher equally. In your case, when the parent is putting in maybe only 20% of that effort, to make our the student meet the end of year goals, we'd have to put in more effort. How can we do this when we have a limited number of minutes per day to be with the students? My district only offers half day kindergarten. We have 3.5 hours a day with our students, and the parents have 20.5 hours. It's frustrating, especially when you know you are being held accountable for this child's learning. What happens in these cases when you are receiving merit pay? I wish parents were held accountable as well.