Ready for Kindergarten???

[momofprincessyaya]

I have a 5 year old daughter who seems immature compared to the other kids in her kindergarten class.  She gets upset quickly and cries easily (when she does not get what she wants or have things her way) .  She does not try to be part of the group, but seems pretty okay just being herself and doing her own thing.  Out of school she is as sweet as can be.  The only problem we have with her, is that we have to tell her more than once, twice or sometime three times to do something.  When she gets timeout, she will forget that she was sent to her room for being in trouble and plays happily by herself.  I have even spanked her out of desperation, but that broke both of our hearts.  All she wanted was for me to hold her and tell her that I love her and kiss it better.  They use a green/yellow/red card system at school.  Since school started in August, she has brought home about 4 reds cards with notes from her teacher.  She hardly ever gets a green card.  According to the notes, she does not follow directions well, does not listen and disrupts the class with her crying spells and tantrums (usually when she is told to do something that she does not want to do or when she is not ready to put away what she is busy with).  When I ask her why she got a yellow or red card, she usually cannot remember.  It is as if she is in her own little world, moving around at her own pace and does not conform to the rules at school.  She talks a lot too according to her teacher.  When I talk to her about these issues, she does not seem to comprehend.  I have had two calls from her teacher and she is now consulting the school counselor.  I have an appointment with the school counselor tomorrow.  It's a hard to look at this objectively.  I don't know if I am not disciplining her enough, but neither timeout nor spanking seems to work.  We have even taken priviledges away from her, like her bedtime story and song, but that does not bother her anymore - she has gotten used to it.  The only other explanation that would makes sense, is that she is emotionally not ready for kindergarten.  I should mention here that she is physically smaller than 95% of the kids in her grade and I have seen other kids her age trying to boss her around because she is smaller.  Any advice is welcome.  

[yojojo12]

I dont think she is ready no. It sounds to me like she has a long way
to go, at least a year, you need to give her more time at home, encourage her to play some fun learning games, team work games, and social skils games. Being physicaly smaller then 95% of the kids in her class i should point out that there is a chance she may have either a growth disorder (such as dwarfisim), or Turner Syndrome. There are many other Disabilitys and conditions that can cause short stature horever, Turner Syndrome would also account for the emotional immaturity as many sufferes have lerning difficulties, and childhood ADD/ADHD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner%27s_Syndrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarfism

[bay0518]

my son has similar situation, too. I have another post in forum back to Oct last year after I got 3 calls from his home teacher. I spoke to his pediatrician, his after school teacher and even preschool teacher. None has similar complaint about him. I knew sometimes he could be stubborn, but he has been very well under controlled when I am around. However, things have been doing well after I told teacher that both pediatrician and after school teacher do not have concern about that and he might need some more time to get used to new environment. However, call comes again after he goes back to school in new year. Teacher once again suggests to talk to pediatrician, but I think sounds more like adjustment issue to me. Look like he is the slow adjuster, especially after longe break (more than 2 days). Any advice to improve situation like this?

[ruppert69]

Wondering what happened with your daughter. My daughter entered K this year and sounds very much like your daughter and her experience. We took our daughter out and are making her wait another year to give her more time to mature.

Thanks

[momofprincessyaya]

I forgot to mention that she has had 3 'accidents' at school in the past 3 weeks.  Something is up and I cannot place my finger on it.  I so badly want to help her.