Let Them Be Little

As an overachieving type A mother and a kindergarten teacher that wants everyone of my students to succeed, I find I have a hard time finding the balance between letting kids be kids and pushing them as far as we can. It seems that every year in school the bar gets set higher and higher for young students. I remember when I started teaching first grade, it was our job to get the kids to read in first grade. When I started teaching kindergarten we were happy to give the kids a solid foundation and get them reading basics- cvc words, sight words, and predictive text. Now in kindergarten, we are encouraged (not quite expected) to push the kids even further and have them reading complex text. For this to happen, kids have to come into kindergarten knowing all of their letters, sounds, and have an awareness of phonics and phonemic awareness. Can we get kids here. Some but not all. We truly will be pushing kids beyond their limits and would you rather have your child enjoy learning and reading or see it as a chore and a forces activity. I think we can push our kids but need have it well thought out and make sure our kids are ready to be pushed.
This holds true in sports now too. There are programs out there that get kids started doing gymnastics at birth and soccer at 18 months. By the time a child is in kindergarten, they play a different sport each season. I am a huge fan of getting kids active and I think sports are a great way. I choose to drive 40 minutes for a soccer program. It is not because I want my child to get a head start but more that I want her to learn how to play the right way, have discipline, and also have a lot of fun. Again, we can push our children in sports beyond their limits. Kids can keep going but we need to make sure they are learning valuable lessons and having fun.
So do we push our kids to their limits and beyond or do we let them be kids? I think we need to find the balance. We need to encourage them and push them but stay within means. Let them direct how far we go and always push them a little further than they want to go but at the same time never push them beyond where they can go. My rule of thumb is stop when it is not fun anymore. Revisit it later or try something new. A childhood is such a tiny amount of time in life but it molds these individuals for the rest of their lives. Find a balance in everything and maintain it.