Q. Are there set punishments for set actions? Like hitting equals suspension, knife equals expulsion? If so, what would be the appropriate punishment for a kindergarten boy cutting off a little girl's ponytail?
A. No, there is no suspension handbook. There is an outline of the zero-tolerance policy on weapons and expulsions, but even this leaves room for explanations.
I am not sure if your little boy did this, or if your daughter had her ponytail cut. It should not affect my answer, either way.
A kindergarten boy might get suspended for this. It would depend on the principal and the situation. It takes some work to chomp through a ponytail. It won't usually take one quick snip. If the kids both agreed to do this, or if the boy held the girl down, this would greatly change the consequence.
All people, little children too, deserve to be heard, and the boy would have some explaining to do. This is an unusual occurrence, but it wouldn't go unpunished.
Q. We never did academic work over the summer, but I saw what happened this past year after third-grade summer and starting fourth grade. What should we do before fifth?
A. The entry into fourth grade often surprises parents and kids. The curriculum picks up and the children are expected to have mastery of certain aspects of math so that concepts can be developed. Before fourth grade, parents would be wise to make sure all math facts, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, are set and memorized. That would be a worthy activity all summer, simply a few minutes each day.
In addition to this, in fifth and sixth grades, those students who are reading books regularly (meaning 20-60 minutes a night) will begin to really pull ahead of their peers. Some kids who were early readers and started reading very young sometimes stop and other children never quite catch the reading bug.
So, simply have your child read books and brush up on math facts, and fifth grade should be fine.
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