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You probably know already that all kids are different, even siblings - it's just hard not to compare. It depends on what kind of kindergarden yours is - from what I hear it's getting more of a grade school in the US. My 5 year old dd's kindergarden is more of the traditional one - lots of crafts, some sounds, some numbers, but not like they already do worksheets and have tons of homework in some.

I think all the kids are going to even out by some grade - 3rd or so, those who were writing and reading at 5, and those who could write only a couple of letters. Another option is repeating the kindergarden if a child is really not up to the standard by the end of the year. This year, our school moved the cut-off age to December the 31st - so there were 4 year olds and almost 6 year olds at the beginning of the school year. What a job for the teacher to get everyone on the same level.

I wasn't quite comfortable at the beginning of school as my dd only could write her own name, and of course no sounds, but I am just amazed at the speed my dd is picking up - she tries to write already ("pllesopnmbnss" = please open my beans, she wrote it to dad asking him to open a can of beans). So her mind is working on sound recognition. Just the other day she counted to 100 - with me helping her at the turning points (30, 40, 50) - that was the first time ever.

She still has troubles writing lowercase letters, tends to write in caps, and very often left to right (backwards).

I don't know what the expectations for children are in your kindergarden, here they are not expected to be able to read or any hard criteria, very gentle.

If you want to hear from parents with school aged kids, or all kinds of kids, there is a forum I like - search City Data, the parenting forum there. Could get testy, but I got the idea about repeating kindergarden there. My son (who I also can't help but compare to my dd) is also a bit behind, but he's getting better (almost 4 so we'll see).

She writes right to left, I meant. Any which way, actually, to fit the page.

Thank You, in the woods! I know he isn't horribly behind or anything and he still has time to catch up. At his conference his teacher wasn't concerned but I guess as a parent I just worry. She did give me a list of things to work on at home and I guess that was a red flag for me because I have never gotten a list home for my oldest son...ever! I will check out that site.

In the woods is probably right on with kids evening out by grade 2-3. My mom said that when I was in primary we just played and had to know a few letters but my younger sister had to learn to read and write and we were even by grade 2. My oldest is in grade 1 and is ahead of where he should be but he loves to read and write. My middle guy goes next year and has some serious concentration issues. He knows his letters now and can count but he will never be ahead because he is not interested in reading and writing at all. I guess all kids are different but it is hard not to compare. My oldest is so well behaved at school but I know next year hell will be out for recess with my middle guy.
They also changed the school cutoff date in our province this year and my oldest ds is in a primary/one split and we have kids that are still 4 all the way up to 7 in one class. It varies from kids that don't know any letters and cant write to kids reading at an upper elementary level and a couple of asperger's kids as well. Oh and ds is at an upper elementary reading level but he still makes letters backwards and writes either really huge or really small. My mother in law is the resource teacher at his school and this is very normal and is writing in capital letter as they are the easiest to identify. She said as long as by the end of 1st or begining of 2nd grade that this stops they should be fine.