Turkey Trottin' Running Mamas November Thread - Page 5

[Hollysmom]

Forgot to add, our cut off is December 31......

[elsasmomma]

I ran!!! It's true--just getting out there is everything. I had a monumental run this am, 39 minutes is all, but it was in the woods, and that just clicked with me. I'm back on track, at least for now. My goals for the next month are 4 runs of at least 30 minutes each week. Then I'm gonna train for our 10 miler in April again. I did it last year and it hurt, but perhaps better preparation will yeild better results. I'm typing all this and eating halloween candy Still, it was a great run, and I needed it.

[grnmtnmama]

just ran 30 minutes on the trails

our school cut-off is Sept. 1 and all of ds's little friends are a few months older than him so they all started preschool this year (at three they can start) and he wants to go too. but even though i think he's super smart and ahead with vocabulary and letters and so forth - he is all boy and i think an extra year will help shake out a few of the wiggles. plus i believe that kids should be kids as long as possible and their days should be filled with play learning as much as possible. i'm not that eager for him to go into 'no child left behind' land.

[Mommabelle]

I'm new here. Loftmama invited me over here awhile ago, but I've been shy! I used to work out at the gym all the time, but I moved and so things changed. Anyway I did actually start running again and I'm slow but it's pretty good actually when I do it and the time seems to go by really fast. I have a 6yo DD and 4yo DS. I'm having my afternoon coffee right now, but I need to get outside and plant those pansies I bought on Saturday!
As for running...today was a 30 min run.

[2babybees]

dd is also a November birthday(turns 5 in 11 days ). Cut off here is 9-31 but you can request kindergarten readiness testing if their birthday is before 12-31. Honestly if we had lived in a better school district I would have sent dd to school this year. She could have passed easily academically. However I am glad she has another year to develop socially although I also worry she will be bored. She is high needs, sensitive and going to be challenging. She has already mastered most of the skills her kindie friends are doing now and she won't start till next fall and likely be even farther ahead. We're praying for monster financial aid to the Montessori school or that we find an affordable school that I can live with till we can afford to move to a better dsitrict.

[Plady]

Argh!
I just wrote this long post and ~poof!~ it disappeared! I HATE that! :

Anyway, I wanted to join the discussion about starting kids in school and when. There was an article in the NYTimes about it a couple weeks ago, about how starting kids late is getting trendy. Here is a link to the article but now you have to pay to see it. Anyway, dd's b'day is Oct. 15 and the cut-off for going into the next level is Sept. 15. She has been at this school already for three years (which I can hardly believe) and she loves it. This year we actually bullied the teachers into letting her stay for an extra half hour for english class. We figured that her english is already fluent so she can be useful helping the kids who aren't and she loves school so much she rarely wants to leave when we go to pick her up. However I'm not sure that it will all translate into this being the equivalent of kindergarten for her in the end. And that does worry me a little. I can see that she will only be that much more prepared for "real school" if she starts kindergarten as a 6 year old (more or less) but down the road that means she'll start senior year of high school as an 18 year old. If I recall correctly I was ready to chew my arm off to get out of high school and my parent's house when I turned 18 and happily for me I only had 3 weeks of HS left. I can imagine the battles that will undoubtedly ensue about independence and responsibility that will take place over the 8 months she could be 18 and still in high school. Anyway, I'm heartened to know that there are real parents of teenagers who did this and still think it was a good idea and to a great extent it is out of our hands anyway, but those are my thoughts.

RR: um, nothing to report really. I zoomed through my leg weight work this morning to make it to therapy on time. I still have to do abs. I must remember!!!

Mandy and MissBliss, I am so sorry about your dhs. It is so hard and frustrating and irritating to live with a depressed man (I say that because IME women are a wee bit more willing to get help when needed). It just sucks, it sucks emotionally, physically, spiritually and financially to have a black hole where your partner is supposed to be. My dh was depressed for years and
he. would. not. come. to. therapy.
Then Wendy was stillborn and I told him it was now or never ("never" meaning he could not go for as ong as he liked but I would be gone) and he came. And I am glad that he is coming and is trying but there is still a little part of me that is irked that it took our child dying to get him to get over his prejudices and come fix our life. But I guess that's sometimes just how it is.

Okay, now I have to go, considering dh is gone to the States and I've got a full house here, I'm sure I'm shirking something!

[MonikitaUT]

For what its worth, I was the youngest in my grade in school (graduated at 17) and I had a few problems in kindergarten. There was a phase where I would cry and cry for my sister, who was in 5th grade at the same school, and the teacher would have to go get her out of class to calm me down. It was short lived, because they called my mom and she FREAKED on my tiny butt, so I was afraid to ever cry in class for fear they would call her again. But I adjusted, and had no problems with grades 1-12.

Livi is just barely past the cut-off, so we'll probably just have her in some sort of preschool for an extra year before she starts kindergarten. I don't think there is really any sort of rush, as long as she isn't bored and is still learning/being challenged. We'll probably just put her in private school for preschool either next year or the following year, and each year increase the days a week she attends so she gets used to it gradually before starting kindergarten 5 days a week. I think it all depends on the readiness of the child, not so much when their birthdate is, kwim?

[Geofizz]

November baby, here. I started kindergarten knowing how to read, but I would have started when I was 4, and I think everyone agreed that I was too young. My mom knew I'd be ready in January, so she asked about my just started then. She got the party line (if you only do half a year, you'll have to do a year and a half) only realizing later that I would have been evaluated at the end of that half year and promoted. Instead I stayed home until I was nearly six, started knowing how to read and talking to the teacher about negative and imaginary numbers and I sat in a corner with a teachers aid for three years because the teacher couldn't integrate me with the class. Finally I skipped 3rd grade which was painful in its own right.

Karen will be just barely 5 next year and she'll go to kindergarten. I think she's teaching herself kindergarten now and I worry that we'll just end up with a greater academic/social mismatch if we wait longer. Elliot, though, will likely start kindy at nearly 6.

[wawoof]

Great discussion about age starting kindergarten. To clarify, if E started Kindergarten next year, he would be starting at 4yo and wouldn't be 5yo til nearly the end of the year (April 9), so he'd graduate HS at 17. But California's cutoff isn't til Nov or Dec, so lots of kids start kindergarten at 4yo and turn 5yo sometime during the fall. What we're worried about if we wait til he's 5 is exactly what Wendy was describing with her experience - we don't want him to be alienated from his class because he's way ahead. I want him to continually be challenged and not to just coast or be bored or be singled out as a nerd because it's easy. Right now, he's challenged and doesn't "stand out" - but that's because he's doing the same stuff as the kids who will start kindergarten next year. Y'all identified one option that I hadn't considered - his montessori school does offer kindergarten, so he could possibly do kindergarten there next year, then start public school as a 1st grader. Hmm...

[HomeBirthMommy]

to the new Mamas! Welcome, we're glad to have ya.

Mommabelle-where in North Georgia are you? Mamabeth and I are in Alpharetta. I also have 6 and 4 year olds and just had a baby 6 weeks ago.

School-Johanna is going to be the oldest in her class. Her bday is 9/17 and 9/1 is the cut-off here. No exceptions. My dh was the youngest in his class. He graduated on his 18th birthday. He hated it in high school b/c he was the last to drive, etc. He always did well in school, though.

[wawoof]

Well, happy update on my antibiotics rant: It turns out G's daycare's policy is that to return to school, the child's runny nose must be clear, not yellow or green. Whether or not the chilid can return has nothing to do with whether s/he is on antibiotics. I think the teacher had mentioned the other child being on antibiotics because that happened to coincide with the child's runny nose becoming clear. Anyway, I'm glad G's school policy does not, as I had feared, encourage unnecessary antibiotic use.

[loftmama]

Mommabelle

Well, so I'm not the only one with a depressed dh, it seems. Ftr, I gave him the "I'm done" speech last week. Unbelievably, all of his frustrations, anger, animosity completely evaporated. I think he needed to know what my limits wre for taking on his emotional/professional/financial frustrations. The next day he went to Al-Anon and he's gone daily since. He has since thanked me for being gentle on him (for being a jerk to our sons) for being patient, he has brought me cards (which is almost heart-attack inducing.) I am keeping my appt with an individual counselor but I've punted the joint counseling. His mom and my mom all think I should get a job to ease the financial strain - but folks, call me mean, I will not enable him to continue sitting around reading the news while watching every single thing I buy and do. Aaargh! If he sits on his bum until all the money he has made from profitable business and real estate decisions then so be it. I'll go to work then! So I've basically just been watching the money run out the door and asking him what he was going to do about it. So... we'll see. He's looking for work now but he's done this before. He's back in Al-anon and he has a sponsor so phew!

Now on topic: I still have running on my calendar for next Wed morning but I'm motivated by something that 2bbs said - about it only being 30 minutes. So maybe, just maybe I'll go stretch my legs on the trail before that Wed. date. Hmmmm...what am I doing tomorrow?

[eksmom]

Lofty, and more to you. Join the club, honey. It's not a membership I would wish on anybody. Please feel free to email/PM or whatever if you want to talk. It sounds like he responded well to your speech... do you think it will last?

Holy moly, I feel like this : but I am thinking I do in fact need to keep my date with the TM tonight. Lots to think about. I am thinking of all of you mamas and families.

[mamabeth]

Originally Posted by eksmom

I am thinking of all of you mamas and families.

I second that.

Hi mommabelle! I'm the other Ga one. welcome!

re kindergarten--I like how Montessori does it...that would be my vote. Dd will just go on through and then on to 1st grade, hopefully. She is also pretty high needs and I would actually love it if her school added elementary and she could go all the way. ds will be pretty old for his grade but I'm just going to see how he does and hopefully do Montessori with him too.

take care mamas....leaving for tn tomorrow.

[Mommabelle]

HomebirthMommy I live in Buford. My husband workds in Duluth/Alpharetta area (P'tree parkway) and we are contemplating a move closer. We shall see. I might have "seen" you in the states tribes and that's how I found out about Dr. Kute. We go to her now. My other pediatrician tried to force HepA vaccine on my daughter and so I got mad and actually that's how I found MDC by looking for a pediatrician. I sure wish I'd found this site years ago..I had all these mommy friends doing babywise when DD was born and there was me silently co-sleeping and breastfeeding. I'm so happy knowing there are other MDC Mom's in the arera!

[Janessa]

running in the wind sucks. I got 2 miles in but was beat and blown around. Man how hard does the wind have to blow to blow me off track

I hope everyone can find peace with their kindergarten decisions. Shiah started this year and she loves it. I on the other hand lol struggle with it.

[PrairieBohemian]

just back from my 4th run in a year...

and I feel so flippin' amazing! I am so high its just spilling out of me! Is there a sunshine icon? I just want to spread this feeling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[aguacates]

On the subject of being old for your class: Dh has an early Aug. birthday and was always the oldest in his class. He was also super small for his age, and couldn't sit still, so his mom held him back a year. I think it gave him a really confident perspective towards school and social relationships. I have a mid-winter birthday, so was always smack in the middle of the ages, though I was also small for my age and couldn't sit still. And now we have one daughter(who surprise surprise is small and can't sit still) with an August birthday, and one with a Feb birthday . Although our local districted public school is so abyssimally(sp?) awful that we will either pray for private school scholarships, or do some kind of daycare and homeschool at night/on the weekends. Or hope that something else crops up or changes. To some extent I think that the social aspect of school is more important than the academic. Academics are easier to supplement if needed imo.

[Mommabelle]

Hi Loftmomma...good to see you
thanks for the welcome Mamabeth. Wow..2 GA Mom's!

[doctorjen]

Ah, the school issue. It seems like at our house we've spent a lot of years stewing over it! First, there was my late August boy. Cut off in IL is Sept 1, generally with no exceptions. He's Aug 24th. We debated holding him out another year, so he wouldn't be the youngest kid in his grade as that was what was trendy when he was young. However, he was already starting to read, and a very, very social little person. We had him screened for readiness, and the universal suggestion was to send him. He was always the youngest or nearly the youngest in his grade, and mostly did well. He was immature in a lot of ways, but very bright and always social enough to fit in well. He was the last kid to drive, last to be able to get a job, that sort of thing, but overall it was a good decision. He turned 18 a week before college started.

Then we have Catherine. She's a Feb birthday, so starting her early was never a consideration. She is also very bright, and went to a great preschool program that was part of her very good daycare center. She started kindergarten reading fluently, adding and subtracting, and carrying on conversations easily with adults. Public school kindergarten was disaster. She was ahead academically and terribly bored, and she was not used to having to spend significant time waiting around while the teacher helped someone else. (She went to a daycare center where the room was organized into interest centers where children could come and go from each center, having help where they needed it and being challenged by the teachers, but also she could easily choose a new activity or be busy when the teachers were needed with another child. Her kind. teacher was also clueless. When we had a meeting with her to try and find ways to make C. happier, she informed me I was not the first parent who thought their child was bright, and she wouldn't believe me that she was reading How she could have C. in her class for 2 mos and not figure that out is beyond me because she wasn't just sounding out a few words, she was reading short chapter books. C. started to refuse to go to school, actually, and would have to be carried in kicking and screaming. We finally salvaged kindergarten only by getting the teacher to let her read at her desk a lot of the day, and by keeping her very busy at home. My dh is a natural teacher, and taught her all kinds of math that year, and read science with her, and we helped her write stories, you name it. We moved during the summer after kindergarten, and we met with the principal at her new school to ask for help making first grade go better. She suggested we have academic testing done, and the she'd make some suggestions. She was tested by the school psychologist in language arts, reading, and mathematics and to his surprise, she tested at least 3rd grade in all subjects, and actually was successfully able to complete testing in reading and language arts through the 6th grade level. His recommendation was to skip at least one grade. Her principal was very accomadating and offered a couple solutions - skipping 1st grade and going to second, or staying in first but having an individualized program for enrichment. We worried about social skills the most, but the psychologist and principal both pointed out that she was socializing poorly with her age mates at this point anyway because of the intellectual gap, so they thought she'd do just as well with older children.
She went to second grade the next year in the end.
Up until this year, she has always done very well in school. Her elementary school was very nuturing and she was always placed with a teacher who the principal thought would do well with her. Sixth grade in the bigger middle school was also good, but this year she's struggled. The thing is, all of her (normal aged) friends are struggling, too. I think it's just a bad year. Dh went to conferences tonight and stood in line waiting with 5 or 6 parents whose kids were all having the same types of organizational issues (and these are all "gifted" kids.) Socially, she is not a child who makes friends easily. She tends to like to point out all the things she knows, which gets awfully old for other kids. If anything, though, I think it's worse with kids her own age. She's just such an intense person, and being very intelligent just makes her always have an answer for everything, and it's always been a struggle to keep up with her.

Of course our next child is another boy - a lovely, full of energy, can't sit still, boy. He's a June birthday. He started kindergarten as a 5 yr old, and despite being probably just as bright if not brighter as his older sister, his maturity level is such that he absolutely belongs with his age group. He has been blessed with teachers who understand about squirrelly little boys and who see that he needs to be challenged to stay involved. I just came back from his 4th grade teacher conference, and was thrilled to hear his teacher's thoughts on helping him work on maturity while not squashing his natural bubbly personality and enthusiasm. We've been very lucky in our little neighborhood school so far with teachers!

And my baby girl? She's only 3, and thriving in a 2 day a week preschool program. But she's already starting to "help Daddy read" and will pick out one or two words in a book and point them out every time they occur when he's reading to her. She has a memory like an elephant and has many whole books memorized. She understands addition and can add small numbers, and recently is bugging me to teach her "take aways." If she turns out to be like her intense older sister, I may just quit this whole parenting gig.

I didn't run again tonight - it just got too late with conferences. Sigh. Tomorrow, I'm taking older dd to older ds's college to see West Side Story, so I don't think I'll get a run in then.

RM - I ran like 13 miles in Oct. Blech. I'm way under my goal of 720 miles for the year. Like a 100 miles off the pace. I won't make it this year. Maybe I'll keep this goal for next year!