Preschool or Kindergarten - Page 2

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

Originally Posted by eepster

It works great in kindergarten, and first grade. However, around 3rd or 4th grade the teasing starts. Often when they do well on school work or in sports it's attributed to their being older instead of b/c they worked hard or have talet. In junior high/middle school the kid starts to feel really odd when they hit puberty early. By high school their self esteem is shot, and to top it all off they reach the age where they can just drop out and get job in a much earlier grade.

Hm... some big assumptions here. What you say may be true for some kids and some schools. At our private school, almost all of the K students are late 5 early 6 when they start, so everyone is in the same place. And since teasing is absolutely not tolerated, its not an issue. DS will have to change to public middle school, but I'm thinking that if he doesn't make a big deal of his age, others shouldn't either. The flip side will be that DS will get his driver's license earlier than some of his classmates and that should make him more popular. I'll be more scared, but that's a different thread!

With so many kids starting later, I think this will become less of an issue. Which isn't to say that it shouldn't be considered in the grand mix. But, given that you are already into the year, I'm not sure trying to project what the future might look like should take precedence over the current situation.

[Ellen Griswold]

So, dh observed ds at school yesterday. I think we've both decided that we really ought to let sleeping dogs lie, even though we do have some concerns. We're also going to have to work on some more strategies for dealing with this other child who still seems to target my child some. But my child doesn't do a good job leaving him alone either. At this point, the move to another school or classroom would probably be so upsetting that it would offset any learning that would take place. He still needs a lot of redirection and there is some concern that he is, at times, bored. He actually seems to do better when there is less freedom, such as selecting from a variety of free-play activities. We'll continue to work on the reading readiness at home.

Thank you all for your opinions and advice.

[ChristaN]

I hope that works well for your ds. A number of us have our firm opinions on when children ought to start K (oftentimes influenced by what we chose for our own families), so I hope that this thread didn't get too derailed. Like I said in my op, your son isn't one of those kids who will be unusually old for K next year as he would have been a young kindergartener this year.

I wonder more about the families with kids who would already be on the older side for K who wait another year. For instance, my younger dd (who turned 8 at the end of Sept. and is in 3rd grade) has a little girl in her grade at school who will be 10 in four months. That is a huge age span for one grade and it does seem that some parents of kids who waited that long did so thinking that their child would be advanced academically in comparison to the others. I'm just not sure about that in terms of fairness to the child who is that much older or the other kids who are being compared to kids who are a year and a half older. Your situation, though, really doesn't seem to be of the ilk.

Is he going to be in K with this other little boy next year?

[Ellen Griswold]

Originally Posted by ChristaN

Is he going to be in K with this other little boy next year?

I don't think so, but I'm not entirely certain at this point. I know the mom (who is really nice, understanding, open) is looking at some other options. They aren't members of our church, (not a requirement for the school) so I'm not sure if they're just doing preschool here until he's ready for public school kindergarten. I appreciate your kind words and thoughts while we deal with this.

[pigpokey]

In Georgia, 1st is an entry level grade ... no K required. If it's the same in your state, you can always evaluate next summer.

My children are doing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I think the suggested praise rewards are a bad idea, it suggests telling your child how smart he is, etc. but the lessons themselves seem great so far. We're only about 1/3 through the 100 lessons. It does not take long each day. We are skipping the writing portion for now, and I am going to work on it separately after they are reading well.