The Parenting Pod

It's getting to be that time again. The district that I teach in already has information posted on the website. But the district we live in hasn't posted anything yet.

When is your registration? What is involved?

Our registration started a few weeks ago. Basically just getting your name on the mailing list.

There is a meeting in mid-March with details.

I've got mixed emotions. I'm excited for Gavin, but it will bring lots of changes!

My daughter goes to a Catholic school. Parishoners got early-bird registration a few weeks ago, and now it's open to anyone else starting last week. We just had to fill out a 1-page form and send in the registration fee ($100, and $50 goes toward the first month's tuition). Then later on they had us come in for some sort of aptitude test, to make sure she was ready and just just see "Where she was" with stuff. There was an open house where we could walk around and see the different rooms, talk to the teachers, etc.

Registration has been open since the first of the year. All we had to do was call the school. There will be a Kindergarten Roundup at the Schools in March with a screening 2 weeks later.

Registration started here a few weeks ago, unfortunately for Memphis he missed the cut off date by a week! He would need to be 5 yrs old as of October 1st, and his birthday is the 7th! He'd be eligible for pre-K, but it's only twice a week, so we've decided to keep him at daycare and he'll start kindergarten in the Fall of 2011. I feel a bit bad that most of his buddies will be heading off at the end of summer, and he'll be left behind, but I'm hoping that in the long run, the extra year of maturity he'll have when he does go will help... I guess we'll have to wait and see! Plus, he'll be attending a french program, and although he understands the language, we're horrible at not using it much at home... this year we'll definitely have to get him practicing his second language!!

It could be worse - here in Missouri, kids must be 5 by July 31. Patricia turned 6 a week after starting Kindergarten. Fortunately, many of the kids in her class were born in Aug & Sept. But if we decided to move to most other states, she would be the oldest in her class. Missouri is 1 of 3 states with a cut-off date of before Sept 1.

Coming from a teacher, a mom and someone who has talked to a lot of other moms and teachers about the subject, I think your Memphis is REALLY lucky to have missed the cutoff! Daniel missed the cutoff by several weeks and is one of the leaders in his class - academically and socially. Damien's birthday is 6 weeks BEFORE the cutoff, so they had him slated to go to Kindy this past September. I held him back because, although he knew most of his letters and all of his colors and numbers up to 10, he wasn't what I thought of as socially ready to go. I think he would have done okay in Kindy, but would have fallen behind as he moved up in the grades. Besides, he'd likely always be the smallest, youngest, and last to do things - because he'd be a full year younger than a lot of the kids in his class! Can you imagine how big a deal it will be for a kid who can't drive until almost a year after most of his peers?!?

Anyway, I've seen so many positive maturity changes and even academic ones in Damien in this year of preK/full-time DC and I'm so excited for him to start Kindy. I've been told by many educators and parents that I will NEVER regret holding him back.

Anyway, back to topic... Damien is on the list for Kindy this coming year. We will get a boatload of paperwork in the mail next month and they hold a Kindy registration sometime in March or April where we go and they test him on his previous knowledge and physical abilities (fine and gross motor) so that they know, as a class, what kinds of needs the incoming Kindy kids will have.

He is SO EXCITED about taking the bus to BIG BOY SCHOOL with his brother. I'm so excited for him, too - unlike last year when the whole idea made me very nervous.

Oh good! That makes me feel alot better!

Glad I could help, Lena!

Our school district had a parent meeting about a month ago but I wasn't able to go. They sent a packet and all I had to do was fill out a simple sheet of paper and mail it back to get her registered. DD will be one of the older kids in her class since she missed the cutoff by about a month last year. I'm glad though because I've also heard it's way better to wait than start them and discover later they weren't ready.

I was the youngest in my class. My birth date was 2 days past the cutoff and in Nevada that is Oct 1. My parents put me in a private Kindergarten and the school did finally put me in 1st grade the next year after 2 weeks of my boredom repeating Kindergarten. I had no problems EVER socially or academically. It was never an issue that my friends could drive before me -I always had a ride and I didn't have to pay for the vehicle expenses (like I did after I turned 16). My best friend was 1 year 1 day older than me. Again, no issues with that. In fact, she would have excelled if she had been in the class before mine.

I do think that you have to assess each child as an individual and that birth date cutoffs should only be used as a general rule and not set in stone. Some kids are ready at younger ages than others.

1) You're not a boy - the driving thing is likely to be a very big deal to a kid who wants to date girls in his class and can't even drive them to the movies. When he graduates high school, he'll at least be 18. I was 17 until halfway through my first year of college.

2) I was one of the youngest in my class too and it was awful in some ways. (Now, it's kinda nice though - all my girlfriends are a year older than me. Most notably, being a full year younger than some of them, my physical maturity was always lagging behind during those very important tween and early teen years. You have likely no idea what torture I got over not having a bra yet in 7th grade. By 8th grade, I was just FINE in that area. LOL

3) Academically and socially, I was fine, too, but again, I'm not a boy. Boys lag girls (generally, not on a specific case-by-case basis) in maturity rates through many years of childhood and adolescence.

4) I definitely never said that I decided when my son was born that he should stay back a year before entering Kindy. What I said, and what happened was, I talked to a lot of people about it, assessed him according to my teaching background and Mommy intuition, and did what I thought was best. Again, I have polled people on this topic and not ONE who held her child back said she regretted it. I tutored many children over the years who had summer birthdays, though, and whose parents wished they hadn't listened to spouses and extended family who told them to put the child in school as soon as the calendar said s/he was ready.

I factored in a LOT of different background knowledge and advice before coming to a decision about Damien. I can't WAIT to send him off to Kindy now - prepared and ready.

Changing the subject a little, but I attended a fantastic workshop at the daycare last night about "getting your child ready for kindergarten."
It explained that way too much focus is put into academics... kindergarten teachers don't want your kids to know how to read and/or write or be able to count to 50 and tie their shoes. They went on to explain that children who are advanced academically tend to suffer "kindergarten burnout" and by the time the kids enter 2nd grade, it's impossible to even tell which kids were "advanced" in the beginning. It went on to stress the importance of PLAY, role playing especially, and social skills. Also, things like being able to open a tupperware container or thermos is more important than being able to tie their shoes. Velcro exists - but alot of kids have a hard time at lunch when they can't get into their containers....
They talked about the big difference between a 4 year old and a 5 year old... and between boy's & girls.
Hey, I'm definitely no expert, so I always enjoy getting a professional's point of view. It gave me alot of food for thought and I was happy to have attended!

Interesting!

And I think that is definitely true - it's more about social skills and readiness to follow directions, etc. than it is about academics. And I do agree that the kids tend to level out by 2nd grade - EXCEPT...the ones who weren't ready to begin with have a very good chance of falling farther and farther behind as the years go on. The ones who showed up the first day knowing all their colors and letters will most often blend in with the kids who came to kindy ready to learn it all but didn't yet know it.

Good point about the lunch thing! One thing I want to teach Damien over the summer is to tie his shoes (if he doesn't learn before that time) but I'll make sure he can feed himself out of whatever lunchbox materials he has, too!

I picked up Braden's registration packet today. Our cutoff date is Dec 2nd, and he's 10/14, so we're starting him this year. We really went back and forth quite a bit, but ultimately I think he'll be too bored to do another year of preschool. so, I figure worse case, we'll pull him out and repeat if necessary. I have friends who have boy/girl twins that have birthdays in May, and they've already decided to hold them back, and they're only 2 1/2. We didn't decide with Braden until this year. Unfortunately, I think our friends are thinking more along the lines of how their kids will do in sports if they are a bit older....

I just registered my DD2 for Kindergarten this past Friday. I was quite surprised that they gave her a mini "evaluation" on the spot! I was definitely more nervous than she was! In case any of you want to prep for a "surprise" of your own, here is what the evaluation entailed....

She was evaluated by the school's reading specialist and the speech/language pathologist. She had to:
1) Draw a picture (of her own choosing) with crayons and then write her first name on the paper.
2) Say the letters in her name.
3) Look at 3 picture cards and point to which 2 rhymed.
4) Identify about 5-6 uppercase letters on a magnet board (not in ABC order) that the teacher pointed to.
5) Demonstrate how to hold a book in proper "reading position".
6) Name pictures on flash cards (about 20 everyday items - leaf, glove, gum, snowman, etc.) to check her speech.
7) Tell a story using pictures. She was shown 3 pictures - a girl waking up and stretching, then getting dressed, then eating breakfast.
8) Make a prediction about what the girl might do next.

As I said, it was nerve-wracking in the moment, but she passed with flying colors. Whew!