Barbara wrote:

It's just that when people refer to 5 year-olds, I think most people
think kindergarten. But in school districts with later cut-off dates,
that's not the case. NYC still has a 12/31 cut-off, so there's a lot
of 5 year olds in first grade. When I was a kid in Philly, the cut-off
was 1/31, so first grade was 1/2 over before I turned 6. While I don't
advocate a lot of homework for first graders, I don't find it
unreasonable, either.

The cut-off date in Wyoming is 9/15, so most of our kindergarteners are
six here. And Kirk's mother (a school counselor) says that unless the
kids are six by -March- (the previous March), she strongly discourages
them from sending them to school until the following year.

Of course, now the kindergarten programs are full-day, not half-day, and
the curriculum is probably half-way through what I did in first grade or
so when I was in school.

It was kind of a funny moment, really. We homeschool, which my MIL
abhors, and I had commented negatively on the local school going to
all-day kindergarten. "Our kindergarteners have had full days for
several years, and they do just FINE. Most of them are reading by the
end of the year!"

I didn't, and haven't, pointed out to her that's because she -redefined-
a kindergartener to nearly first grade age.

Michelle
Flutist