entering kindergarten early

My son will be four in August and already knows many of the things
taught in kindergarten, according to book and web sites I have read.
He can read simple books, recognizing common words by sight.

We live in Massachusetts. Officially, he is not old enough to enter
kindergarten, but I think waiting another full year to start
kindergarten would retard his progress. My wife and I teach him at
home, but we both work full time. How we can we convince the school
district to let him enroll early? Should we get him tested by an
educational psychologist, and if so, where do we find one?

Beliavsky wrote:
My son will be four in August and already knows many of the things
taught in kindergarten, according to book and web sites I have read.
He can read simple books, recognizing common words by sight.

We live in Massachusetts. Officially, he is not old enough to enter
kindergarten, but I think waiting another full year to start
kindergarten would retard his progress. My wife and I teach him at
home, but we both work full time. How we can we convince the school
district to let him enroll early? Should we get him tested by an
educational psychologist, and if so, where do we find one?

To me, it sounds like a good preschool would be a better match. Your kid
will probably be too immature to deal with the 5 and 6 years olds in school.

I would try to find a good preschool sooner, rather than later. They
know more about development. They will be able to access the situation
than we are.

There is far more to kindergarten readiness than just reading.

Jeff

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
ups.com...
My son will be four in August and already knows many of the things
taught in kindergarten, according to book and web sites I have read.
He can read simple books, recognizing common words by sight.

We live in Massachusetts. Officially, he is not old enough to enter
kindergarten, but I think waiting another full year to start
kindergarten would retard his progress. My wife and I teach him at
home, but we both work full time. How we can we convince the school
district to let him enroll early? Should we get him tested by an
educational psychologist, and if so, where do we find one?

I'm not going to say much about this, although I could, but in my own
experience (either with my own or going to school myself)
Boys, especially, do far better when they do not start as early starters.
Boys do far better in school all the way through, just about, when they
start kindergarden already being 5 (or very, very close to 5)
The boys that I went to school with that were on the honor rolls all the way
through were almost all the ones that didn't start as early starters. The
ones that did start kindergarden early (started as early as 4.5 years old)
did fine, but they never seemed to be the ones that exceeded like the later
starters. With girls, though, it really didn't seem to make such a big,
noticeable difference.
In my opinion, boys starting earlier is not of benefit. They are not as
ready at such a young age. They do develop a lot differently than girls,
and at 4 or 4.5, they just seem to not be as ready. It's up to you, but I'm
almost positive that starting when he's older would be a far better benefit
for him. I also wouldn't try and "convince" the school district to do
something they do not do. Chances are they are not going to change things
just because you want them to. Find a good preschool for your son and let
him start when he's a bit older and far more ready.

My son will be four in August and already knows many of the things
taught in kindergarten, according to book and web sites I have read.
He can read simple books, recognizing common words by sight.

We live in Massachusetts. Officially, he is not old enough to enter
kindergarten, but I think waiting another full year to start
kindergarten would retard his progress. My wife and I teach him at
home, but we both work full time. How we can we convince the school
district to let him enroll early? Should we get him tested by an
educational psychologist, and if so, where do we find one?

we were given a list by our preschool about the different things for
readiness for kindergarten, only a quarter was academic stuff like you were
describing, the other quarters were things like emotional, social, fine
motor skills etc.

With a child who is so young for his school year anyway (assuming 31st Aug
cut off), going ahead a year would make him an awful lot younger than his
peers, I very much doubt he has all the emotional and social stuff in place,
even if he has the academic and fine motor skills. I wouldn't even consider
getting an assessment for a child this young, if they were in the 3-4mths
after the cut off date, then I might.

Delaying kindergarten start doesn't hinder at all, reading ability at age 4
doesn't appear to be related to ability at age 7, he'll just learn faster
once he his in school.

Anne

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
ups.com...
My son will be four in August and already knows many of the things
taught in kindergarten, according to book and web sites I have read.
He can read simple books, recognizing common words by sight.

We live in Massachusetts. Officially, he is not old enough to enter
kindergarten, but I think waiting another full year to start
kindergarten would retard his progress. My wife and I teach him at
home, but we both work full time. How we can we convince the school
district to let him enroll early? Should we get him tested by an
educational psychologist, and if so, where do we find one?

On May 23, 10:43?am, Beliavsky wrote:
My son will be four in August and already knows many of the things
taught in kindergarten, according to book and web sites I have read.
He can read simple books, recognizing common words by sight.

We live in Massachusetts. Officially, he is not old enough to enter
kindergarten, but I think waiting another full year to start
kindergarten would retard his progress. My wife and I teach him at
home, but we both work full time. How we can we convince the school
district to let him enroll early? Should we get him tested by an
educational psychologist, and if so, where do we find one?

I, too, would look into a really good preschool for him, although most
preschools don't get into teaching reading and work with things like
letter recognition - A - apples. kwim? My son tested over 6 years of
age for things like language and a couple of other criteria, but I was
really in no rush to see him gone every day, even if only for a part
of a day, and I was able to work with him on many things here. I also
thought about how once he started kindergarten, that was the beginning
of only having full days at thome on weekends, breaks and summers, and
then less, from then on out. Now, to detail a bit of the social
readiness --- think long and hard what types of things your child will
be exposed to once turned loose into a sea of other older children,
who may or may not have learned some mightily scary, or at least
questionable, words, phrases, and things from older siblings - it oh
so quickly reaches your child who has no clue what it means and
because they do not know something is inappropriate or wrong, they
come right out and share it with ya. Thank heavens my kids always did
and I was able to have a multitude of talks with them about those
things, but now that my third baby is also a fall birthday, I KNOW I
am STILL in no rush to introduce ALL of the world in kindergarten that
he will inevitably be exposed to. Even he will have these older
siblings by the time that comes around. You can be extremely surprised
at how lax other parents can be when it comes to inappropriate movies,
language, appropriate interaction skills, etc. I let my son stay the
night at a friend's house who has an older teenage sister when he was
in 2nd grade. My mouth hit the floor when he shared they had watched
one of the Scary Movie episodes. @@ I'm also still dealing with
allowing him at friend's homes when the parents are there and there
are baby-sitting aged daughters in the home as well only to call or
arrive announced for the pickup scheduling to find that my child is
now left in the care of this teenager that I do not know and without
my permission and without even ever being asked. Anyway, I have gotten
to rambling, but I personally feel that learning at home with you as a
parent would be much better than learning in a kindergarten classroom.
My daughter could also read some books prior to kindergarten and her
birthday fell AFTER the enrollment deadline. She is now in 1st grade
and reading over double the level of her peers and scoring on graph
charts as unrecordable out of range off of that chart in a few areas.
Our school ensures that a gifted child in any area is not held back
and required to remain in the lower range/level with the rest of the
class; instead, they give her her time with appropriate aids and
scheduled time. I wish that went both ways for those kids having
trouble, but instead they just keep pushing and pushing to force those
kids to catch up. Kind of sad really. To be called out of class
because you are exceeding expectations is great, but to be called out
of class because you aren't even hitting the lower range/level in any
given area for help is humiliating.

Beliavsky wrote:
My son will be four in August and already knows many of the things
taught in kindergarten, according to book and web sites I have read.
He can read simple books, recognizing common words by sight.

We live in Massachusetts. Officially, he is not old enough to enter
kindergarten, but I think waiting another full year to start
kindergarten would retard his progress. My wife and I teach him at
home, but we both work full time. How we can we convince the school
district to let him enroll early? Should we get him tested by an
educational psychologist, and if so, where do we find one?

I agree with everyone else that you should not be in a hurry to enrol your
child in school and that you should look into finding him a good preschool.

If you aboslutely think that he should be tested by a psychologist so you
can try and take on the Board of Education (or whatever it's called in your
area) then you can probably find one through the American Psychological
Association http://www.apa.org/. Here's where to find a psychologist in your
area: http://locator.apa.org/.

Also, keep in mind that a psychologist does more than test IQ and reading
grade, etc. They will additionally look at your child's emotional and social
development. They will look at the *whole* child, not just book learning.
Depending on all factors considered, you may find that you do not get the
answer you are looking for and that the psychologist will not recommend
early school entry.

On the other hand, if you wait a year, make sure that your child is well
socialised through contact with kids his own age at a good preschool and if
he does turn out to be gifted, whatever school he eventually ends up in may
have a programme for gifted children and within a year or two he may be able
to skip a grade *as if he had gone to school early* anyway.

They grow up so fast. Why make your child let go of childhood so quickly?

Engram

Now, to detail a bit of the social
readiness --- think long and hard what types of things your child will
be exposed to once turned loose into a sea of other older children,
who may or may not have learned some mightily scary, or at least
questionable, words, phrases, and things from older siblings - it oh
so quickly reaches your child who has no clue what it means and
because they do not know something is inappropriate or wrong, they
come right out and share it with ya.

I think this is very important, it's probably less of an issue at
kindergarten level, but if you start early and he keeps up academically, at
every stage he's going to be exposed to stuff he isn't ready for and even
within the correct year group, it tends to be the young ones that follow the
older ones. Right now, it may be just language you'd rather he'd not be
using, but in future, it will be smoking, bunking off school, a whole host
of things that you want to avoid.

Anne

On May 23, 9:43 am, "xkatx" wrote:
"Beliavsky" wrote in message

ups.com...

My son will be four in August and already knows many of the things
taught in kindergarten, according to book and web sites I have read.
He can read simple books, recognizing common words by sight.

We live in Massachusetts. Officially, he is not old enough to enter
kindergarten, but I think waiting another full year to start
kindergarten would retard his progress. My wife and I teach him at
home, but we both work full time. How we can we convince the school
district to let him enroll early? Should we get him tested by an
educational psychologist, and if so, where do we find one?

I'm not going to say much about this, although I could, but in my own
experience (either with my own or going to school myself)
Boys, especially, do far better when they do not start as early starters.
Boys do far better in school all the way through, just about, when they
start kindergarden already being 5 (or very, very close to 5)
The boys that I went to school with that were on the honor rolls all the way
through were almost all the ones that didn't start as early starters. The
ones that did start kindergarden early (started as early as 4.5 years old)
did fine, but they never seemed to be the ones that exceeded like the later
starters. With girls, though, it really didn't seem to make such a big,
noticeable difference.
In my opinion, boys starting earlier is not of benefit. They are not as
ready at such a young age. They do develop a lot differently than girls,
and at 4 or 4.5, they just seem to not be as ready. It's up to you, but I'm
almost positive that starting when he's older would be a far better benefit
for him. I also wouldn't try and "convince" the school district to do
something they do not do. Chances are they are not going to change things
just because you want them to. Find a good preschool for your son and let
him start when he's a bit older and far more ready.

I have to throw in my two cents here. There's a boy in my dd's
kindergarten class who was in her playschool class last year. He is
almost a full year older than dd, and in my opinion, quite ready for
kindergarten last year. He is quite obviously older, more mature, the
leader of the class, etc etc, which might be marvelous for some
parents. However, I would be thinking personally as his parent that
the class he's in is beneath him. He can obviously do the work, it's
simply boring, repetitious, and not worth doing. Therefore, he doesn't
excel because he knows he can do it and doesn't feel the need to prove
it. Not to mention, if you want to meet a kid who's going to lead the
others astray out of sheer boredom, there he is.

Stasya

Chris wrote:
On May 23, 10:43?am, Beliavsky wrote:
My son will be four in August and already knows many of the things
taught in kindergarten, according to book and web sites I have read.
He can read simple books, recognizing common words by sight.

We live in Massachusetts. Officially, he is not old enough to enter
kindergarten, but I think waiting another full year to start
kindergarten would retard his progress. My wife and I teach him at
home, but we both work full time. How we can we convince the school
district to let him enroll early? Should we get him tested by an
educational psychologist, and if so, where do we find one?

I, too, would look into a really good preschool for him, although most
preschools don't get into teaching reading and work with things like
letter recognition - A - apples. kwim? My son tested over 6 years of
age for things like language and a couple of other criteria, but I was
really in no rush to see him gone every day, even if only for a part
of a day, and I was able to work with him on many things here. I also
thought about how once he started kindergarten, that was the beginning
of only having full days at thome on weekends, breaks and summers, and
then less, from then on out.

The thought that comes to mind is Is he going to benefit more from being
at home or being in school? A lot of kids love school. They love working
with others their age. They love learning. They may be happier working
at school than being stuck at home.

The bottom line is what's best for the kids. In this case, going to
school *may* be better for the kid. Or it might not be.

Jeff

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