Finished Kindergarten

On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 01:08:00 -0000,
(Cindy Senger) wrote:

I know you didn't ask me... but, our cutoff date is Oct. 1.

Wow, that's our twins' birthday! That would have guaranteed them to
be the youngest for their entire school careers!

Our kids all have
June birthdays, placing them on the younger end of the spectrum, but certainly
not among the very youngest-- who, like yours, didn't turn five until K was in
session. My girls did fine both socially and academically.

Same here. My son had some attention span problems the first couple
of months, but he made a dramatic improvement in December and never
looked back. My daughter excelled from Day 1.

I was actually
kind of worried about the kinds of friends that they would make. But I spent
some time in each of their classrooms and they actually gravitated toward the
personalities that I really liked!! I know that won't last forever, but for
now I'm pleased to see that we have the same tastes!!

That's good news.

I can't believe mine are going into first grade, either. K still sounds like
they are little kids. First grade sounds like serious school!! Not that K
wasn't-- my how times have changed. One of my girls actually had the same
teacher for K that I did and I talked with her several times about how much
pressure is on the kids and K teachers now for them to learn the material.

I hate that there is so much pressure put on the kids these days. But
in our school, at least isn't coming from the teachers. My daughter
was in Room 21, and on the first day of school, her teacher taught the
class, "Room 21 is fun!", and it was, at least for my little girl. My
son's teacher was also great. I got to observe her a lot, since the
school strongly encourages parent volunteers in the classrooms, and it
was really obvious that she absolutely loved nothing better than
teaching the little kids.

I think lots of the younger kids do get held back. My girls both had lots of
August and September birthdays in their classes--kids turning five as K began
and in some of those kids, it really showed. But in others, they blended right
in. I have a good friend whose son will turn five on Sept. 30 of this year--
so he would be the *absolutely* youngest in the class. He is bright, I think
and has done a fabulous job at preschool. In fact, his preschool teachers
urged her to send him to K, but after talking to some K teachers, she decided
to hold him back, not really because he would be at a disadvantage going this
year, but because the thought is that he will have a big advantage going next
year. He'll be bigger-- a plus for athletics when he gets to high school if he
chooses to play. He's on the small side now. He'll have another year to
socialize at preschool and learn some things that he hasn't picked up that some
kids enter K knowing. (For example, at our kids school, they were separated
into "reading groups" during the first week of school based on whether they
could spell their first names and whether they could identify lower case
letters. The ones that could do those things were put in one group and the
ones that couldn't were put in the other group. That kind of grouping scares
me a little, especially so young, because it makes you wonder if any of the
kids could work their way out of a grouping. Okay, I'm babbling now, I'll shut
up!)

No, you're not. The idea of that sort of grouping sounds scary to me,
too, especially in a kindergarten environment. The teacher had better
be paying very close attention to allow kids to graduate out of a
group if their progress warrants it.

Ultimately, I think you have to look at your child and decide. My neice
was born on Oct.3 just after the cut-off date, so she was the oldest in her
class and she struggled in K because she was bigger (also more aggressive, but
that's another story) and because she got bored. So, I think she could have
safely started the year before and done fine. But, that wasn't an option.
Strangely enough, you can hold them back, but you can't have them tested to see
if they could start if their birthday is Oct. 1 or after. It's a tough
decision and its one I'm glad I didn't have to make after watching my friend
make it recently.

There was this one kid in my daughter's class that got me thinking
about this whole topic. He's an exceptionally bright kid who does
exceptionally good, even amazingly good, work. Every time I'd
volunteer in the classroom, I'd always make a point of stopping at his
desk to see his latest creation. I had him pegged as a true genius.

Then I found out that he was a full year older than my kids, having
been born in Sept., 1998. I can't imagine why this kid was held back.
He doesn't have any issues physically, socially, or academically, and
there's no doubt he would be doing fine in all respects as a first
grader. It seems unfair to both him and the other kids in the K class
to have him in there. Fortunately, he's a real nice kid, and my
daughter is pretty good friends with him.

I'm glad to hear that other moms and dads out there are sad to see Kindergarten
end. Yet another milestone...

I'm both proud and sad. Definitely a bittersweet time.

-Cindy (mom to Ashlyn and Allyson 6/99 and Jenna 6/03)

In article , lid
says...

On 5 Jul 2005 07:43:21 -0700, "Steph" wrote:

I'm right there with ya Seth! First grade! I can't believe it. It's
all happening too fast. I need to get back to work on that time
machine...

Stephanie
Jake and Ryan 9/3/99

I see your kids are less than a month older than mine. What's the
cutoff date in your school district? Ours is Dec. 1.

Our kids were both the youngest in their respective classes. I
noticed there were an awful lot of parents holding their kids back a
year to avoid having them be the youngest.
--
-Seth Jackson, proud father of Derek and Mariel(10/1/99). Pictures at:
http://hitmeister.home.mindspring.co...ypictures.html

Music links: www.mp3.com/SethJackson
www.mp3.com/loudspeaker
www.SethJackson.net

--
-Seth Jackson, proud father of Derek and Mariel(10/1/99). Pictures at:
http://hitmeister.home.mindspring.co...ypictures.html

Music links: www.mp3.com/SethJackson
www.mp3.com/loudspeaker
www.SethJackson.net