Kindergarten Round-up

So we took the boys to Kindergarten Round-Up today, to tour the school and get some feedback from the school and K teachers about whether or not to start the boys in school this fall. I debated taking them as we are leaning more toward the side of waiting until next year, but wanted to get some feedback from the school and teaches on this decision.

The school district sets Sept 1st as the cut-off, so to start Kindergarten this year kids need to be 5 by then. Well The boys turn 5 just fourteen days before that cut-off. Which easily makes them the very youngest in that class of kids. Its common for summer b-day kids to wait a year before starting school, which means some will be 6 when entering school and many will turn 6 the first couple months of school.

Now I understand every child is different and have no doubt that my brilliant ;-) duo could handle Kindergarten this year… they've been in structured daycare centers (full-time) with pre-school curriculum since birth, possess the necessary social skills and demonstrated their ability both by observation and testing. However, many elementary teachers have commented that the curriculum and expectations get significantly challenging at the 3rd grade level, and that even children who did well in the younger grades struggle as their brains are developmentally not ready for the concepts being taught. This can set a path for dis-interest in learning and a years of struggling in school. No parent wants this for their kids.

In addition, by waiting a year they would be at the same level or even at a slight athletic advantage with developmental coordination and experience under their belt. Whereas starting them in K this year would mean they are a year behind in development and exposure compared to their peers. The only athletic downfall to this (as Brad points out) is Junior hockey is based on age and they could miss out on a year of legibility in juniors after grad. Big whoop I say… They'll be playing D1 college hockey right out of High School anyway!

As you can see most signs point to waiting till next year… I can find many more pros to waiting than I can to jumping the gun. So we'll suck it up and foot another $15K (for real) to keep them in daycare this year. (Ouch that hurts when you put it in one lump sum- that doesn't include Brady either)