Early entrance to 1st grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did the Early Entrance to Kindergarten for my DS. He thrived in school and thankfully was tall enough that it was not an issue in sports etc. He is now a sophomore in HS and has excelled in all ways at school and socially. Know your kid. If he/she will thrive in the classroom by all means apply for the EEK.

He had to take a test and was observed by the school teachers before he was given admission. He knew counting, reading and writing before he took the test, but I do not think that is as important as the social maturity and EQ of the children.

I am not trying to be snarky but what advantage or positive outcome does he have, in the long run, by going to kindergarten early?

Being with peers at the same social and academic level (being challenged appropriately, alleviating boredom).

"All children-bright or otherwise-tend to learn best when they are appropriately challenged at a level for which they are ready. Achieving an optimal match between child and challenge is a test of its own for parents and teachers. Among the options that can offer appropriate learning environments to young children is early entrance to kindergarten or first grade, provided that the children are intellectually advanced and within 6 months of the usual entry age.

As one of several ways for providing for bright children, it is the least disruptive option from an administrative point of view. Unlike other forms of acceleration, such as grade skipping, early school entry enables children to develop stable friendships and avoids discontinuities in the curriculum. Among the most important aspects of acceleration are that it promises greater intellectual stimulation for children who would be bored with a program that satisfies other children of their age and it offers a potentially better match with their readiness for challenge and growth. There is plenty of evidence, as we shall see, that bright children carefully selected for early entrance tend to do very well indeed, both academically and socially."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did the Early Entrance to Kindergarten for my DS. He thrived in school and thankfully was tall enough that it was not an issue in sports etc. He is now a sophomore in HS and has excelled in all ways at school and socially. Know your kid. If he/she will thrive in the classroom by all means apply for the EEK.

He had to take a test and was observed by the school teachers before he was given admission. He knew counting, reading and writing before he took the test, but I do not think that is as important as the social maturity and EQ of the children.

I am not trying to be snarky but what advantage or positive outcome does he have, in the long run, by going to kindergarten early?

-One more year together with a sibling in elementary, middle, high school
-One more year post high school (as an adult,) to do what he/she wants
-Feeling like "I'm about a year younger but can still do the same as peers". Nice confidence boost.

For some kids, there is no detriment to starting KG as an older 4 year old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did the Early Entrance to Kindergarten for my DS. He thrived in school and thankfully was tall enough that it was not an issue in sports etc. He is now a sophomore in HS and has excelled in all ways at school and socially. Know your kid. If he/she will thrive in the classroom by all means apply for the EEK.

He had to take a test and was observed by the school teachers before he was given admission. He knew counting, reading and writing before he took the test, but I do not think that is as important as the social maturity and EQ of the children.

I am not trying to be snarky but what advantage or positive outcome does he have, in the long run, by going to kindergarten early?

-One more year together with a sibling in elementary, middle, high school
-One more year post high school (as an adult,) to do what he/she wants
-Feeling like "I'm about a year younger but can still do the same as peers". Nice confidence boost.

For some kids, there is no detriment to starting KG as an older 4 year old.

Especially when the difference is a matter of days or weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not really early admission by the way. Many states including New York cut off is calendar year. So October, November or December is regular admission.

OP is in Maryland. So, yes, it is early admission.

[Anonymous]

DS has several friends who did this and they all came from a Montessori straight into 1st.
One has an October birthday while the other two are summer birthdays before the cut off. One child would have to go through early entrance while the others would not but their situations are otherwise exactly the same.

One child, summer birthday, had a difficult transition but it's likely due to the difference between having more freedom in Montessori than in a public 1st grade. Your child would feel this whether going into K or 1st although the teachers in K might be more understanding because everyone is in the same boat.

In our public K they did have 15 minutes of play time at the end of the day. They no longer had this in 1st and there was much more seated work and the expectations for writing and sitting still were much greater.

[Anonymous]

OP, your child's first years in real school really set the stage for how she or he will think about school for a long time so you should try to do what you can to make sure it's a positive experience.
For the most part the Sept. and Oct. birthday kids we know who went on time had a great time in K. They were the role models and got lots of praise from teachers which gave them a lot of confidence. On the playground they led the games.

Of the young kids that year one had to repeat K and other was academically ahead and had friends but had difficulty with classroom behaviors like siting still which made her really anxious. My DD is that kindergartener and she's in 5th now and is still shaking off that bad experience.

[Anonymous]

Sorry OP I didn't complete the list. There were two other young kids, one who did early entry and another with a July or August birthday. The early entry girl is doing well. The July boy went to a CES so DD never seems him but we assume he's doing well too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not really early admission by the way. Many states including New York cut off is calendar year. So October, November or December is regular admission.

OP is in Maryland. So, yes, it is early admission.

But when they get to college I would assume you were left back. And you will be much older than your peers.

[Anonymous]

Why would anyone assume that? It's ignorance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not really early admission by the way. Many states including New York cut off is calendar year. So October, November or December is regular admission.

OP is in Maryland. So, yes, it is early admission.

But when they get to college I would assume you were left back. And you will be much older than your peers.

Lol, much older? Would you feel the same about a student who took a gap year? I guess they didn’t teach you critical thinking skills at your college.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/tab5_3.asp

5 states allow for a local decision on K entrance age. Wyoming is 5 years old by 9/15, Virginia is 9/30. Guess what every other state’s cutoff is?

[Anonymous]

^ sorry, I missed a few. Colorado (10/1), Connecticut (1/1) and Maine (10/15). So basically, only Connecticut has that official “end of the calendar year” cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, I missed a few. Colorado (10/1), Connecticut (1/1) and Maine (10/15). So basically, only Connecticut has that official “end of the calendar year” cutoff.

NY has 1-1 too. My sister is a 10-10 birthday and got pushed forward in NY and started college at 16. Granted she turned 17 next month. She stayed at home for college and grad schools. She was 20 graduate college and 21 grad school. In grad school was valedictorian with a perfect GPA and got published that year. Not everyone needs a gap year.

Folks in NY and CT are smarter I guess

[Anonymous]

We had this happen and my child skipped and went to 1st but we did it at a private school where if he couldn't keep up we could just move him back to K. It was the right choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, I missed a few. Colorado (10/1), Connecticut (1/1) and Maine (10/15). So basically, only Connecticut has that official “end of the calendar year” cutoff.

NY has 1-1 too. My sister is a 10-10 birthday and got pushed forward in NY and started college at 16. Granted she turned 17 next month. She stayed at home for college and grad schools. She was 20 graduate college and 21 grad school. In grad school was valedictorian with a perfect GPA and got published that year. Not everyone needs a gap year.

Folks in NY and CT are smarter I guess

NY is one of the local decision states. There's no statewide cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ sorry, I missed a few. Colorado (10/1), Connecticut (1/1) and Maine (10/15). So basically, only Connecticut has that official “end of the calendar year” cutoff.

NY has 1-1 too. My sister is a 10-10 birthday and got pushed forward in NY and started college at 16. Granted she turned 17 next month. She stayed at home for college and grad schools. She was 20 graduate college and 21 grad school. In grad school was valedictorian with a perfect GPA and got published that year. Not everyone needs a gap year.

Folks in NY and CT are smarter I guess

NY is one of the local decision states. There's no statewide cutoff.

NJ is also one of the early decision states but the dates are 10/1-10/31, so later than here. My October birthday girl started K early here but if we move to NJ to be near family it wouldn't be considered early.