Do two years of K or two years of Pre-K?

[Anonymous]

I know some kids who did a year of K at one school (preschool's that offered preK and K) and then moved to K at their own elementary schools. It was fine.
But if you're really at sea, and you seem to be, listen to your child's teachers, who other than you and your partner, know her best.

[Anonymous]

We did an extra year of preschool with my son (as opposed to trying K and having him chance repeating it).

Honestly, he may have some inkling as to what happened (we had to keep him in the same preschool, so... it was less than ideal), but frankly I don't think he KNOWS he "repeated" in the same way that he would have if he had gone to K, and then watched all of his friends move on to 1st grade while he did another year.

I think it was the right choice for us. Perhaps the lesser of two evils.

In an ideal world, I would've liked to have him go to a different pre-school with a bit more rigorous pre-K program for the second year... but, other factors necessitated staying put.

[Anonymous]

We are in a similar situation. DS has Dec birthday and will be four (4 years 9 months) in Sept of next school year. He would have already done two years of Montessori preschool and will be ready (according to his teacher) to move on to the K class. We are planning to put him in K class at this school, and then likely put him in K in public school the year after (the year he would be scheduled to start based on his birthday). However, we don't reaaly know if it is the right decision to have him do K twice when he is already reading in preschool, but we also don't want him to be so much younger then everyone in his class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in a similar situation. DS has Dec birthday and will be four (4 years 9 months) in Sept of next school year. He would have already done two years of Montessori preschool and will be ready (according to his teacher) to move on to the K class. We are planning to put him in K class at this school, and then likely put him in K in public school the year after (the year he would be scheduled to start based on his birthday). However, we don't reaaly know if it is the right decision to have him do K twice when he is already reading in preschool, but we also don't want him to be so much younger then everyone in his class.

Based on what I know from our montessori experiences, I'd say doing K at montessori and then transferring to a K public class is just fine. Our montessori's K was extremely rigorous but in a non-structured way, if you get my point. K at the public level is more structured and although rigorous in terms of math and reading, cannot compare to the methods used in montessori. You child is probably a bit more independent and resourceful coming from a montessori, which would put him ahead of the game.

[Anonymous]

It does not sound like the case here, but be cautioned that if you suspect learning differences, holding a child back can disguise this in the early grades. It can make it very difficult to get support for the child at school because they appear within the norm for their grade. If there are truly learning differences, they will show up eventually and at that point you may have lost precious time.
Having an older child, I now know that the age differences that we fretted about way back when were really not that important in the end. OP, good Luck with your decision and I agree that if teacher thinks your DC is ready, consider going with that.

[Anonymous]

We are in the same situation DC birthday is late September and we have been debating what to do. We have decided to do another year of Pre-k at a different school and then k the following year. DC, who bright and does fine in prek but I feel will benefit from another year of Pre-k. I also do not want to have a stigma attached about repeating K.

[Anonymous]

I also have a late September bday and a boy and I am currently thinking this through. I know that I do not want him to be the youngest in his grade for more than academic reasons but also for social reasons--my brother was an August bday and one of the youngest in his class and he hated it..it wasn't that he couldn't do the work..he was a good student but he wound up being smaller for years so it affected him with sports and later he didn't have a drivers license when all his friends did. I think a lot of parents want to push ahead for financial reaons because you have one less year of daycare etc. but holding back when you are in the fall really isn't holding back. Anyway-I was thinking of preschool one year in one school and then switching and since this is my second, I really don't think he is going to get at three that he is doing an extra year.

[Anonymous]

When we were applying for a second year of K last year for DC with a summer birthday, schools told us no way-- if he did well in K the first time (he did, but was teased for being small) he was stuck applying for 1st.

[Anonymous]

Our school has a prek class, a k class and a combined pre-K/K class (1/2 pre-k kids and 1/2 K kids). Most kids do a year as a prekindergartener and a year as a kindergartener in some combination of those three classes. But some kids have gone to all three when they needed extra time. So while they are technically repeating something they are not repeating in the same class. You might look for a school that is structured this way.