Anyone's child do Kindergarten twice?

[Anonymous]

If so, do you think it was beneficial in hindsight?

Ds went to private K as the youngest in his class (sept 27 birthday). He's also our youngest child and less mature than his siblings at the same age and also small for his age. His teacher thinks another year might help him grow and mature, especially since we are moving on to public school and the class/teacher, etc will be different.

Are there a lot of kids that do K twice? Does it really help that much?

[Anonymous]

A lot? No. However, I do know people who have done what you are considering and, in fact, a couple of days ago, I was thinking about doing it with my July bday boy. Turns out the private kinder/daycare isn't doing their program this year, but I was seriously considering it.

I think it works out fine when the child moves from one program to another schools program.

[Anonymous]

I hear of this a lot. Our preschool Country Day has a lot of kids do their kindergarten and then go on to another kindergarten. I think if you are even thinking that this might be a good thing, you should do it. I think it is hard being the youngest/smallest in the class and why put a child through that if it can be avoided. Your child's bday is so close to the dividing line and frankly he is over the line with a lot of schools so I would not sweat it.

[Anonymous]

It is always better for someone elses child to be the youngest not yours. Your kid will do well in either grade but more families are delaying k. This is the current trend.

[Anonymous]

I know my mother did this with my brothers. I wish I had with my daughter.

[Anonymous]

It is my understanding that if you are in MoCo and you do private kindergarten, they will place your child in the grade that his age mandates. There is no automatic placement in first after private kindergarten if your child did not turn six by Sept. 1. What parents do is start kids in kindergarten then later request that the child be advanced to first grade. Because of this, I do know a few kids who repeated kindergarten because either the parents didn't request advancement or the request was denied because the child wasn't functioning on a first grade level despite having completed kindergarten.

I had one of my kids repeat pre-k because he wasn't ready for kindergarten. It was a good decision as e is now a successful upper ES student.

[Anonymous]

This is not a situation where a mom is asking about 2x kindergarten for some kind of advantage i.e. he isn't born in May or June--this child doesn' t even make the cut for most private school. This is a no brainer to me.

[Anonymous]

But the child did make the cut off for public school (9/1). My understanding is that many principals will not allow a child who makes the cutoff for 1st grade and has already been to private kindergarten to repeat just because the parents prefer they not be young for the year. However, if they are special circumstances documented by the private K teacher or an outside expert, I am sure exceptions are made. I might contact the public school to see what the policy is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is always better for someone elses child to be the youngest not yours. Your kid will do well in either grade but more families are delaying k. This is the current trend.

there are plenty of us that didn't hold back delay whatever...my kids are the youngest-one is very small too-boys- and successful. Bigger doesn't equal smarter. If there is a legit reason to hold back then do so but don't assume "everyone" is doing it. K is no harder than it was, first grade is not hard either. It is so ridiculous that there are two year gaps between some of the kids...soon they will be 21 and finishing high school.

[Anonymous]

there are plenty of us that didn't hold back delay whatever...my kids are the youngest-one is very small too-boys- and successful. Bigger doesn't equal smarter. If there is a legit reason to hold back then do so but don't assume "everyone" is doing it. K is no harder than it was, first grade is not hard either. It is so ridiculous that there are two year gaps between some of the kids...soon they will be 21 and finishing high school.

[Anonymous]

I would hold him back. We are holding our child back, and yes, our DD was in private K this year.

Especially for boys, it's pretty common here to hold back Sept. and Aug. birthdays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

there are plenty of us that didn't hold back delay whatever...my kids are the youngest-one is very small too-boys- and successful. Bigger doesn't equal smarter. If there is a legit reason to hold back then do so but don't assume "everyone" is doing it. K is no harder than it was, first grade is not hard either. It is so ridiculous that there are two year gaps between some of the kids...soon they will be 21 and finishing high school.

OP said her son was youngest and immature. That's reason sufficient to repeat. PP, please get off the anti "redshirting" soapbox. Someone's kid has to be the smallest and youngest -- many rational people prefer that it be your kid and not ours.

[Anonymous]

Consider your child as the individual he is. The teacher's advice would weigh heavily in the decision, especially if you trust her opinion and value her experience. I'd never move a child ahead if the teacher did not think he or she was ready.

[Anonymous]

My daughter may end up doing it. She misses the cutoff for public kindergarten by 3 weeks, but she's big for her age, has a great vocab and good social skills. She's been in daycare since 6 weeks and is currently doing well in her 3's group at preschool, despite not yet being 3. So we may do private kindergarten at not-quite-5 and then see if she can enter public 1st grade at not-quite-6. If not, then she'll repeat kindergarten. (once private, once public.)

My brother was held back a year and started kindergarten late due to immaturity, though he had a June birthday. it was good for him, i think.

[Anonymous]

My DS has an June birthday. He did K at a private and then K again at College Gardens Elem in the Chinese Immersion Program. I had the option of having him start the program in 1st grade but I didn't think it would be a good idea to have him in class with kids that had already had a year of Chinese. In hindsight, though, I think he would have done fine.