How do late birthday kids do in school? (Fairfax County)
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Anonymous
| I am concerned about my DD whose December birthday puts her back a year. My good friend who is in guidance says the kids who start a year after at her school act out due to boredom and tend to struggle with having to re-do activities they have already learned. Any advice on this? Or how to make sure DD stays interested and challenged? |
Anonymous
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A "late birthday" is a birthday in July, Aug. or Sept. as the cut off is Sept. 30th. A Dec. bday child is just an average child b/c most of the kids are turning X between Sept (often held back) and May. Dec. would be right in the middle of that group.
So, I don't know what your concern is. I have a Dec. bday who is fine and happy and ahead in some subjects and on par in others. I also have a July bday child who is also doing fine (and is ahead in some subjects and on par in others). FCPS have some (repeat SOME) flexibility built into them. You won't notice it so much in the beginning of any school year, but they do notice different levels. At the least, you child will work by him/herself doing what is at his/her pace. At best, your child will go to pull-out small groups with the teacher or AAP teacher who will do more advanced lessons. A Dec. bday is not a cause for concern. |
Anonymous
| Most of the FCPS schools seem to work with your child where he or she is at within reason. They do some differentiation even starting in kindergarten. There are always some summer children who are redshirted, so a December birthday would not be that far ahead of everyone in the class. |
Anonymous
The cutoff is September 31 so my concern is that DD starting a year after her birth year starts. Meaning she will be in her preschool for an additional year possibly covering the same material twice. I have heard that some people start public school at the 1st grade level to avoid this as the kids are sometimes doing the same material three times at that point. |
Anonymous
| Yeah, we hear what you're saying, OP, but we're telling you, your DD will like be in the middle of the pack in terms of ages of her FCPS classmates. (Mom of July, Oct and Dec bday kids). Worry about something else. |
Anonymous
| There will be kids in her K class with fall birthdays before her Dec. birthday. There will probably also be a few kids with summer bdays who have been redshirted so she will most likely be in the middle of the class age wise. Let her have fun in preschool and don't push academics. If she knows her number to 20 and all of her letters (upper and lowercase) and the sounds they make, she will be good to go in K. There is nothing you can do about her birthday and when she starts K so relax. She won't be the oldest one. |
Anonymous
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I am confused by this thread.
A December birthday is on the younger side of average in terms of age. Your child will certainly not be one of oldest in the class, not by a long shot. |
Anonymous
(factoring summer birthday kids who started school a year later) |
Anonymous
| Boys may average summer to summer bdays making December birthdays about average age. I'd guess girls run closer to Sept to Sept bdays on average. Either way, a December birthday child may average a tad older but will have lots older and lots younger kids in her class. But I wouldn't go so far as to say December is "on the younger side." |
Anonymous
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I have an October kid who started K- DC is reading at 2nd grade - math at 1st grade (not sure about this one- could be more- the reading was assessed).. but there are a lot of skills learned at K and social aspects.. we had no choice due to bday that dc would be turning 6 shortly after entering k but it'll work out- if this above grade level performance remains- then dc will be in whatever the program for advanced kids will be in 2nd grade (or 3rd? not sure since we're not there yet).
We did consider private due to concerns like OP and frankly it seems like the curriculum is the same at this level- there is no compelling reason to go private .. every school differentiates at most for K.. which our public school does and I know dc is in a group of advanced readers (dc told me but teacher told me dc was one of 4 that are reading books). Basically, I wouldn't worry about it - dc is advancing outside of school but that's what dc did in preschool too.. just really curious.. must be dh's genes since dc has that jeopardy like skills that i hope for dc's sake stay.. we'll see.. |
Anonymous
| Op here, my question is not about age as DD will be one of the older children ( she will be 6, 3 months after school starts). My question is regarding how do children who have covered the kindergarten material from doing the preschool program for more than one year do during their kindergarten year? |
Anonymous
Op here, yes exactly, thanks for sharing. I keep hearing about going private to transfer into public 1st but we haven't decided. |
Anonymous
| But then wouldn't you have the same concern when entering 1st grade? This doesn't make much sense. |
Anonymous
OP- pp here- you'll do your own conclusion but private wasn't that advanced at K level that we just dropped everything- to put dc there for some advantage- plus if you read the boards a bit- some kids start off really strong and then can fall back to middle of the pack. My DC is at 2nd grade or so (for a K) but I'm not counting on this being the norm- who knows. If you are concerned about being bored etc.- why not supplement with a program like e.nopi or kumon (we do enopi- long story but we got a discount and we had the summer to try it= dc loves it and actually the teacher did say that dc might get bored in k- i really wouldn't say it as bored- it's more challenged.. but again, they do a lot of things in K that are well worth it- consider what we did- that's it.. We were there a year ago and I went so many school tours but the PS teachers summarized it best- dc is advanced but dc's ES was very good- no need to go private given curriculum differences and that we could always go private anytime- so far, i think it's working really well- the half mondays gives us time to add other things to do). |
Anonymous
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OP I'd guess that every single child in your FCPS K class will have done preschool fro more than one year before entering K. Our FCPS K has 125+ kindergarteners most can recognize most numbers/letters and some are reading chapter books. There's a very wide range. Your DD will likely be tested for her reading level and given books at her level. It's really what the schools deal with every day.
But from your original post, I don't know what either of these means: "puts her back a year" or "the kids who start a year after". |