This age discrepancy due to "redshirting" is ridiculous

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm forced to hold DD back - her birthday is 10/15 and stupid ass FCPS won't let her test into kindergarten 2 weeks before she turns 5. Nope, let's waste an entire year and do NOTHING (with regard to her as she has to sit home for a whole year whereas in MOCO she'd be in K). Even if she reads, writes, adds, subtracts, they DON'T GIVE A F.

FCPS elementary school bureaucrats are the laziest bunch in the DC area I swear. God forbid they had to actually work a FULL 5-day workweek. God forbid they actually had to put some kind of effort into testing students to see if they are ready to enter kindergarten a couple weeks before their 5th birthday.

PP, there has be some cutoff, right? There will always be an issue whether the cut off is 9/30 or 12/31.

Are you more upset that DD will be at home with you? Or is it about learning. Because you could have enrolled her in a private pre-school and if she tested well, she could enroll in the kindergarten at age 4. Of course, pre-school is not free.

[Anonymous]

you want to hold her back this year? or next year? If her birthday is a year away then I wouldn't worry about it yet because she will change so much. I know someone in Moco who started their kid on time and then they were told by the k teacher to pull him out and out him back in preschool.

I don't want to hold back at all. I want her to go at age 5. At 3, she is reading and doing a lot of other skills and there are very few academic preschools so we will have a year of learning loss beyond what we do at home. If a child is doing basics of reading and writing and turning 5 in September, they should be going to kindergarden as many 5 year olds barely know their alphabet. A 11/1 cut off is reasonable to me, even a 12/31, but a 9/1 is way to early. I would tell that K teacher, my child is age appropriate to be here and maybe she should modify her teaching style to meet the child's needs better. We switched preschools from 2 to 3 and the difference was huge. We went to a more academic structured program and she just thrived.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its not "holding back" a child who is too young for the age cutoff. She is still preschool-aged. Send her to a fun play-based preschool-that's what is appropriate for her regardless of her mad subtraction skills.

I suspect you really just wanted the free public babysitting.

You may send your kid to school for free public babysitting, but that's not my goal. I love my children home with me and I'd homeschool but I don't think that's best for them. We pay for a private preschool. We are ok with paying for private school. BUT, private and public generally have the same cut off so the only option is a preschool where academics are not stressed and the basic things they are doing has been accomplished at 4. I don't need babysitting. I don't work and have family to help the few times I need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

you want to hold her back this year? or next year? If her birthday is a year away then I wouldn't worry about it yet because she will change so much. I know someone in Moco who started their kid on time and then they were told by the k teacher to pull him out and out him back in preschool.

I don't want to hold back at all. I want her to go at age 5. At 3, she is reading and doing a lot of other skills and there are very few academic preschools so we will have a year of learning loss beyond what we do at home. If a child is doing basics of reading and writing and turning 5 in September, they should be going to kindergarden as many 5 year olds barely know their alphabet. A 11/1 cut off is reasonable to me, even a 12/31, but a 9/1 is way to early. I would tell that K teacher, my child is age appropriate to be here and maybe she should modify her teaching style to meet the child's needs better. We switched preschools from 2 to 3 and the difference was huge. We went to a more academic structured program and she just thrived.

This is just silly. It's very nice that at 11/1 cut-off will work perfectly for your snowflake, but that simply moves the line and creates difficulties and choices for another set of parents. You get that, right? An 11/1 cut-off means the parents of children born in October and November worry about what to do, instead of the parents of children born in August and September. There has to be a line drawn someplace, and some people are going to be inconvenienced or upset by it and some children better or worse served by it no matter where it is drawn. Can you pull your gaze away from your own navel for even a second?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

you want to hold her back this year? or next year? If her birthday is a year away then I wouldn't worry about it yet because she will change so much. I know someone in Moco who started their kid on time and then they were told by the k teacher to pull him out and out him back in preschool.

I don't want to hold back at all. I want her to go at age 5. At 3, she is reading and doing a lot of other skills and there are very few academic preschools so we will have a year of learning loss beyond what we do at home. If a child is doing basics of reading and writing and turning 5 in September, they should be going to kindergarden as many 5 year olds barely know their alphabet. A 11/1 cut off is reasonable to me, even a 12/31, but a 9/1 is way to early. I would tell that K teacher, my child is age appropriate to be here and maybe she should modify her teaching style to meet the child's needs better. We switched preschools from 2 to 3 and the difference was huge. We went to a more academic structured program and she just thrived.

This is just silly. It's very nice that at 11/1 cut-off will work perfectly for your snowflake, but that simply moves the line and creates difficulties and choices for another set of parents. You get that, right? An 11/1 cut-off means the parents of children born in October and November worry about what to do, instead of the parents of children born in August and September. There has to be a line drawn someplace, and some people are going to be inconvenienced or upset by it and some children better or worse served by it no matter where it is drawn. Can you pull your gaze away from your own navel for even a second?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 in kindergarten????? that doesnt seem right

+ 1

[Anonymous]

can you people learn how to use the quote function properly?

surely my 8yo in K knows how to do it better than you can!

[Anonymous]

Dumb post. Only a kid who was held back in KG would be 7 in KG. I think the OP of the post is retarded and should be held back to repeat KG

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC just turned 5. She is classmates with a pair of twins who turned 6 recently. They will be starting K in Sept so they will turn 7 before 1st grade starts.

what is your point? isn't that typical for a summer kid who is redshirted? it's not like they are starting K at 7.

see first post of thread

Uh - I did. Did you?

Anonymous wrote:there is no reason any child should be turning 7 during K

[Anonymous]

I turned 7 in 2nd grade. This is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There seem to be a lot of MD parents on this thread. From talking to my MD friends, kindergarten in MD is more structured. Fairfax at least doesn't follow common core yet, and has a "playtime" during the day complete with dress up, kitchen, blocks, legos, etc. and have 2 recess periods. Also VA cutoff is Sept. 30, not Sept. 1. Around the country it seems the cutoffs for K range from Sept. 1 to Jan. 1. I haven't heard of any cutoffs earlier than Sept. 1.

Both of my daughters went to kindergarten in Fairfax (at two different schools) and neither of them had dress-up or blocks. The only time they had playtime was when they had to do indoor recess due to bad weather. Then they could do play dough, draw or play board games.

[Anonymous]

I'm feeling the opposite way-In MD the cut off is Sept 1st and my child has a late Sept bday so he starts at 5 and immediately turns 6 within a few weeks. We are worried he might be a little bored becauase we had to do private K last year since he missed the cutoff. I didn't want to try to push him in and test him in etc so we let it fall naturally. I do know a few very late August boys who also will be starting K but they were very young-lots of crying easily, etc so it seemed to make sense. It seems to be there is a mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Other countries send their kids to school at later ages and that works well. Is it possible that we are pushing academics down to earlier and earlier ages that are inappropriate for most kids?
K used to be all about play. Lots of people in their 50's and 60's are very successful in life, many of whom never even went to kindergarten. Are we shortchanging our kids in other areas by making K all about academics?

Answer: Absolutely yes!

...The K teacher last year told us the hardest part of teaching is that some come in at 4 and others at 6 and that's a huge spread developmentally. The schools should just pick a date and stick to it unless there is some verifiable reason to hold them back or put them ahead a grade.

No child should be entering K at age 4. They should be at least 5, so the date should be 1 September or before. Missouri requires kids to have turned 5 before 1 August, so that kids have been 5 for at least a couple of weeks before school starts and they have the right idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Other countries send their kids to school at later ages and that works well. Is it possible that we are pushing academics down to earlier and earlier ages that are inappropriate for most kids?
K used to be all about play. Lots of people in their 50's and 60's are very successful in life, many of whom never even went to kindergarten. Are we shortchanging our kids in other areas by making K all about academics?

Answer: Absolutely yes!

...The K teacher last year told us the hardest part of teaching is that some come in at 4 and others at 6 and that's a huge spread developmentally. The schools should just pick a date and stick to it unless there is some verifiable reason to hold them back or put them ahead a grade.

No child should be entering K at age 4. They should be at least 5, so the date should be 1 September or before. Missouri requires kids to have turned 5 before 1 August, so that kids have been 5 for at least a couple of weeks before school starts and they have the right idea.

VA cutoff is Sept 30, so yes they can enter K at age 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC just turned 5. She is classmates with a pair of twins who turned 6 recently. They will be starting K in Sept so they will turn 7 before 1st grade starts.

Wait, and they'll turn 8 before 2nd grade starts?! That's only a month before my on time October DS will turn 8.