WWYD - advice RE kindergarten

[Anonymous]

My son is at a Montessori preschool and thriving. He will be 6 in the fall so is eligible for K. I can't believe I am even considering this, but I am seriously considering leaving him at the Montessori school for K. He would be the oldest in his class (mix 3-6). Anyone been there done that? Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

If the Montessori program goes up through kindergarten, why not let him finish the 3 year program there?

[Anonymous]

Many, many children have stayed in Montessori for the 3rd (Kindergarten) year and transferred to regular 1st grade with no problem. My personal bias is to stay in Montessori school for the elementary program as well.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. Do your son a *huge* favor, and allow him the experience of being one of the senior students in his current class. His leadership skills are bound to develop. Kudos to you for considering your child's best interests.

[Anonymous]

Will he have peers his age? What are his friends going to be doing? I have a friend whose DD felt left when all of her friends moved on. She ended up in play therapy, it really impacted her confidence. If a lot of kids are staying, that is a different story. How outgoing/sensitive is your son? My DS started K this year at a private school that had a PK option, probably 50% of the kids knew each other and he had a bit of a hard time "breaking in" at first. If you know that he will be going to the local public, it might be easiest to start there when everyone else does, unless there are other factors. Good luck with your decision!

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you all so much for the advice. My main concern with leaving him where he is that he is already considers himself one of the older kids and is doing some K activities. Many of his friends are moving on because they have birthdays earlier in the year and are going straight to first grade. That's not an option for us so its either K at public or staying put. I don't worry *too* much about missing out on friendships in K at our local school since the school is huge and my son is fairly outgoing. But I do worry about him being bored and just generally not as happy.

[Anonymous]

my recommendation is for you to arrange a tour of the public school and ask to observe a k classroom. we went through this last year, and it was really helpful. we decided to send ours to k in the public school instead of montessori. we were happy with the school, and in particular liked how they divided the class based on ability for reading and math. we also wanted our child to be the new kid when everyone is a new kid, as opposed to one in a handful of new kids in first grade. we thought the transition to k might be easier because there would be more time spent on explaining procedures for lining up, getting to the right bus, how to buy lunch in the cafeteria, where the bathrooms are, etc. since we were going to this public school anyway, we figured we'd try it in k and then if there was a (big) problem we'd consider the montessori-k as a back-up. we've been very happy with the public school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my recommendation is for you to arrange a tour of the public school and ask to observe a k classroom. we went through this last year, and it was really helpful. we decided to send ours to k in the public school instead of montessori. we were happy with the school, and in particular liked how they divided the class based on ability for reading and math. we also wanted our child to be the new kid when everyone is a new kid, as opposed to one in a handful of new kids in first grade. we thought the transition to k might be easier because there would be more time spent on explaining procedures for lining up, getting to the right bus, how to buy lunch in the cafeteria, where the bathrooms are, etc. since we were going to this public school anyway, we figured we'd try it in k and then if there was a (big) problem we'd consider the montessori-k as a back-up. we've been very happy with the public school!

I am not the OP, but this PP's approach makes a lot of sense to me. Better to move your child earlier and deal with the changes in kindergarten as opposed to first grade when there is more at stake academically.