Early kindergarden start in MoCo for Oct bday

[Anonymous]

Considering trying to get our Oct-born DC into kindergarden this fall rather than wait til he's nearly 6. Does anyone know how to go about this in MoCo. Do they usually accomodate requests? Does it depend on the school or on the county?

I've seen posts on this issue before but can't find now.
thanks!

[Anonymous]

Your child must be within the six week window of being eligible for kindergarten (so a mid to late October b-day wouldn't qualify) and must test in. Contact your local elementary school principal for more information.

[Anonymous]

And think hard about it. Taking redshirting into account, he'll probably be an average of ~9 months longer than his classmates -- not just in K, but in middle school and high school, too (when place on the older-younger spectrum really matters for most boys). Might work out fine for your son, but (and there's a lot of research on this point) the odds definitely won't be in his favor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And think hard about it. Taking redshirting into account, he'll probably be an average of ~9 months longer than his classmates -- not just in K, but in middle school and high school, too (when place on the older-younger spectrum really matters for most boys). Might work out fine for your son, but (and there's a lot of research on this point) the odds definitely won't be in his favor.

Interesting. I didn't know that. Could you point me to some of that research, i'd be interested in taking a look.

[Anonymous]

Why do you want to do this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And think hard about it. Taking redshirting into account, he'll probably be an average of ~9 months longer than his classmates -- not just in K, but in middle school and high school, too (when place on the older-younger spectrum really matters for most boys). Might work out fine for your son, but (and there's a lot of research on this point) the odds definitely won't be in his favor.

Interesting. I didn't know that. Could you point me to some of that research, i'd be interested in taking a look.

If you are considering doing this, wouldn't you have researched it yourself?

[Anonymous]

I know someone in my child's K class who petitioned to get her son into K this year and the accommodation was made.
The child's teachers had told the mom that the child was ready for kindergarten and to do this.

Here's a link to info for how to do this in MoCo:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/earlychi/earlyentranceprocedures.shtm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And think hard about it. Taking redshirting into account, he'll probably be an average of ~9 months longer than his classmates -- not just in K, but in middle school and high school, too (when place on the older-younger spectrum really matters for most boys). Might work out fine for your son, but (and there's a lot of research on this point) the odds definitely won't be in his favor.

Interesting. I didn't know that. Could you point me to some of that research, i'd be interested in taking a look.

If you are considering doing this, wouldn't you have researched it yourself?

I have. However, I often find that people refer to "research" without having done any themselves. So just asking if it is actually substantiated and if they have other sources I may have overlooked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And think hard about it. Taking redshirting into account, he'll probably be an average of ~9 months longer than his classmates -- not just in K, but in middle school and high school, too (when place on the older-younger spectrum really matters for most boys). Might work out fine for your son, but (and there's a lot of research on this point) the odds definitely won't be in his favor.

Interesting. I didn't know that. Could you point me to some of that research, i'd be interested in taking a look.

If you are considering doing this, wouldn't you have researched it yourself?

I have. However, I often find that people refer to "research" without having done any themselves. So just asking if it is actually substantiated and if they have other sources I may have overlooked.

But you said "I didn't know that" which suggests that you had not researched it.

What did your research show?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And think hard about it. Taking redshirting into account, he'll probably be an average of ~9 months longer than his classmates -- not just in K, but in middle school and high school, too (when place on the older-younger spectrum really matters for most boys). Might work out fine for your son, but (and there's a lot of research on this point) the odds definitely won't be in his favor.

Interesting. I didn't know that. Could you point me to some of that research, i'd be interested in taking a look.

If you are considering doing this, wouldn't you have researched it yourself?

I have. However, I often find that people refer to "research" without having done any themselves. So just asking if it is actually substantiated and if they have other sources I may have overlooked.

But you said "I didn't know that" which suggests that you had not researched it.

What did your research show?

From what I could gather it depends primarily on the child. I did not come across any research (and by that i mean actual scientific studies) indicating that most early starters were doomed to fail, or that the odds were against them.
So has anyone seen actual data indicating that the majority of early starters suffer adverse consequences. If someone has come across actual studies (not just word of mouth) I would certainly be interested in seeing it because I really, genuinely am curious. I was not trying to be combative when i asked for clarification. I do not take this decision lightly. However, i do not want to rely on opinions disguised as research either.
so again, can anyone point me to any research??

[Anonymous]

I think you're talking past one another. There's lots of research that the odds are stacked in favor of relatively older kids (see Gladwell's Outliers and the NYT article from a couple of years ago to get a general feel), and little if any support for the converse proposition -- that relatively younger kids are on balance aided by their age.

What's best for an individual kid of course depends mostly on that kid. It's right, though, that a boy who may well be "ready" for K early could still suffer for being a young one in MS and/or HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you're talking past one another. There's lots of research that the odds are stacked in favor of relatively older kids (see Gladwell's Outliers and the NYT article from a couple of years ago to get a general feel), and little if any support for the converse proposition -- that relatively younger kids are on balance aided by their age.

What's best for an individual kid of course depends mostly on that kid. It's right, though, that a boy who may well be "ready" for K early could still suffer for being a young one in MS and/or HS.

Here's the story that helped me to make a decision about my child.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/magazine/03kindergarten-t.html

[Anonymous]

Has anyone given any thought to the "suffering" of a child who is a year older than his peers in high school? "Older-for-cohort students were more disengaged, lower in homework completion, positive intentions and lower in performance scores. Younger-for-cohort students scored higher in valuing school, in positive intentions, school attendance, homework completion and performance." Older than age-appropriate is also a signifier for a higher-dropout rate (think boredom) It's not ALL about size and sports.
http://www.ernweb.com/public/972.cfm
ww.tdsb.on.ca/wwwdocuments/about_us/.../Grade9CohortVol2Iss1.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone given any thought to the "suffering" of a child who is a year older than his peers in high school? "Older-for-cohort students were more disengaged, lower in homework completion, positive intentions and lower in performance scores. Younger-for-cohort students scored higher in valuing school, in positive intentions, school attendance, homework completion and performance." Older than age-appropriate is also a signifier for a higher-dropout rate (think boredom) It's not ALL about size and sports.
http://www.ernweb.com/public/972.cfm
ww.tdsb.on.ca/wwwdocuments/about_us/.../Grade9CohortVol2Iss1.pdf

This particular child misses the cutoff. I doubt he will have the issues you cite. If his parents wait a year, they will be sending him on time per MCPS rules.

I redshirted my child, who met the cutoff by a few days. He is not, nor does he perceive himself as older than age-appropriate for his grade. Sports played zero role in our decision to wait a year to enroll him in K.

[Anonymous]

This example is close to 40 years old, but my older brother, an October birthday, ended up repeating K, mainly due to maturity issues (not academic ones). It was clearly the best thing for him, as he ended up the most educated of all the kids in our family (PhD, doing post-doc work).

These days, a kid his age entering K would be turning 6, as my brother was in his second year of K. I can't imagine any child that age feeling that they are too old and becoming disengaged because of it.

It definitely depends on the child though. I remember the first day of my DD's preschool (3 year old) class. One child stuck out to me as being quite articulate. Turns out, his birthday is 2 days before my DD's, only he is a year younger. I can fully see a child like that being ready for K early.