Would you have your child repeat kindergarten in this situation:

[Anonymous]

We're moving from a state with a December kindergarten cutoff to MCPS which I understand has a September cutoff. My child has a fall birthday and will complete K where we currently live. When we move to MD we have the option of having our child be a very very young 1st grader or repeating kindergarten. What would you do? Academic and social skills are above average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're moving from a state with a December kindergarten cutoff to MCPS which I understand has a September cutoff. My child has a fall birthday and will complete K where we currently live. When we move to MD we have the option of having our child be a very very young 1st grader or repeating kindergarten. What would you do? Academic and social skills are above average.

Put him in first grade.

[Anonymous]

You know your child the best. If you think your DC is ready, and will thrive in the 1st grade and not fall behind, then let your DC move on. In my opinion, if there is no reason to hold back, then you shouldn't.

[Anonymous]

The only think I'd think about OP is that in jr high and high school he will be at least 6, possibly 14 months younger than peers, I'd at least give thought to adjusting to the MD cutoffs for maturity reasons later on. I wouldn't call it "repeating", I'd just say that in MD kids with your bday go to K.

[Anonymous]

Academic skills can be high or low depending on what a child has been taught. I'd ignore academic skills but would ask you, if you had to assess your child's basic intelligence (IQ) would you say your child is of average intelligence? (100 to 125)? Moderately gifted? (125 to 140?) Highly gifted? (Above 140?)

If you child is highly gifted, I'd let him go on to first grade. If of average intelligence, let him repeat kindergarten. If in the moderately gifted range -- it depends on where you'll be sending him to school. If it's in an area known for having a lot of advanced students, and for doing a good job with accelerating students as necessary, let him repeat kindergarten. Otherwise, let him go on to first grade.

[Anonymous]

OP- Is your child in K now and you'll move by the end of this summer? If so, ask the K teacher her opinion. I have a son who is going into K who is advanced academically but that's about it. If your child is doing well in K now, I wouldn't see any reason to hold him back next year. GL.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks everyone for the input. The move would happen this fall and the current K teach says he is ready for 1st grade. The 20:06 poster raised an issue I was concerned about. It's hard to know what to do....

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't think of it as "holding him back" I'd think of it as matching him with his same aged peers. I'd talk to the new school about how they do with differentiation. PP's point about a 14 month spread is striking.

I wouldn't think about it just from an academic standpoint, but maturity, how big he will be later if he is that much younger, etc. Boys do tend to mature a bit later and that is a big age difference. If he had started in MC they would never have allowed him to be in K this year regardless of his abilities.

School is about so much more than academics, my brother just made the cut off and was very bright and social and he always seemed to be trying to keep up a bit.

[Anonymous]

It is always easier to move him forward if need be than to move him back. He is going to be adjusting to a new place, a new curriculum, new friends, I'd err on the side of caution and start him when everyone else his age starts K. It is almost impossible to red shirt later in MC no matter what happens.

MC is fairly academic and may actually be more like 1st grade elsewhere, there is little recess, play time, etc.

I'd really worry about him being that much younger later when parties, driving and other temptations come into play, I think it is much more likely that a child so much younger than peers would be more easily influenced.

It's not "holding him back" it is starting him at the right level for his age, I wouldn't think of it as some sort of bad thing, the cutoffs are just earlier (and moving that way nationwide from what I understand, for reasons of readiness and maturity).

[Anonymous]

If he is interested in sports later he may be much smaller than classmates whose birthdays were 15 months earlier. I'd think of putting him in the correct place for his age as giving him every advantage.

In my child's K class there is a 13 month span and it is easy to pick out the younger kids even without knowing bdays. They just seem to have to work harder to keep up, understandably.

[Anonymous]

Look at the whole child: academics matter only so much as this young age, the more important aspects are emotional and psychological maturity. If all those abilities are in sync, then by all means, try first grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at the whole child: academics matter only so much as this young age, the more important aspects are emotional and psychological maturity. If all those abilities are in sync, then by all means, try first grade.

I agree with this. I posted previously and said just put him in 1st grade. Another minor consideration I would give thought to is his size. Is he going to be significantly smaller than peers? If he's in the norm, I wouldn't sweat it at all and would go with 1st grade, especially since his teachers are recommending it.

[Anonymous]

We had the same situation (nov bday) and choose to put him in K again.
One of the reasons i had was i didn't want him to be 17 and going to college (and leaving the next)! He walked into K reading and quite ahead but not unlike quite a few kids who also did K twice. He continues to be ahead but i think he would have been ahead if we had put him in first grade.

I think you should align with the new school system and put him into K. Its a long term decision. Sports programs will align by his age and that will be a detriment. If he is far ahead there are GT programs that he will be eligible and MCPS regularly bumps kids in one year ahead math and reading so don't worry about challenge.

[Anonymous]

I would ask the school you will be going to to evaluate him and see where he fits in best. My instinct would be to do another year of K so that he will not be a year younger when taking college baords etc in the future.

[Anonymous]

I always say - go with your child's personality, your gut, and the recommendation of the teachers that know your son. If all three are pointing towards having your son in 1st - don't worry about him being the youngest etc. My DH is a November birthday and was 17 when he went off to college. He played sports - baseball and football etc. His personality is ultra organized and if you didn't know he was the youngest child, you would think he was the oldest. The irony being that he ended up with the height and more athletic ability than his older brother - who as a January birthday (his older brother) was one of the oldest kids in his class. Now fate can be a wonderful thing. His mother chose to send him off as a 4 turning 5. We could never get the whole story but it sounded like she had to do something special to get him in that year. My MIL is very matter of fact - and she thought DH was ready for school. My in-laws are teachers so that probably didn't hurt. On my end, I went in ahead of the curve and my mother had the opportunity to skip me. She agonized about the decision but in the end figured I needed the social more than the academics and just loved kindergarten so much - so she left me in K. In some ways, I think I would have benefited from being more challenged in school - and any social awkwardness was not helped by being ahead in my classes. There were times, I thought - gosh I wish HS was done already - if only I had skipped a grade way back when. I really wished I had been ahead when my parents moved my junior year of HS and their marriage started to come apart. I could have gone for early entrance college or started taking college classes if I had one more year of HS at the time. It was a very very dark and depressing junior year. I think the move and the seeds of what would be a divorce - was far worse than moving ahead or not moving ahead one of us in school. So life really sucked. However, a friend I met at college - when we were both seniors, introduced me to a friend that invited me to a party where I met my husband. He was there because a college friend went to HS with one of the guys that lived in the house. So about fate - had his mother not pushed my Nov husband to go to school at 4 turning 5, had my mother not decided to leave me in K instead of skipping me, had we not moved to the state where I finished up HS and eventually went to college - I never would have met the people I met and never would have met my husband.

You have to make your decision based on the here and now - and not what might be in middle school or even high school. The future will unfold as it is meant to be - whatever your decision.