Reply to Exceptions to the Prek3 Sept 30 cut off date?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kid has a late October birthday. We were told there are no exceptions. It ended up being the right grade for her, and she actually liked being one of the oldest. In early school, she was often a “helper” for the teacher for the younger kids.

Btw, there will be many “borderline” kids like your daughter in preqchool. There were at least 6 or so kids with October and November birthdays in her preschool class, and they kept them all together so that there was an older pre-k 3 class and a younger pre-k class. So everyone was with the right group, developmentally. She will not stand out. [/quote]

I wonder if this is a typical practice across schools? Seems like a great idea.[/quote]

I don't think it sounds like a great idea because there is actually a lot of data on the benefits for preschool age kids of being in a mixed age range classroom. It's part of the reason Montessori education is so popular for this age group. Kids benefit greatly from both being able to see older kids performing tasks they are still learning, and in being able to demonstrate tasks for younger kids. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the best ways for young children to learn classroom behaviors. So by separating the oldest and youngest kids, you may actually stunt development in both sets by depriving them of opportunities to both learn from and teach to each other.

A number of DCPS schools actually have at least one combined PK3/PK4 classroom (in a regular DCPS, not Montessori) and there are good pedagogical reasons for doing it this way.[/quote]

Right but will they still like it when she's the oldest of the combined group in PK4?[/quote]

We have an Oct 1st birthday DD. Had her in a DCPS with a mixed PK3/PK4 class for her PK3 year and it was a good fit. Then moved her into a PK4 only class for her PK4 year; once the other kids mostly had a year of school under their belts, the age difference didn’t matter quite as much. By 1st or 2nd grade, you mostly can’t tell who the older and younger kids are. This seems like a big deal now — and it can be for ECE — but it’s really a short term problem.[/quote]

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