Reply to Would you switch your kid's church/synagogue preschool in this situation?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would move because of the commute even if you were happy with every other aspect.  Just not worth it IMO.

On the class/age group issue...I get that it feels weird having your Fall birthday 3yr old in a class with mostly 2 yr olds.  My DD has an Oct. birthday so she just misses the age cutoff.  In her "2 yr old" class, where she was 3 for most of the year, she was in some ways the 'teacher's helper' because there is so much difference between a recently turned 2 and recently turned 3 yr old, esp. when you add in that DD is very big for her age.  But, it really was fine.  Her best friend in the class (and for a few years after that) was 10 mos younger than her.  And a preschool day at either 2 or 3 is (or should be!) mostly play.  I'd have had no problem with her being in that room as both a young 2 yr old and a 3 yr old.  That would be much more preferable to repeating a preK year.  At that point they are learning more academics and a 5 yr old doing a 2nd yr of Pre K is going to be bored. Unless you can figure out a way to get her ES to let her skip a year (not likely) or plan to home school, she will always be the oldest in class and it's best to get in sync with that rather than putting yourself in a situation where she needs to repeat PreK.[/quote]

Thanks, and this is very reassuring--I really appreciate it!  And yes, those are the exact reasons they want to keep her back.  It's hard to explain, but the school as a startup is what exacerbates the 2 year old/3 year old thing.  The classes aren't full yet and the mix of kids they have makes her fit much better with the 3 year olds.  But more than the age thing it's that she has been with those kids since day 1 and she'd be the only one staying back.  The school is suggesting this transition will be harder for her if she does it later, but I never planned to have her do 2 Pre-K years at the same school - I would move her for her 2nd year to the local public pre-K, which would then hopefully smooth out the transition to kindergarten and help her meet the friends she'll be with there.  But this thread is helping me understand the disconnect a bit.  [/quote]

I'm a director of a preschool.  I see both points of view - the one saying have her stay in the classroom to "right age her" now, but I can see the mother's point of view, that with the current mix of children, she fits in better with the 3's room.  AND I'd tell the director your plans, that you will be moving her for her last year of preschool  no matter what, that she will be leaving for her prek year to make friends in her local school zone.  So whether they move her forward to the 3's room now, you would leave for her "2nd year" of PreK.  But if you didn't move her forward, then she'd do the 2's room this year, 3's next year, and then the last year she'd leave for PreK.

But it also seems that the long commute just is so hard for the family.  As someone with a long commute, I hear you!  So look at other choices and choose the school that makes the most sense.

Frnakly, with a child who is always going to be the oldest in her class, I would also be intrigued by mixed age grouping at this point, so she has the experience of being younger than others, before always being the oldest.  So I think you are right about your instincts to move to the 3's-5's room.  There is lots of good stuff to say about mixed age grouping (multi-age grouping), and one is that kids don't have to keep making transitions every year.   So put this into the thought process along with the other concerns, like commute, cost, etc.  Believe me, in preschool they aren't learning so much about their religious faith that you can't teach by telling stories, going to church/temple/synagogue/mosque or having them learn later.  [/quote]

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