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[quote=Anonymous][quote]OP here. At fall preschool conference, teacher said nothing but good things about her social/emotional maturity. We mentioned that we had enrolled her in the 4s class because we may be considering starting her "early" for K. The teacher (Teacher B) was surprised that she was one of the youngest and said our daughter was fitting in really well.

Fast forward to when we made a request this January to talk to teachers re: daughter's progress, with an eye toward Early Entrance. Teacher A immediately launched into "as early childhood educators we could NEVER in good conscience recommend starting early." She then went into a fairly impassioned speech about it, including how she wished she'd held back her now adult spring-birthday son because he took five years to get through college. She absolutely did not look at my kid as an individual - she had a fixed position that was firmly held. She acknowledged that our daughter has advanced academic skills, but then expressed deep concern about her social skills. She have as an example that my daughter is "just now emerging from parallel play". Um, fascinating, seeing as how she seen well past that for about two years and is very social and chatty with friends. Her "social delays" popped up only after we indicated an interest in sending her to K. Teacher B also informed me that they ALWAYS write on the teacher report (required for Early Entrance app) that they see no benefit to advancing the student and recommend against it. So - I just don't get the sense that I'm going to get an objective read on my child on social/emotional. Teacher B did her best to dismiss the academic as well. Her goal was to talk us out of it entirely.

We will likely complete the application process and see where it goes.[/quote]

We had a very similiar mid-year conference with my August DS's preschool teachers. It was like they were unable to consider our son as and individual, but instead spewed out opinions about how an extra year never hurt everyone and when their son started kindergarten in 1972 they were so glad he was the oldest. By the end of the year they begrudgingly admitted he might do okay. He was on track academically, tended to socialize with the oldest kids in the class, and had no problems sitting still and following directions, so we felt pretty confident about our decision to start him on time as one of the youngest in Kindergarten.

He's been thriving. At his K conference, his teacher was surprised to realize that he was one of the youngest in the class when we brought it to her attention. If you feel she is ready, I'd strongly consider sending her. I was one of the oldest in my class, and honestly, I think it was to my detriment. I did great in school, but coasted along without ever having to develop strong work habits. Socially, I always fit in better with older kids and remember feeling out of place a lot. People constantly commented on how 'mature' I was.[/quote]

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