Anonymous wrote:I have a summer birthday kid who can read level 3 books (turning 4 in August). We're thinking about applying to private kindergarten in the fall, even though she'll be young for her grade. Is it unusual for a kid to be reading or do all TT schools expect that? Will that give her an advantage despite her being on the younger side?

I don't believe you'll even be allowed to apply. NYC private schools have strict September cut-offs.

Anonymous wrote:Don’t hold your kid back.

That is not what this thread is about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a summer birthday kid who can read level 3 books (turning 4 in August). We're thinking about applying to private kindergarten in the fall, even though she'll be young for her grade. Is it unusual for a kid to be reading or do all TT schools expect that? Will that give her an advantage despite her being on the younger side?

You may have better luck getting admitted at a girls school with an August birthday. I know of few young August birthdays at Chapin. I’ve also heard HM is sometimes more willing to take young summer birthday kids.

There are a lot of really smart kids in this city. Early reading doesn’t distinguish you much. Focus on her social skills and maturity— a young August birthday would be a major outlier at our TT, so much so that I’m not even sure it you’d get an interview (we didn’t first go around with an end of July birthday).

Anonymous wrote:I have a summer birthday kid who can read level 3 books (turning 4 in August). We're thinking about applying to private kindergarten in the fall, even though she'll be young for her grade. Is it unusual for a kid to be reading or do all TT schools expect that? Will that give her an advantage despite her being on the younger side?

You may have better luck getting admitted at a girls school with an August birthday. I know of few young August birthdays at Chapin. I’ve also heard HM is sometimes more willing to take young summer birthday kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Competitive private school prefer the child be closer to 6 year old. You will be asking for them to make an exception for you when they can pick and choose from many bright children.

Agreed, though depending on the definition of "summer," a summer girl is not that far off - if she is July 4, that is pretty normal. They tend to be more concerned with boys. One of my kids is mid-June and was quite tall and when we were considering private elementary they were hinting they wanted him to stay back. He was somewhat socially immature for his age but not horrible and was ahead of grade level academically (however one measures that for a kid that age). Now 10ish years later I am so glad we didn't do that.

can you share more? i have this dilemma, tall son, cognitively advanced, but prone to bouts of silliness and immaturity and wanted to hold him back/redshirt but not sure if that will be weird given his height

Sure. We were zoned for a good public so sent him to public where he was right in the middle of the class age-wise. He got an IEP and got some services. It all resolved within a year or two, dropped the IEP, perfectly normal kid. Not the most popular kid but he has a nice group of friends, very "normal" (which is a compliment in my book), has made new friends when advancing to new schools where he didn't know a lot of people, doing really well academically. Teenager who is now over six feet so has remained tall - he was always tall but had a growth spurt around 7th-8th grade so would have been weirdly tall if we had held him back. Getting out of the private school rat race was a great decision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Competitive private school prefer the child be closer to 6 year old. You will be asking for them to make an exception for you when they can pick and choose from many bright children.

Agreed, though depending on the definition of "summer," a summer girl is not that far off - if she is July 4, that is pretty normal. They tend to be more concerned with boys. One of my kids is mid-June and was quite tall and when we were considering private elementary they were hinting they wanted him to stay back. He was somewhat socially immature for his age but not horrible and was ahead of grade level academically (however one measures that for a kid that age). Now 10ish years later I am so glad we didn't do that.

can you share more? i have this dilemma, tall son, cognitively advanced, but prone to bouts of silliness and immaturity and wanted to hold him back/redshirt but not sure if that will be weird given his height

Anonymous wrote:Competitive private school prefer the child be closer to 6 year old. You will be asking for them to make an exception for you when they can pick and choose from many bright children.

Agreed, though depending on the definition of "summer," a summer girl is not that far off - if she is July 4, that is pretty normal. They tend to be more concerned with boys. One of my kids is mid-June and was quite tall and when we were considering private elementary they were hinting they wanted him to stay back. He was somewhat socially immature for his age but not horrible and was ahead of grade level academically (however one measures that for a kid that age). Now 10ish years later I am so glad we didn't do that.

Don’t hold your kid back.

Competitive private school prefer the child be closer to 6 year old. You will be asking for them to make an exception for you when they can pick and choose from many bright children.

My kids are now in middle and high school. My younger one was a very early reader. My older one was average. However, my older one has consistently been a better student. Reading is just one data point. It only proves so much.

I would put her in a good zoned public school where a summer birthday is relatively average (since public schools are very strictly on the calendar year).

My kid started reading at 3 and took to it like a fish to water. He just turned 6 and finished a very successful year of kindergarten. He is thriving academically, plays sports with peers, and has made a lot of good friends and gained maturity and independence. There is a tendency to treat kids who are cognitively advanced like they are actually older in other ways and it is not good for them—I know because that’s what happened to me.

My kids were early readers. That has nothing to do with kindergarten readiness. Don't be fooled by your child's ability to read or do math or overall intelligence into thinking they "need" to placed in class with kids who are socially older than them. There are intelligent, advanced kids in every grade, and kids who struggle academically in every grade, so it's best to start on time and be with those intelligent kids who are your own age. My kid's public K class had a reading group of 10 kids who were completely fluent readers. No need to bump ahead.

That's amazing - congratulations; that being said, as somebody who put my own very advanced child into kindergarten a year early, I would strongly recommend you wait.

There are significant social consequences to being the youngest kid in the class; my kid made friends with one other kid in the same situation but we had to move and he's had a hard time finding another friend since then. And there's little upside in terms of academics either - you're still judged by the standards of other kids in your grade, hardly anybody gives out bonus points for being young (in fact some schools have strict age cutoffs and won't even consider you for a grade you're too young for), standardized tests are still the same... it's a lot of downside and little upside.

What I would encourage instead is the Lisa Simpson approach; find something else for your kid to put her extra brain cycles towards. Perhaps something where extra years of experience will end up counting for something later on; I've seen a number of 4 year olds take up violin, for example, and since a lot of orchestras etc are grouped by age, an earlier start can pay a lot of dividends later on.

I have a summer birthday kid who can read level 3 books (turning 4 in August). We're thinking about applying to private kindergarten in the fall, even though she'll be young for her grade. Is it unusual for a kid to be reading or do all TT schools expect that? Will that give her an advantage despite her being on the younger side?