OP - you should cross post on private school forum too.

Reality is that it may be too soon to know yet what will be right for your child. By the time you hit the fall of K - talk to his teachers. They could likely give some great insight on what would be a good path.

I believe any parent can opt to hold their child back from K for a year by just notifying the school they are doing that...regardless of B-days

It depends on your goal in sending your child to private K. Some people do private K and then put their kids in public K, because they feel like they’re not ready for public kindergarten. Some people do private K because they like the school and don’t want to move their child until first. So, honestly like I said it depends on your goal. My child went through To a preschool 4’s program and then moved on to a more formal pre-K program ( sort of a cross between a junior kindergarten and a higher level pre-K ) because he was grossly immature and simply not ready to sit all day long. So he went to K a year late. It was the best decision that we ever made for this particular child. I think if you send your child to a private kindergarten, then you and the teacher assess whether you think the child is ready for first or kindergarten in public and then go from there.

Generally they would attend 1rst grade unless there was some developmental reason that was not advisable. My daughter attended a half day private kindergarten and attend first grade at an MCPS public school. We were told she was very well prepared.

Anonymous wrote:I believe MCPS will start a November birthday in K regardless of whether they went to private K or not. After attending first grade in private though, mcps will put them in 2 even if they have a late birthday.

Yes but OP is asking about the friends whose birthdays are in June/July/August. Not her own November kid.

My October and November kids did the three year Montessori cycle and finished the third/K year while still 5. So they went to public K because that was the correct for age class to be in even though there were, in that moment in time, ahead of most, but not all of the kids in the class. They were not bored, as it was a complete transition to a new kind of school, and we felt it best for them to be with the correct-for-age class.

I'm sure they would have done fine in first grade too, but I think age and development matters more than academics. The academics can always be had and adjusted. They are in high school now and all continues to be well. We were not in a race to get them off to college a year earlier.

I believe MCPS will start a November birthday in K regardless of whether they went to private K or not. After attending first grade in private though, mcps will put them in 2 even if they have a late birthday.

Anonymous wrote:My son is born in November 2015, so he won't go to public K till September 2021. At our current private preschool, some mom tells me that they are going to hold off sending their June/July/August 2015 kids to public K next year, and instead their kids will attend current private preschool with Kindergarten program. They won't send them to public school till September 2021 because they want their kids to be oldest. I am curious what grade their kids (attend kindergarten privately) will attend at public school in September 2021, public K or public Grade 1?

What’s great about doing K at Montessori is your kid will learn a lot of math and reading and then you can decide to do K as older or 1st grade, a bit in young side.

Alternatively, get your kid to K because socially he an you will start making good friends in the neighborhood.

Redshirting is a fancy name for holding your kid back.

K. in public is slow and they don't do much. Our private was much more academic and mine was way ahead when she transferred.

We have a fall birthday and missed the cut off. We found a private school that would start mine and transferred in 2nd when MCPS would allow kids to enter without regard to birthday.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is born in November 2015, so he won't go to public K till September 2021. At our current private preschool, some mom tells me that they are going to hold off sending their June/July/August 2015 kids to public K next year, and instead their kids will attend current private preschool with Kindergarten program. They won't send them to public school till September 2021 because they want their kids to be oldest. I am curious what grade their kids (attend kindergarten privately) will attend at public school in September 2021, public K or public Grade 1?

If the parents want them to be the oldest, then they will have to send them to public K in fall of 2021. If they send them to public 1st grade they will not be among the oldest in the grade. That said, private K is a good way to buy time, not put a young 5 (often a young 5 year old boy) in a very structured and academically focused environment (as many public Kindergartens are) and then evaluate at the end of the year, with input from the private K teachers, whether public K or public 1st grade is more appropriate.

No. Many private Ks are more academic than publics, which just focus on rule-following and proper communication that first year because class sizes are so big.

It's not that private K's are more academic in a traditional sense, though. Most of them are academic in an age-appropriate way, meaning they incorporate play.

DD was born in October, so she'll miss the cutoff for kindergarten. She's in a preschool that has a junior K year, so she'll do that and then will start kindergarten the fall she turns 6.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is born in November 2015, so he won't go to public K till September 2021. At our current private preschool, some mom tells me that they are going to hold off sending their June/July/August 2015 kids to public K next year, and instead their kids will attend current private preschool with Kindergarten program. They won't send them to public school till September 2021 because they want their kids to be oldest. I am curious what grade their kids (attend kindergarten privately) will attend at public school in September 2021, public K or public Grade 1?

If the parents want them to be the oldest, then they will have to send them to public K in fall of 2021. If they send them to public 1st grade they will not be among the oldest in the grade. That said, private K is a good way to buy time, not put a young 5 (often a young 5 year old boy) in a very structured and academically focused environment (as many public Kindergartens are) and then evaluate at the end of the year, with input from the private K teachers, whether public K or public 1st grade is more appropriate.

No. Many private Ks are more academic than publics, which just focus on rule-following and proper communication that first year because class sizes are so big.

Anonymous wrote:My son is born in November 2015, so he won't go to public K till September 2021. At our current private preschool, some mom tells me that they are going to hold off sending their June/July/August 2015 kids to public K next year, and instead their kids will attend current private preschool with Kindergarten program. They won't send them to public school till September 2021 because they want their kids to be oldest. I am curious what grade their kids (attend kindergarten privately) will attend at public school in September 2021, public K or public Grade 1?

If the parents want them to be the oldest, then they will have to send them to public K in fall of 2021. If they send them to public 1st grade they will not be among the oldest in the grade. That said, private K is a good way to buy time, not put a young 5 (often a young 5 year old boy) in a very structured and academically focused environment (as many public Kindergartens are) and then evaluate at the end of the year, with input from the private K teachers, whether public K or public 1st grade is more appropriate.

Totally depends.
For kids whose parents want to redshirt them, they’ll start in K.
Other kids stay in private K for all sorts of reasons (family logistics with a younger sibling at the preschool, want smaller:playbased K, to finish a Montessori cycle, etc) and those kids usually go straight to 1st.

Like a PP, my kids were in a Montessori school, so we stayed for k then they went to public 1st.

I have a friend who wanted to buy some time due to their child’s medical issues. Fortunately she did well medically and academically the year of a private K and continued to 1st, but staying in private K gave them the option of repeating k without any issues if she had had to miss a lot of the year.

We were at a Montessori preschool, and attended the Kindergarten year there, since it's the culminating year of their program. Children then went to first grade in another school, either private or public.

The kids are going to be seriously bored if they do two years of Kindergarten in two different schools. I know, because my child with special needs did that, at the advice of our developmental pediatrician! We had to request a class change in first grade to put him back with his age group, because it was actually not necessary. He did first and second in one year.

My son is born in November 2015, so he won't go to public K till September 2021. At our current private preschool, some mom tells me that they are going to hold off sending their June/July/August 2015 kids to public K next year, and instead their kids will attend current private preschool with Kindergarten program. They won't send them to public school till September 2021 because they want their kids to be oldest. I am curious what grade their kids (attend kindergarten privately) will attend at public school in September 2021, public K or public Grade 1?