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    Joined: May 2020
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    Oh boy. So my baby girl has a few food allergies. She had started a daycare right before the COVID pandemic and they [the school] approached me about bumping her up into a "transitional" room in December.

    She would be 21 months old then. Now E is very very big (tall) for her age but she would the the youngest in the group by 3 months but she's still bigger than most of them and talks more than they do so I wasn't stressing it. Normally they range from two to 3 1/2.

    The preschool itself is ability based not age based. It is also a "play based" pre-school that follows a mutilated Montessori method which I love. At most they do an hour to two hours broken up over the day.

    I had posted in the FA group because I was considering not sending her due to COVID. She hasn't actually gone back to the daycare since COVID but they called me today to ask if we still wanted to try the transitional room in December. It is being done with the understanding that if it doesn't work out she'll just slip back to the daycare room.

    It's a really small school and legacy plays a part as her cousin (my nephew) is going into highschool there in the fall, hence why they are willing to "hold" her spot in the daycare to see if she'll transition okay in the new room first.

    So I posted in the FA group thinking they where normally pretty nice (which they where lord knows they had been amazing when I was first figuring out her FAs.)

    I forget how down right nasty people can be when it comes to kids doing "better" than others.

    I have worked daycare before I know the age and kid/teacher ratios so no I'm not stupid but you'd have thought I said I was sending my kid straight to freaking kindergarten the way they reacted. 😠😠

    Like hello THE SCHOOL APPROACHED ME not the other way around. At the time I didn't even know they had a transitional room because she had always been in the daycare room.

    *whoop*

    Now that that's off my chest 😅😅. I'm kinda stuck on what to do. With COVID up in the air I'm not sure I want to commit to her going in December and they need an answer by August.

    Her allergist and pediatric both said to just eat the registration fee if we don't feel it's safe but her pediatrician is strongly recommending her to start if it is safe just for the social aspect as she didn't start daycare until like 8 weeks before it shut down due to COVID.

    So far the school [at least the daycare side] has been wonderful with her allergies so with that side of things i'm pretty confident but with COVID I just don't know if I want her to go or not.

    I don't go back to work until she goes back and at this rate we're playing it safe and she and I are both staying home for the foreseeable future. So it's not like she HAS to go so I can work, it's just whenever we're comfortable I'll go back to work and then she'll go.

    Any thoughts would be welcome.

    Last edited by HannahBanana; 07/10/20 09:15 AM.
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    I agree with the advice you mentioned receiving which encouraged signing her up and being willing to forego/lose any fees you have committed to, if at a future date you determine it is unsafe for your child to attend (at that time, due to COVID-19).

    You may also wish to gather more information about the safety procedures of the organization as a whole, and of the transition room your child would be placed in, specifically geared to your child's development and abilities.

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    Welcome!

    FWIW, there are quite a few posters in this community who also have children with food allergies (I have one of those). By and large, I have found this community to be friendly and accepting on both FA and GT scores (and, well, generally!).

    Anyway. I also agree with your healthcare team. If it is financially feasible for you to consider the registration fee an insurance premium, then I would do so, and keep your options open. It sounds like your daycare is approaching this in a reasonable way, with little downside to trying it one way or the other.

    Does your state have infection control guidelines for childcare facilities? Understanding that it is nearly impossible for little children to reliably social distance (or to independently maintain any kind of standard hygiene, for that matter!). Will they expect or recommend masks for both children and adults? (CDC considers masks at your DC's age to be at parental discretion.) How will the classroom and arrival/departure routines be different from when school closed in the spring? Most small children adapt easily to new situations, but she and her classmates will still need opportunities to adjust to seeing their friendly, familiar teachers in different PPE (likely).

    In addition, by the time you reach the move up to the transition class, something like nine months of development will have occurred since the recommendation was made (an eternity at this age), so be prepared to be looking at potentially another adjustment in the plan, purely on the educational/developmental axis, aside from public health concerns.

    EDIT: Just realized that you may be describing her as talking more than 2-3 year olds at 12 months old (the last time she was in daycare)--in which case you should definitely be prepared for the possibility of an even wider gap between her and her classmates in the transition room by December, since the gap often is in rate of learning, not just in absolute years of advancement vs age-peers. (Keeping in mind that development can occur in fits and starts in any small child.)

    Last edited by aeh; 07/11/20 09:10 PM. Reason: more thinking

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    Originally Posted by aeh
    In addition, by the time you reach the move up to the transition class, something like nine months of development will have occurred since the recommendation was made (an eternity at this age), so be prepared to be looking at potentially another adjustment in the plan, purely on the educational/developmental axis, aside from public health concerns.

    I have never read truer words. She makes leaps in a matter of days! 😅 I think mostly nothing of it because she's always been that way but her pediatrician flipped one time because she came up to me and said "Mama UP!" while we where in for her 1 year visit.

    They plan on reevaluating her come December to see where she's at and see if it's still a good fit.

    Their only concern is if she stays on the track she's on she's going to "finish" their program "too quick" and by that they mean she can't start kindergarten until after her 5th birthday but we've agreed to try it and we'll cross that bridge when she gets there.

    Her daycare teacher was already pulling toys and books out of the pre- k room for her before hand as she'll sit there and "read" by herself. Not actual reading mind you just flipping through them as she got bored of what little she had in the room. 😂😂


    Thank you both I feel a bit better now, now to wait and see what this virus does.

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    Better get used to that concern about "finishing too quickly!" Programs designed around age-typical development (aka, most schools) generally do struggle with a fear of running out of material, and of placing children with much older cognitive peers. Multi-age settings sometimes can be more flexible.

    I agree that you should cross the K bridge when it becomes more imminent; it may be that your school will (as they did this time) approach you first because her readiness for K will be undeniable. That would be the easiest solution. There are also other options besides whole-grade acceleration, so keep in mind that getting "stuck" in preK and moving early to K are not the only possibilities.

    And I wouldn't be so sure that she is not actually reading! smile


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    So first off sorry it took me so long to reply. Life went nuts for a bit but we're back on track and healthy which I couldn't be more grateful for.


    Unfortunately in my state there is no option to start kindergarten early. Her school mentioned possibly homeschooling K early and if we still decided to send her the legacy school route reevaluate once she enters the classroom.


    It's up in the air due to cost; her papaw really wants her to go but my nephew finishes HS the May before she starts kindergarten so he's crunching numbers to see if he wants to do it.

    He has tentatively agreed to split the costs with me if we feel she's going to be forced to work at grade level in public school. Which knowing the state I live in she will be till at least 2nd grade.

    According to the private school she legally can't start K till after she turns 5 but they said if we homeschooled it earlier they'd work with us because K isn't a state requirement here but they have to be 6 to enter 1st grade.

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    No worries! Pretty sure a lot of us have been experiencing twists and turns of life. Glad to hear you are all healthy, though.

    If homeschooling K gets her into 1st a year early, then that might be a reasonable option. Although fair warning, you may find that homeschooling becomes increasingly attractive the longer you do it!


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