Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School K early entry decision

Hi, I am hoping to get some feedback from anyone whose child entered Kindergarten early, or anyone who had the opportunity and decided against it, or . . . well, anyone, really. I am stuck and there aren't a lot of people I can talk to about this in person without feeling like I am coming off as bragging about my son.

DS is 4.5 years old, and has a late October birthday. Our state has a September 30 cutoff for K. With the rising popularity of redshirting boys I was kind of glad to have a child who would be old for his grade without being held back. Now I have read a lot about the lack of proof that redshirting is helpful, plus the reason behind the trend seems to be the study cited in The Outliers . . . about birthdays of successful hockey players in Canada? What does this have to do with kindergarten again?

Our school system has a pre-K gifted program. Children who qualify attend a three-hour class once a week during the school year. To test in you answer some questions, have the child's preschool teacher fill out some paperwork, then send it all in and wait to be called for a testing appointment with the psychologist. The paperwork was all sent in by mid-November, but it sounds like they had a backlog so we did not get an appointment for testing until the beginning of March.
He did well on the tests (WJ-III and RIAS I think?) and qualified for the program by a wide margin (a couple of the subtests he scored in the 99.9+ percentile).

The meeting to get his full results was not until early May. As the psychologist went over his results with me, she asked, "so he's going to kindergarten in August, right?" I pointed out that his birthday is a month after the cutoff so we did not plan to send him. She strongly urged me to consider early entrance. I did not even know it was a possibility -- we only did the testing so he could do the happy little half-day each week and be identified as gifted before starting K next year. With the fact that he's only a few weeks shy of the cutoff and beyond academically ready as it is, she said waiting another year will pretty much guarantee he will be bored and possibly lead to behavior issues down the line. I see the point. I was bored in elementary school and got in trouble for my behavior around 5th/6th grade. And I am sure DS is far brighter at his age than I was. Early entrance is on a trial basis for the first grading period. After the trial period is done, the parents/teacher/school psychologist meet to decide whether to continue or not. I worry that if we did early entrance and it didn't work out he'd have lingering negative feelings toward school next year.

My main reservation is that kindergarten is full-day, 8-3. Those are some long days and I know DS will be worn-out and wretched afterward. He is currently in preschool 9-3 two days per week. He's actually switching schools this summer because the school where he was requires pre-k students to attend 5 days to "get them ready for kindergarten". He likes his school but since I know he's fine academically I didn't see the use in sending him every day before I really had to.
His behavior at school is generally fine (occasional reports of not listening, etc.) but sometimes I think six hours of being good makes him extra crazy afterwards. He's in a major defiant/button-pushing phase and will hit/bite/yell at us when we tell him to do something he does not want to do. Again, he's not doing this stuff at school but I worry that so many hours will push him over the edge at school and/or we will have a kid who is constantly miserable to deal with at home.

AND . . . it sounds contrary to the crazy behavior, but DS can also be overly sensitive to what he perceives as rough play, pointing fingers for guns and things like that. I know boys are boys and he will probably encounter more of that in K. However, bombs are evidently a-ok with him as that is his usual source of destruction of any block creation. He's also still clingy most days when I take him to preschool, but he's fine when I leave.

I wish we had half-day kindergarten, I would do it in a heartbeat then. To summarize:

+ Very bright kid, not far past age cutoff, fairly big for age so no worries about being obviously younger.

- Very emotional/sensitive kid, may be somewhat emotionally immature for his age, grouchy after long days and may leave giant teeth marks on mom's arm as a result.

I wish we had gotten the testing done sooner so I had longer to figure things out.
I am terrified of making the wrong decision, but I don't have a crystal ball to tell me the right thing to do . . . help!

How about putting him in a part-time preschool, and then skipping straight into 1st grade afterward? At that point, he'll be on the same track as if he started kindergarten early, without having to go to school full time the entire upcoming year. You could switch to full time preschool half-way through the year if you were concerned about the shock of going to 1st grade full day after part-time preschool.

We are in a similar spot. Our son is going to a half day private K in the fall. It is only 3 hours a day. Our public school is only half day so maybe half day programs are more common here.
I'd call around and see if there is something like that in your area. They were really open to the idea when we told them it was recommended by a doctor.

We went to a psychologist for testing of our January birthday DS when he was 4, with the plan to listen to the advice of the psychologist as to whether to do early entry or not, since I was for it and DH was against it. Our DS scored in the PG range, and the psychologist told us that we may as well let him play another year, go to kindy with agemates but ask for differentiation, and then skip 1st, which in our area is basically a learn to read and do very basic math year. She said he'd likely need accommodations througout his schooling, and may as well wait a year. In hindsight, this worked out well for us. DS was very sensitive and clingy at 4, and he refused to learn how to write before he started K, he's smaller than most agemates, and he had never done FT school before. The kids do a lot more fun things in K and learn to "do school". The school did end up differentiating and DS then skipped 1st. The only issues he has had was with writing - he's still not so great at it, but it's getting better now in 3rd. We found that our skip to 2nd wasn't enough in our local school and transfered to an accelerated program for HG kids. Because your district has GT started in pre-K, maybe things will work out better for you.

Kindergarten with agemates, even with a bit of differentiation, was still tough for DS academically. He was way ahead of everyone else. Also, it was a loooong day, and DS was pretty crabby and tired for the first few months, like most kindergartners I imagine. I think it would have been worse if he had gone straight to first, though, just because it was more academic.

Just some of my thoughts and experiences. You know what will work for your kid best. It can't hurt to investigate options though (the likelihood of the school letting your kid skip first if necessary). Also, can you ask the psychologist a few more questions and let her know why you're unsure about early entrance? Maybe she'll have some good answers.

ETA: There was actually a half-day option at our kindergarten, but most kids didn't do that. We chose not to because it was just the academic subjects, which seemed kind of like torture to a kid who already knew it.

I'm with the other posters who mentioned skipping 1st rather than K. Can you inquire as to whether that is a possibility and also whether you can get a commitment from the school that they will allow this so you don't wind up with a "sorry, we can't do that" later down the line when you've set plans based on going that way?

I'd agree that he sounds likely to be bored, but I also agree with what others have said: 1st grade was a much tougher year for both of my kids. My oldest rebelled b/c of the major structure, drill on sight words, etc. She was miserable and depressed to the point that we took her out and homeschooled for a while. My youngest simply checked out, entertained herself with daydreaming, and learned absolutely nothing that year. That set the stage for schools to question her ability even in the presence of IQ scores and for her to develop some pretty poor work habits.

My DS has a 11/5 birthday and mid year skipped last year from 1-2. I never thought of sending him early but he did go to an all day K that was all and all an OK fit - not great but livable. They grade accelerated him in reading because they had an existing program for that and because all day K is not required here, they did have some enrichment time. My DS has an ADHD diagnosis (just recently) and is socially/emotionally immature compared to most of his 3/4 grade HG classroom mates - some have been 10 since the fall.

Anyway, I would take it year by year. I think you know what your DS can handle right now and that your concerns about all day and everyday school are warranted (it is a whole different ball game once they start "real" school). But, if you decide on one more year of prek, I would be thinking about what you actually want for him from K (subject/grade acceleration, other accomodations, etc.)and how likely you are to get it. I never thought of early entrance because in all honesty, I was naive about what school would offer my DS - it wasn't that I did not think he was that smart, I just thought the school would be better equiped to accomodate him. Even so, looking back I would not have put my DS in early because he was too immature at the time and I don't think he would have been able to sit still for long periods.

In terms of getting him to stop biting at home, I suggest he Transforming the Difficult Child workbook.

Please don't worry about making the wrong decision - we do the best we can with the information we have at the time we make the decisions for our little ones. Good luck.

My DS4.5 also has a late October birthday. Cut off here is Sept. 1st. We are going ahead and skipping him into K early. Actually we had him skipped into PreK-4 early last fall. There was no way he would have been able to do a 3's program at that point. He has been doing 3 hours/5 days per week this past year in PreK-4 and that has worked great. He fits well with the children although academically he is still way ahead.

Moving from 2 days up to a full day K should be an OK transition. We moved from 2 days (3 hours) to a full 5 days last year when DS was still 3 and he did fine. Might be a bit of a transition period for him but overall I would suggest you send him. Usually they do have rest time midday in K. At least at the private school we are sending DS.

Holding him back a year is a long time for an advanced kid to wait for more challenges. I feel you might run into the risk of severe boredom in the upcoming year. Skipping into K seems like a good option to me.

I have a similar situation with my son. I would highly suggest early enqnce to K, despite your concerns. He will adjust to the longer day. Waiting another year for K may prove to be more difficult than adjusting to a longer day. His birthday is so close to the cutoff anyhow... I would also suggest meeting with the school to discuss differentiation for K so that he is set up for success. With his current reading level, he will undoubtedly need some accommodations/differetiation in the curriculum to stay engaged. I have found that most of my sons behavioral issues greatly decline when he is stimulated academically. Be prepared for a challenging transition. Many kids have a tough time transitioning to full day school in K. You could always work with the school to attend half days and enrich at home in the afternoons, if needed. I have heard of lots of success stories with early entrance, although it is essentially only equivalent a grade level skip and would therefore still require differentiation in the curriculum and possible acceleration in the future. Best of luck to you, whatever you decide. Yor district offers a GT Pre-k program, so it sounds like you are in a good place.

My oldest entered K early and my 2 youngest will start K a year early this coming fall so 3 of 4 of mine have gone in early. Obviously I'm for it, the one child I have who did not go in early has been so bored he cried for a month each morning about having to go back to school. This fall he will spend half his day in a higher grade to make up for it. The full day isn't as bad as it sounds, and your child would not be the only one in class adjusting to full day. Most of the kids are not used to it and they keep them active. K is a fun year full of discovery and fun, I'm sure he'd rather do that than sit and relearn what he already knows!

this thread is old enough where you've already made your decision i am sure. but we grade skipped our son into k a few years ago. BEST.DECISION.EVER. he starts second grade tomorrow. so he is not the tallest kid in class, but he is still at the top academically, he LOVES school, he is very popular, and he still has to have support in all subjects to accelerate even more. when i see the grade he is supposed to be in walk by, i can't imagine him fitting in there AT ALL. he has no age or academic peers in his class, but that is what the gifted saturday program is for at our local college. kindergarten was a difficult adjustment for him since he had never been to preschool, but he made it.