Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments 5-year-old moving to first grade?

Hi everyone,

Although my daughter is not labeled as gifted, I am hoping to get some other opinions on our situation.

The reason I am writing to all of you is to get your opinion on our situation so that we make the best choice for our daughter for next school year. If you have time (and I am a teacher myself, so I know time is something we all need more of during the day!), I would sincerely appreciate your input.

Our daughter is currently in the Kindergarten program at a private school affiliated with our church. It is a Montessori type school, although doesn't have that accreditation. She entered K as a four-year-old (she turned 5 on January 11th this year). She was in preschool at the same building, and we had noticed that she was getting bored even during the previous school year, so we had her tested for Kindergarten readiness with the Bracken assessment two weeks into this school year. She scored off the charts in every area, so after careful consideration with the teachers and admin, we moved our daughter into Kindergarten. It was difficult at first because our daughter was accustomed to playing more in preschool, but after a couple of weeks she began to thrive. She now knows all of her sight words and can spell all of them on paper and aloud, and she now reads all of the Dr. Seuss books (or at that level) aloud to us. In math she has particularly excelled, counting to 100 by ones, fives, and tens, as well as doing addition, subtraction, and beginning multiplication. (and she is a �pattern queen�, identifying patterns and relationships between numbers). Our daughter is mature for her age, psychologically and socially (and physically, wearing a size 7/8 in clothing and 1 in shoes), but she sometimes �acts her age� (which she is supposed to do!), especially after baby brother was born last April. We do her schoolwork every day, and after that we let her play as much as she wants for the rest of the afternoon and evening so she still gets to be a little kid.


I don�t want to get special treatment for our daughter, but I also don�t want her to get frustrated having to repeat curriculum in Kindergarten, regardless of where she is. She enjoys learning and enjoys being challenged, and she is a highly creative child (always drawing, creating stories and acting them out, singing, etc.). However, this creativity could be a disadvantage for her because other kids don�t always know how to respond to her, especially if she enters 1st grade next year and is already a year behind the other students age-wise. I know that she could be tested for gifted/talented at some point during elementary school, regardless of where she attends.


We are considering these options (and why we would not choose them):

1. Continue attending elementary (K or grade 1) at the private school where she is now (*note that we can barely afford tuition this year, let alone next year...)

Although we like having all three of our children (ages 5, 3, 1) in the same place (school, preschool & daycare in one building), I am concerned that a private church-based school is not the real world, where our daughter would have to learn to work with many others in her classroom. Right now there are only six students in her class, and although in conversations I�ve had with admin there, I don�t think our daughter would be best served by being �insulated� from the rest of the world.



2. Attend local elementary as a Kindergartener in the PM class � daycare in mornings at the same private school she is now.

If our daughter repeats Kindergarten at the local elementary, she would likely be in the PM class and be at the private school for daycare in the mornings. That is right back to where we are now except that she would have to travel during the day. I would prefer that she is in school all day in one location or another, and I think she would get frustrated or confused with expectations at two different schools at the same time.



3. Attend local elementary as a 1st grader.

Our daughter may not be ready for the rigor (and standardized testing) in 1st grade. Although she has learned quite a bit already and is in the �student mode� mentally, my biggest concerns are that she would be a year younger than everyone else in her class and miss out on things down the road (milestones like getting a driver�s license as a 16 year old � she would be a senior at 16 for half the year). I also think that she may be overwhelmed at the difference between Kindergarten and 1st grade expectations.



4. Attend the urban city school district (where I teach HS) as a Kindergartener or 1st grader.

Since I am a teacher in a nearby urban city school district, I can easily enroll our daughter through inter-district enrollment and take her to school (I have first period as a planning period next year). My two biggest concerns: 1) discipline issues resulting from fewer opportunities and lack of reinforcement at home (this would frustrate both me and my daughter) and 2) rigor of the curriculum (1st grade in urban district where I teach may be equivalent to K in our local schools � many of my �A� students would be �B� or �C� students in our local schools, I�m sure). I love where I teach and love my students dearly, but I know the reality of my students� situations.


What are your opinions? Should we move her to 1st grade in our local school, move her to the city district where I teach, or repeat K as part of a 1/2 day program? (her current private K program is full day).

By the way, as good as our local schools are (rated "Excellent with Distinction" in Ohio), they had to cut art, PE, and music for elementary due to budget cuts. I am a music teacher and although not licensed to teach art, I have taken years of art lessons and am confident in my ability to make sure that our daughter gets art education.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and respond to me. I truly appreciate your consideration of our unique situation, and I welcome all of your thoughts and opinions.

First grade.

I vote for 1st grade, too. My dd is currently in first and it remains a struggle for us to undo the damage we did by putting her in classrooms where she was ready to learn, but knew everything already. My dd is currently in an HGT classroom with a teacher who "gets" her, who insists she work to her abilities, and who gives her appropriate challenge by skipping her in math by a year, and in LA several years. The problem is, this is the first time she's ever been challenged, and she gets defeated easily when she has to work to understand something. Her 1st grade year is nearly over, and she's made progress, but I'm afraid it's going to be another year or two before she relishes a challenge, and realizes it's OK to make mistakes and to make an effort to learn.

Welcome! From what you've written, it seems that your DD already knows the kindergarten curriculum, so she would be repeating academics if you put her in kindergarten. Do any of the options you mention have gifted programming or acceleration available in early elem? You could investigate to see if she could go to kindergarten next year, but then be subject accelerated as appropriate. This is sort of what we did with our January birthday DS. He got some differentiation/pullouts in kindergarten with age-mates, then skipped first. First has a lot less opportunity to play, and is more focused on beginning to read and do very basic math, at least in our district.

Another thought is to request testing now with local public schools and get their advice. It is very helpful if you have some data when making these decisions.

If your DD is quite advanced, very bright, or indeed GT, she will have more chance of finding kids like her in a bigger classroom of kids.

Have you asked what her current teachers think? If she is in their k class, aren't they suppose to get her ready for 1st?
Sounds like she would be ready for 1st though:)

She would be attending a different school. In conversations I've had with her current K teacher, she says our daughter is well beyond what is taught in K. But... she can be emotionally babyish at times (i.e., acting her age), especially when she doesn't get something as easily as she thinks she should. Her current K teacher said she'd be fine going to grade 1, but my husband isn't convinced yet. I would like to see her go to 1st grade, but I also have to keep in mind that she is only 5 years old and still a little girl. I would have LOVED to have skipped a grade or two when I was a kid because I was mature well beyond my age, but my parents didn't let me and didn't have any resources to help them make a decision.

One aspect we worry about our kids grade skipping is psychosocial aspect. It sounds like she is ready for the skip.

But please bear in mind that many kids nowadays learn early and well ahead in kinder and 1st grade but tend to normalize in 2nd or 3rd grade. I would recomend testing for giftedness as well. Many public school districts require testing before allowing grade skipping anyway.


Good Luck!

Lots of factors to consider, but I'm just going to throw in my 2¢ about this:


I truly believe this is an unfounded concern. Kids this age need an environment that best meets their needs, not the environment that best approximates the situations they will eventually have to deal with. If the latter were true, we should put African-American kids into racist classrooms, right? I truly believe that the best way to prepare a kid for what they will have to deal with is to give them a strong foundation now. They will then have the resiliance to deal with the stressors of life later.

Kids are adaptable -- if she needs to switch to a larger, more varied peer group in a few years, she'll be able to make the switch.

I strongly agree with this.

If she's ready for 1st grade, send her to 1st grade. Her driver's license is something future you can worry about. Present you should enjoy the next ten years of your kid being challenged (or at least more challenged) in school.

-S.F.