Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Kingergarten vs. First Grade for a school start

I've got a 5.5 year old boy, missed the cutoff for Kindergarten last year. Can read at 2-3rd grade level; do math about 1-2 grade.

Does it make sense to put the child in kindergarten?

It didn't make sense for us, but each circumstance is different. We made the decision to skip K, but a lot of testing, soul searching, talking to teachers and the principal, etc., went into our decision.

Hello Siwash and Welcome!

It will help us if we know a bit more background. As emom says, each circumstance is different. Has your son been in a school environment before?

what kind of K program is it?

public, private, charter?
half day, full day?
ages/levels of other kids?
opportunities for enrichment, differentiation, acceleration?


etc.

Interesting responses. Here's more background.

Son, aged 5.5, homeschooled; no preschool. No TV at home. Good sense of independence. Interested in reading. Does math well.

We want to put him in parochial school. We know the kindergarten teacher has 20 years experience, and this is impressive to the nth degree to me. Haven't met the first grade teacher at all.

It would be a full day situation.

The boy has not been tested, and this is our first: we have no notion of how to interact with school people, or school-related tests.

In my case, at about third grade I was popped into fourth grade in the middle of the year; agonizingly missed my old classmates, and this affected my class work, and so I returned, happily enough, to my classmates. But I did spend a good deal of time staring out the window and raising a ruckus now and then. So I don't want my son to be in that situation, if he would be better occupied elsewhere.

I would take a close look at all the variables in the K-1st grade you are looking at (teacher, curriculum, classmates, recess, day length, etc). For our HG+ kid, K was actually pretty fun. More open ended, flexible, dynamic, with a very fun high energy young male teacher. There were a fair number of early readers in the class (although most plateaued just ahead of grade level).

1st was very rigid and structured and didn't do much for kids ahead of the curve. We ended up pulling out totally and homeschooling for 2nd (Now would be going into 3rd grade). We might have had success for a bit longer had we gone to K and then pushed to skipped 1st.

Edit to say that our son was also an "old" kindergartner (October birthday).

agreed! and try to explore all your options...

For instance, 20 years experience could work in your son's favor, or not. Do some searches to read old posts on this board.

when you've doen some research, post more questions. This is a safe and VERY supportive forum.

- EW

Our DD will skip K this coming year at a small private school. Because she's starting off with a skip, it will seem normal to her.

DS9 skipped grade 3 and changed schools at the same time. He complained about missing his friends at the new school, but he would have missed them anyway if he'd stayed at the old school due to the skip, so...it's hard to say. We found an after-school program where he sees his best friend from the old school twice a week.

Our thinking is that skipping K will a good for DD as an individual. She's very tall and very mature for her age and no one would ever ask if she's a year younger than everyone else (really, more than that due to a late summer birthday; she's still 4).

I agree with others that this option won't work for everyone. It might not have been a great option for DS9 at that age, for example. It's hard to say.

A boy in DS9's old class skipped grade 1. He's tiny (as small as the kindergartners) but had no trouble at all fitting in. He seemed mature for his age whenever I talked to him.

I agree with Master of None about starting now. It's hard to start too early with something like this.

My advice with private schools: never, ever give them a check until you have an agreement from them, ideally in writing (e-mail, letter, etc.). They want your money and it's your best bargaining chip (i.e. "We'd love to enroll little Timmy at your school, but there are a few details we'd like to nail down first.").

Be careful about buying into their marketing material too much, as well. They're trying to sell a product like anyone else. I wrote up a tongue-in-cheek analysis of school marketing efforts in April. It's right here.

Val

Agreed! 20 years experience might mean stuck in an antiquated style with no ability for flexibility.

My DS was nominally enrolled as a K but spent the entire day pulled out for different grades/subjects. Every kid is different in eaht they can handle, how they adjust. My concern would be how your DS will handle all of that structure? If he's never been to any sort of group setting, it may be hard in the beginning. In K they expect kids to have trouble staying in their seats etc...

This coming year he is being radically accelerated to 4th with 6th grade math online. My expectation is that it won't work. I appreciate the school trying but 3 years is a huge jump.

This is why I think a 1st skip would have worked better over a K skip for my DS. The kindergarten teacher expected kids to be high energy and coming from many different places. I will say our kindergarten teacher who was wonderful (considering he had 24 kindergarteners, 14 being boys) had only 2-3 years experience. Our not-so-great 1st grade teacher had closer to 20 years. Her expectations of 1st graders was very rigid. She didn't approach the kids as individuals IMO. YMMV of course!

It doesn't have to be one or the other, either. I started K many years ago and after they had done some assessments, was sent to first grade for reading. By the end of the year I was in first the whole day -- this was from a half-day K to a full-day first -- and went on to 2nd the next year. Sometimes a gradual skip works best for both the child and the school.

Are you me? We have no choice but to put DS5 in K this year... well, we have a choice, but it would require putting him through too much.