After my depressing visit to the local public school, this was like peeking into paradise. A tiny K-6 school with 48 students, in a charming homey building, with a focus on love of learning. They get a lot of super-smart kids, and challenge each child at their own level. They do music and art and cool science experiments and work on creating an emotionally safe environment of mutual respect. They don't do standardized testing. They do Spanish three times a week. They produce a literary magazine of the students' writing once a year. I want this school! It's even within my financial means (barely).
So now a little voice in my head is wondering whether I should consider skipping Hanni into K a year early.
In the "pro" column:
- Academically she is pretty much kindergarten-ready, with still a year and half to go. By September she'll be more than ready (academically).
- Her preschool is great for art and play, but in terms of academic topics (bugs, the seasons, space, dinosaurs) she is ready for so much more on any topic than what they offer.
- Even though this school tries to challenge each kid, I suspect she would still have her needs met better if she's grouped with slightly older kids. If I wait another full year, she may be bored by their kinder curriculum.
In the "con" column:
- Preschool may not be any great challenge for her intellectually, but it's a play-based environment, and I want her to have an abundance of self-directed play in her early years. So part of me wants to keep her where she is as long as possible.
- Her social-emotional development may not be up to speed for Kinder. She's definitely not there now (just rounding the corner to 4 years old), and I'm not sure she will be five months from now.
- If we give up her spot at preschool and then she bombs out of this school, then I'm really in a pickle.
Anyone else wrestling with this, or wrestled with it in the past?
