First, hi, first post here, although I've read a lot. I'm looking for some people who might have experience or direct feedback about where we are and our current decision surrounding Kindergarten for my YDS (5Y9M).
Pertinent Facts:
- Never has had any testing, do not know if he's gifted. At this time we are not concerned with pursuing testing.
- 5Y9M old, late September birthday
- WA state Kindergarten cutoff is must be 5YO by 9/1. Last year he was 4Y11M old, could not start. We were not interested in acceleration at that time so did not pursue.
- Has been in daycare since 8wks old. Daycare has Montessori-based academic program with certified teacher.
We've registered this child for Kindergarten because birthday falls in entering K range. The issue we are facing is that the daycare has an accredited Kindergarten (real teacher). He took this class for 2015-2016 with 5 other pupils (all boys, male teacher, was a hoot). He's passed all common core / state mandated subjects.
A few facts about his academic readiness, as I think we are about to do battle with the school district on considering him a transfer student...
- Can read. Currently reading books like "Ducks in a Row" with ease. Level 1 readers mostly. At Christmas he wasn't reading at all. He was barely reading in April. The light turned on sometime in the last 60 days and he's taking off. We are big readers, read every day to our kids and have since birth. He is doing summer library program so I expect he will grow still before school starts on 8/30.
- Can count to 100, skip count to 100 by 2s, 5s, 10s. Understands place value. Can do addition / subtraction to 20 easily. Knows odds / evens, greater than & less than, etc.
- His kindergarten teacher is recommending 1st grade.
- He can do monkey bars, skip bars, ride a bike without training wheels, etc. Is 40th percentile for height. He has an older brother and can physically keep up.
Our hesitation is doing 1st grade is by age this is an acceleration. I don't know that he's gifted, but he's bright. His older brother was in the same position and we repeated Kinder and my older son has been bored to tears for 3 years. Older child tested to Hi-Cap. I don't know if he's gifted either but as an example his MAPs are off the charts high in both reading and math.
I'm trying not to see younger child through the lens of older child. What questions should we be considering to execute this "skip". Overall I think for bright children our school system doesn't really work well. My ODS class was so focused on teaching 2nd graders to read, even a little bit, that there was zero attention to kids achieving at or above grade-level.
