So just a bit of background - the school that she goes to now has a 2's, 3's, 4's and Kindy program. The nice thing about moving her to K here is that she gets to stay in a more nurturing preschool type environment while going to K - in addition, the K is very small -- only about 12 students in the class -- so there is less of a possibility she would get lost there and more of a possibility they might be able to meet her needs. However, the school is very anti-skipping and and very pro "these are our cut off dates and under no circumstances will they be changed" (strangely enough they are very much in favor of starting K late -- or as they like to put it, "giving your child the gift of an extra year") -- I do not believe they get too many requests to start K early. Nor do I think she has a concern for my child specifically - I don't think she really knows who my child is. But I am big into fighting senseless rules, so if I do come to the conclusion that starting early is right for my daughter, I would happily put up the fight. I do think that the final decision will not be made until later. But the contracts are due for her preschool/kindergarten December 1st (with a non-refundable $1,000 deposit), so we have to at least reserve a place for her somewhere. The reason why I decided to bring it up with the school at this point is because I wanted to make sure that I could sign her up for 4's, but retain the option of moving her to up to K later if we all agree that would be best (slots fill up fast here for both programs).... and if the school is absolutely adamant about her not moving to K there, I need to figure out if I would want to move her to K in the public school system, (which I am a bit more reluctant to do - and which would also likely be a bit of a battle) or put her in a private school somewhere else.. ugh makes my head spin.
I also would like to figure it out now (although, I do know it is very early) because I think there are things that we can do to ease the transition to K - perhaps I can do some play dates with some of the kids who will be in that class during the spring, so that she will have some familiar faces on day one...just one thought.
We certainly could send her to 4's then skip into 1st grade, but then she would have the stress of both the skip and all of the things that go along with starting elementary school (taking the bus, being in an unfamiliar environment, new kids etc..)If she could stay where she is and just do the kindy instead of the 4's, that would kind of be nice...
She reads at a second grade level (now) and has good math skills too - so even if we move her ahead one grade, that will not completely meet her intellectual needs -- but it will be marginally less ridiculous than putting her fours where she will be taught her letters and perhaps, some letter blends.
Thanks everyone for your comments, you are really helping me think this through.
