Our son is in pre-K in a bilingual French-American school in the Bay Area.
Anyway, the question put to me is, does he go to Kindergarten or skips to 1st grade? Do we hold back his intellectual development until his emotional development catches up to his age? or is his emotional state tied to his intellectual advancement and we should instead nurture the latter?
My son went to a French-American school, too. I thought I'd offer some advice specific to the French system, if that helps.
1. French students learn cursive writing in first grade. Because of this, if there's going to be a skip of a very early grade, I'd recommend Kindergarten/Grande Section over First/CP any day of the week, especially if your son has good fine motor skills. They spend a lot of time on writing, and it may prove to be a good challenge.
2. They also start the rules of letter sounds in 1st/CP, so again, it's a good year to attend.
A boy in my son's school skipped 1st, and his father told me that they had to do a lot of work to prepare him for it.
3. The first grade will also be better able to give your son work that's appropriate for him. The kindergartens are mostly geared toward learning letters, sitting still in circle time, writing your name, and very basic mathematics.
I understand about the emotional maturity aspects of the skip, too. It's hard. My son was labelled as being behind that curve, but looking back on it, I think he was frustrated because the work was too easy for him. Plus, at my son's school at least, the administration was understanding about little kids (defined as 2nd grade and under) and how they behave.
Another advantage of a very early skip is that younger kids accept big changes like this more easily than older ones. Plus the kids in the new class will still be very little and also more likely to accept it immediately because teacher and big guy in the principal's office said it's a good idea. My daughter skipped kindergarten; I'm not sure anyone noticed. We took her to a new school recently for an interview, and THEY didn't even notice. I had to tell them afterwards.
Are you or your wife native or reasonably fluent French speakers? If so, this would make a 1st grade skip easier.
A skip seems like a strange idea when it's first brought up. At least, it did to us. But after it had happened, it became clear pretty quickly that it was the right thing to do. Obviously, not every skip works out perfectly, but nothing in life is guaranteed. So I'd advise you to read information you find here and perhaps at
Hoagies gifted education. HTH,
Val
