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private schools wouldn't budge either. he was in a private school at age 2-3, and they wouldn't even consider putting him in for a few hours of the 4 year old class...

it's so sad.
i know he'll get there, but why wait now, when his brain is the freshest and he's eager to learn?

Don't stress it. We skipped K with the first born... it was awesome. I would have done it that way for #2 but I thought she needed the transition to building the behavior set of school skills. If it wasn't for the social wierdness that might develop in public school I'd opt in favor of being bored in K and skipping 1st (looks like a year of sight words).

GOOD LUCK!!

Ditto what kickball said (got to K and skip 1st). Our experience has been that it's not a state mandate but an individual district policy. Our district did require testing, and the tests had to show an age equivalency of 7.

We did early entrance into first, and we're not entirely sure it was the right move for a couple of reasons. The curriculum still doesn't match DS's needs and for the first half of the year the all day schooling was very, very hard on him. Now our kid does need a lot of sleep, so take it for what its worth. But we did underestimate the effect of being in school for a full day. Looking back on it, we might have done better for DS letting him go to half-day K and then doing more afterschool learning.

My two cents.

JB

JBDad, I've read something similar to what you are saying on other boards ie to go to K (more fun, more relaxed, more tolerance for behavior issues) and then skip 1st grade (more seat work, less tolerance, more writing that a 5yr old might not be ready for, etc).

Right. Each situation is different. Truth is you're really not going to know if it was the best decision until after the fact anyways. Luckily kids are resilient.

JB

We are in Ohio and just like kickball said, each school here has an early entrance policy on file. For our school district it was a certain readiness score that was higher for early entrance candidates than other students. Also, for each month that a child missed the cut off, the required score was higher.

DD10 went to a private pre-k and they brought up the idea of early entrance to us. They stated she would be bored with another year of pre-k. The public school district tested DD and she was 99.8 and 99.9th percentile in everything else except fine motor skills that were in the 80th percentile. They denied early entrance based on fine motor skills. Our private school was happy to have her and she started Kindergarten at 4 years old. It was the best situation for her anyway since she was in all day K instead of public half day program.

JJsMom, I hope you find some accommodation that works for you and your child.

Jen

Thanks everyone! DS5 is in all day pre-k. Here they do not have half day pre-k or k. So the time in a classroom environment won't be an issue. He will also know some kids already in k this year that will be in 1st next. He's shy, but not around kids and not when he finds something interesting or challenging. AND I figure worse case scenario is it's NOT good for him to move him up, and we hold him back to be with the kids he's with now.

He actually LOVES to sit down and WORK rather than play outside or games, etc. So the desk thing won't be an issue for him either. He's quite mature for his age, even though he has his "definitely still a 5 year old" moments from time to time. I honestly think that he is on a 2nd grade level (at least 3rd for reading), but I would never push that far b/c I think he would be lost socially, etc.

DD3 could easily be in the pre-k class this coming year, but she has the late bday as well. While socially she would be fine skipping ahead, she is no where near as advanced as DS5 was at her age. So even though she would be capable, the boredom factor won't be as big of an issue as it is with DS5.

I called about early entrance and our county (don't know about the state) says flat out - no early entrance. Unless.. we send our dd to private k and then move her to 1st. We'd have to sign a waiver that we'd agree to put her in K again if she couldn't handle it. Wonder what the exact wording of that waiver is.

I really have no idea right now whether it will even be a good idea for dd-almost-3, but I wanted to see what to plan on.
I also wonder if a home-schooling curriculum would suffice for the 'private' k requirement.

I don't know about your state, but pre-k and k are not required here. However, I have no choice but to work, and DS5 is in the state funded pre-k now and will go to k in the fall (unless that changes, and he starts 1st). But I'm not sure about the home-schooling on either of those levels.

I also had the same issue with our school and county. But I haven't pushed the state yet (inquired, but not pushed). I do know that from the state site (again, not sure about VA, but...), that there are exceptions to the no early entrance rule here. there's just so many hurdles to jump to be considered at all. those will be worked on this summer. unfortunately for us, I am registering DS5 next week for K, so there isn't much time to get many of the tests/docs needed (totally my fault).

halfway down this page might help you:
http://www.townhall.state.va.us/L/viewcomments.cfm?commentid=2593

I am also in a state/district with a hard and fast no early entry- no exceptions policy. Must be 5 before September 30th for K and must be 6 before September 30th for 1st.

Our school did agree to a compromise with us. DS6 attends K in the morning and then 1st in the afternoon. He is officially on the books as a K student.

IMO, I would not ever do this again since my child now attends 2 classes that are not challenging instead of 1 class. I currently look at it as free childcare since I work full time and K is only half day in our district. Live and learn, I guess.