My son is 4 years old with a November 14 birthday. In California, the cut-off date for kindergarten is Dec. 2, although this is changing in 2012. So, for the past four years, my husband and I have been agonizing over what to do, send him to kindergarten at age 4 or wait a year. His preschool teachers evaluated him at then end of the year and although he passed academically and showed kindergarten readiness, because of his age, they recommend the gift of a year and to send him to kindergarten when he's already 5.
So, a couple of weeks ago, it was time for Kindergarten registration, and my husband decided we should go ahead and enroll him in regular Kindergarten. Last week, I went on a tour of the school(even though my 2 older kids went there already - it was fun seeing their old teachers, I felt like a celebrity because they all recognized me), and the principal said he highly recommends their new transitional kindergarten for kids like mine. It's a brand new program for kids with Sept. - Dec. birthdays and it's basically a 2 year kindergarten program. He said even though kids are academically ready for kindergarten, they may not be socially, size, and maturity wise ready yet.
So, after thinking about that, a couple of nights ago, my husband asked me to call the school and find out more about the transitional kindergarten. Luckily, the teacher is going to be a teacher my daughter had, so she said she would be willing to test my son at the end of the transitional kinder. year and see if he's ready for first grade academically and maturity wise. If not, he can just continue on in the program the next year. My husband liked this much better, and I did too, because that way if he's not ready, he's not "failing" kindergarten, and if he is ready, he's not stuck in the program. So, this morning(because it's the last day of school), I went to the elementary office and asked them to change my son's registration to transitional kindergarten.
Decisions you have to make as a parent can be so stressful at times! I sure hope this is the right decision. Have any of you had to make the same/similar decision for your kids? What did you do and how did it work out?Labels: My Kids