Accelerating a kid into Kindergarten (credit, preschool, bus)

[DeadPool1998]

My son will be 4 just before Xmas. This will likely make him one of the oldest kids in his class if he enters school in Suffolk county at the suggested age.

Is there any way to accelerate him into Kindergarten? What are the rules? Have any of you done this, and what are the impacts?

[dman72]

Did you see my thread on holding my son back?

I have a friend who missed the cut off by 5 days, so he was always the oldest kid in my class other than those who were "left back" If anything it helped him. He wasn't particularly big, but he would have been quite small comparatively if pushed a year ahead. I think the benefits to being older in a class outweigh those of being younger. The only benefits I've seen seem to revolve around saving money on child care and having your kid enter the workforce earlier.

[DeadPool1998]

Originally Posted by dman72

Did you see my thread on holding my son back?

I have a friend who missed the cut off by 5 days, so he was always the oldest kid in my class other than those who were "left back" If anything it helped him. He wasn't particularly big, but he would have been quite small comparatively if pushed a year ahead. I think the benefits to being older in a class outweigh those of being younger. The only benefits I've seen seem to revolve around saving money on child care and having your kid enter the workforce earlier.

Your response assumes motives that I don't have. I would be paying for private school anyway, so there would be no net financial gain by "day caring" him.

This case is unique as my son is very tall, athletic and precocious. He was three in preschool at Montessori this year, and is quite advanced in mathematics and reading - though not pushed.

Anyway, he feels behind because his class is mixed age, and has a capacity to focus and concentrate unlike the kids around him. He gets annoyed at Barnes and Noble during reading-time because of all the fat disgusting parents with their whip cream mochas and their screaming kids who disrupt the stories for him, and the bottled-water soccer moms who don't believe their kids are annoying to anyone else despite their screaming and running around. He's quite an anomaly.

So, back to my original question, are there rules regarding this sort of thing?

[dman72]

Originally Posted by DeadPool1998

Your response assumes motives that I don't have. I would be paying for private school anyway, so there would be no net financial gain by "day caring" him.

I assumed no motives whatsoever on your part, I was referring to what I had read in articles and seen in terms of feedback from people regarding holding my son back.

[Gue]

Originally Posted by DeadPool1998

He gets annoyed at Barnes and Noble during reading-time because of all the fat disgusting parents with their whip cream mochas and their screaming kids who disrupt the stories for him, and the bottled-water soccer moms who don't believe their kids are annoying to anyone else despite their screaming and running around. He's quite an anomaly.

So, back to my original question, are there rules regarding this sort of thing?

Wow..Well since you will be paying for a private school it would be a good place to start asking the private schools what their rules are.

If you want your son to stay with the same age kids as him when he starts T ball, soccer etc, then you may not want to push him ahead in school because you will have to show a birth certificate & he will be playing with kids that are a year behind him in school.

By the way our soccer league & T ball league start at 4 years old.
But it doesn't sound like you will be a soccer mom anyway.

[Chrisk327]

The answer is private school for K if that what you want. They have different cutoffs and if your son completes an accreditted K program, the public school will accept that and move him to first grade.

Some kids it works well for, others struggle and shouldn't have been pushed. Talk to the private school and see what they say, then talk to your district and make sure they would accept completing a K program at that school

[nancy thereader]

Please do not accuse each other of being "trolls". I am not sure why that even happened on such an innocuous thread.

[OhBeeHave]

My neighbor's lament was similar when she felt her 'exceptional son' was unchallenged in Montessori. She wanted to push him ahead in the elementary school (in his case skip K) but the district wouldn't allow it. We heard about it every day at the bus stop. She didn't have the tact to not talk about this in front of the other children, and never gave any consideration to the fact that she was unintentionally hurting everyone else's feelings by suggesting her son was 'superior' to the other students at his level. She was as boorish as those water & whipped mocha moms you described.

Seeing as the assessment of your child is beyond that of his peers, your best bet would be to do what others suggested: speak directly with the private schools you are considering.

Best of luck.

[TomMoser]

Here on Long Island, every child is above average.

[Gue]

LOL I thought that was Lake Wobegon!