Cut-off Ages Need Revisiting

5/9/2017

Last week, we had our four year-old son take the Kindergarten placement test. Yes, the same kid who prompted this thought:

I am convinced, through experience, that the terrible twos roll into the therrible threes and become the forrible fours.#parenting
— John Stevens (@Jstevens009) May 8, 2017

It isn't that he's not smart. If anything, it's because of his intelligence that he's such a difficult kid to handle at times. He is always busy, always wanting to play, and always exploring. So yeah, we had him take the test for Kindergarten. This is what he was supposed to know:

To be fair, he didn't get a perfect score on the test. The teacher facilitating the assessment is our older son's current teacher, and she said that he missed the lowercase q (the one without the hook or the curl; He called it a p instead).

That was it. He missed one letter.

They didn't test on rhyming (which he can do, especially if you let him start with duck, which I don't recommend).
They didn't test on sight words, which I'm not sure if he would ace because I don't know which 12 they would test.
They didn't have him draw, but he can certainly do it.

Therefore, this is a no-brainer, right? He's going to Kinder!!!

Nope.

Because his birthday is five days after the cut date, he cannot enroll in Kindergarten. Oh, and there are no exceptions. For the record, I am not upset with the school and their decision. They are following rules placed onto them by higher powers and I applaud that.

Now that we have gotten this far, here are our options:

Keep him in daycare for another year (not a bad choice; we like it there)
Enroll him in TK at another school, one different from his brother. After 6 weeks, he can test again (when he is 5) and get moved into Kindergarten and move schools
Fight like hell to get him into Kindergarten at his current school
Enroll him in a private Kindergarten, then next year move him to 1st Grade

I'm not aiming to be the difficult parent here; I'm trying to think about what will be best for an incoming student who has proven he can do the things required of a Kindergarten class.

What do you do, parents? Elementary teachers?

I'm all ears, here.

***Update***

Christine has the line of the week:

"This parenting thing - HARD."

Yep.

Happy "There's Gotta Be A Better Way" Fishing

8 Comments

Chrissy Newell link

5/9/2017 10:08:55 am

The fact that this is the Kindergarten readiness assessment is crazy to me. Those are Kindergarten standards, which means that students should be demonstrating understanding BY THE END OF Kinder, not to determine readiness. My 5 year old is currently in TK and just took our district's readiness test - they had him count as far as he could (he got to 100 and then asked if they would like to hear him count "by 100" - my favorite number was "ten hundred"), count 10 connecting cubes, write his name, recognize a few letters, draw a picture of himself, and cut something out. That seemed like fair game. His birthday is in March, so there was no wavering on our part as to whether he'd go to Kinder this year. However, my daughter is a mid-August baby and I often think about what would have happened if she had been born two weeks later - she would have missed the (arbitrary) Kinder cut off and that would have been CRAZINESS because that child is smarter than me.

However, there is some solid evidence that there is no harm and even some benefit to "red shirting" (even though this would be involuntary in your case) Kinder and waiting a year, especially for boys. My son has really benefited from TK this year (private school, so March birthday wasn't an issue), and I think it has really prepared him for Kinder. I wonder how your son would do with the school switcheroo if they deemed him "ready" a few weeks into the school year. Maybe stability is your best bet, especially if you like his preschool. This parenting thing - HARD.

John Stevens link

5/18/2017 08:39:28 am

Chrissy,

Thank you for this. After thinking a lot about it, we are going to put him into TK in the fall. Academically, he is ready, but going through all these changes and dealing with maturity makes us believe that he would benefit from a year in TK. I appreciate your insight.

Ivy

5/9/2017 12:52:49 pm

Wow, I was looking at the list of possible kindergarten placement test items... that's insane! I think my 4-year old daughter could only solidly do 7 items and I would feel like a failed parent if she was actually required to know all those right now. She was born in Nov 2012. Yes, I have been teaching her whenever she feels up for it. That list looks like a test which is designed to discourage parents. Like the previous commenter, I thought these were kindergarten standards.

I would say keeping your son in daycare may not be the best option--simply because I would like more intellectual stimulation for my kid, thinking in your shoe. (Though my daughter wouldn't hate the idea herself--since she would get to play mama or big sister finally when they play house at preschool.)

My daughter will go to TK next year and I like that. if your kid is so advanced, going to kinder, then first grade at a private school might not be bad.

John Stevens link

5/18/2017 08:40:37 am

Ivy,

Thank you for stopping by to share. To be fair, those are the things that kids are supposed to know *at the end* of Kinder, so you're good :)

After much thought, we are going to send him to TK for a number of reasons, none of which are to strengthen his academics.

Stacey

5/9/2017 08:31:07 pm

I went through the same thing with my daughter. We kept her at a preschool while she was 5. Now she has made it through Kindergarten with flying colors. She reports that her teacher said she was the smartest kid in the class, and she only claimed to be bored the first week of school. Additionally, she gets the distinction of being the kid with the most missing teeth. In the long run there are advantages to being the oldest kid in class. As the most mature kid, she should have less behavior problems and be more cognitively developed than her peers. In sports, she'll be bigger and have more hand-eye coordination. Hopefully, we will reap the rewards of scholarships for sports and academics in the future. The only down-side I can think of is if the kid gets bored. I'm trying to teach my daughter to work on challenging herself rather than waiting for others to challenge her.

John Stevens link

5/18/2017 08:41:53 am

Stacey,

Thank you for sharing this. My wife and I took your perspective into deep consideration and it played a role in us sending him to TK next year. I'm sure he'll be difficult for the teacher at times, but hey, I'm prepared for 12 years of that no matter when we send him in :)

Laura Duggan

5/12/2017 08:22:25 pm

I spent the first 10 years of my career as a Kindergarten teacher, and the last 15 in 3rd & 4th grade. Things may have changed a little bit. My advice is to think of his current academic achievement as just one small piece of the puzzle. There's so much else to consider!

How is his social emotional development? Does he work well with others? Is he interested in what they're doing? How long is his attention span for interesting activities? All of this within an age-appropriate context, of course. Thinking about the social skills that we want kids to have - cooperation and collaboration especially. Those start young!

Looking at the whole child, think about it in terms of his overall maturity level. How does he do with transitions? Does he still nap? His current teacher can give you a good gauge of this, including how he fits in with his class - does he seem younger than the others? or is he in the middle of the pack?

Now take a big step back, and another. Think about this in terms of the longer view. Would he do better as always being the youngest in his class? or as the oldest? Sometimes size/weight can have an impact - youngest and smallest can be a tough combination for some kids, but have no meaning for others. Some parents choose to "redshirt" just so they'll be the biggest in their grade. Assuming he progresses through the years on a regular schedule, how would you like him to hit important milestones? Driving as a high school junior or a senior? Going to college as a 17 year-old or at 18?

This may seem like a question about days or letters. But really, it's a decision that has a bigger impact than that. And there's no one right answer.

John Stevens link

5/18/2017 08:42:58 am

Laura,

Thank you for sharing. I appreciate your perspective and my wife and I have used it to help guide us on our son's placement. We are going to send him to TK after all, just to make it easier on him and to help him grow socially.