Kindergarten or first grade?

ARe you talking about hs or ps? If you’re talking hs, I’d teach her at whatever level she is, and call it the age she is. My DS is in kindy, though he is really working at a 1st grade level. I still call him kindy.

I’ve got a kinder girl too and I gotta tell you about our experience last week. It was enlightening!

Our girls are 8 and 5 (well, one turned 9 since this happened). Anyway, last week, the fighting and whining, and arguing and needling each other got to a fever pitch. Seriously, our girls are great kids, but the stress of the cancer, and the thought of moving, upcoming standardized testing, and some dog issues have been taking a toll on us all. Of course, I forgot all about that last week and just finally said, “We can’t have this. One of you has to go back to school.”

After much discussion and tears, we decided that the 5-year-old would go to a local Christian preschool/kindergarten just for the two months until the end of the year. Her sister did a whole year in ps for kindergarten, so we all kind of assumed it would be a great change of pace and maybe even be fun. Meet some new friends, learn some new things, right?

WRONG. We spent one whole day in the classroom; well, three hours is the “whole” day actually. It was nice. The kids were good, the teachers were caring and gentle and godly. The school was clean, the materials were exciting, the supplies were well-stocked. The classroom was neat and colorful. All good things. Except, the only things the children were being taught was how to be institutionalized. They learned how to store their backpacks, how to keep their hands to themselves, how to raise their hands, how to not fidgit, how to hang up their coats, how to line up, how to line up in order, how to line up quietly, how to line up quietly and look at the teacher and raise their hands to let the teacher know they were listening to her. They learned how to color and scribble as fast as they could on their “art” page so they could get back to playing and hitting each other with plastic horses. And they also learned how to make a “u”.

Even though I have to admit our schooling is far far behind in what I thought we should accomplish this year in K, we are lightyears ahead of those darling classroom kiddos. My dd5 is reading, coloring very neatly, she paints and is artistic for the sake of creating beautiful things, and she doesn’t rush through everything. And she knows all her letters, sounds, and loves math – she begs for harder and harder problems to do in her head. I’d say she’s more a first grade-like in her studies and behavior, but we still go with what the ps age dictates for grade.

I’m just suggesting that it doesn’t matter what grade level we give our children. In homeschool, they will likely excel far beyond what is happening in ps. Apples and oranges, really.

Bottomline, if she wants to learn, let her. HTH.

I have my daughter (also a summer birthday) in first grade according to the state records that we file because that is what her age would put her in.  Her work is slower, faster, or right on, depending on the subject. 

The only reason I could see doing an additional year of K would be if you knew she would eventually go to ps and wanted her to be ahead for the grade they would stick her in, or if you didn’t want her to graduate high school when she wasn’t even 18 yet.

The only reason I classify my ds is for the question he always gets “What grade are you in?” and Sunday bible class. When he was the age to be K in PS I told him he was in Kinder.  Prior to that I told him he was in preschool.  

Your plan for next year sounds great:)

I ahve to admit that I struggled a bit with this for my daughter, Echo, who is 7.  Mostly for the forms, because “Grade Level” is actually one of the things that we LEGALLY have to specify.  (I read the legislature.)  And it was a complicated question, because our city has multiple school divisions, who do things differently.   And – her birthday is right at the Dec 31st Cut-off!

So – in the school division we currently reside, this year she would be in Grade 1, no matter what.   But, a couple of miles away (like 2, litterally), she would almost assuredly be in Grade 2, because they have a 1 month fuzzy line on their cut-off – and believe me, if we had held her back, she would have been moved ahead.  (She read early, did math, early, etc.  The only problem would have been her handwriting.)

This was the first year we needed to register her – and I see no point on doing extra paperwork early!  (I did for Delta, as that gave us access to the Teacher’s Library and discounts at a fwe places…)

I thought long and hard – and decided to report her as Grade 2.  She will move to Cubs at the end of this school year (actually she will move up in about a month) instead of having yet another year of Beavers.  They usually do the Dec 31st cut-off – but as she is “In Grade 2” (and also obviously more than ready) – she gets to move up.   It also means that if for some reason she has to go to PS – she will (hopefully) be put in the higher grade, and so won’t be totally bored.  (Now mind you, that might mean she would end up in High School earlier than I’d like if in PS…)    She also likes being able to say she is in Grade 2 if asked.  

For a number of years she was in an older Sunday School class than she technically should have been (also a Dec 31st cutoff) – because it was agreed that she was too advanced for the class she was supposed to be in.  (For a while in her age class there would have been her (a January child), and a boy that was a December child – with her being very “mature” for her age, and him on the not-so-mature side – it was a BAD match.     But this year she was moved to be with her “age group” which means she is the oldest in the class.  There are more kids now, and the difference isn’t so pronounced.  The teacher absolutely loves having her, and she helps out in class a lot.  The class a year ahead of her is large, and the kids fool around a lot.  And the subjects that age are on a rotation, so the classes are actually learning the same things….

Wow – don’t know why I got into all of that!

I’d have to agree with the previous posts.  Is it for legal forms, just knowing what to tell people . . . ?  We legally have to notify our state the year our child is 7 by the 1st of September as grade 1 or highter.  Our oldest DD is 3rd grade, and since we did Kindergarten, the year she was 5, through a charter school at home, the state had her registered as 3rd grade.  We are required to do testing at the end of 3rd grade and DD struggles with reading, so I asked the school district to change her to 2nd grade because she does fit the age for that.  They changed it for me, so they think she is 2nd grade.  We still say she is 3rd grade, and she is on 3rd grade level in everything but reading.

My next DD does not have to be registered until next year.  We say that she is in 1st this year, but when we register her next year, we’ll still tell them 1st just so she never gets pushed and has another year before she has to take the testing.  But, she is not doing any 1st grade work.  She is almost done Queens 2nd grade grammar, Handwriting Without Tears 2nd grade handwriting, almost 1/2 done with MUS Gamma (3rd grade) math, reads on 5th grade level, does history/geo/Bible and science with her sister.

All that being said, pick what works best for you legally and socially.  Let your DD work on things that challenge her, but not overly.  Let her move at her own pace and enjoy the time together.

When we give out that information, I stick to where they would be in PS.  As far as Sunday School, I would be very hesitant to place her ahead.  My DD has recently started going to youth group and I wonder what these kids will be like in high school.  I’m not in a hurry for her to grow up and hang out with high school kids.  Right now they are fairly innocent, but I’m sure that won’t last.  We’ve already had some interesting coversations about things the kids talked about.    I’m very glad she was able to come to me with her questions!  

If your DD is ready for 1st grade materials, go ahead and start on them!  My DD is in K this year (she just turned 6).  She finished many of her K materials, so we just moved onto the next level.  My kids are all over the place grade-wise…I love that we can place them where they need to be for each subject.