Cutting the Umbilical Cord

minDyG · #1 08-08-2007, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alum

Again, when one makes the assumption that all 4 1/2 yo children are not ready for a structured kindergarten, one is assigning an arbitrary maturity level to certain age groups. There are kids (not mine) who are born in the early spring of the following year that are ready for kindergarten at 4 years, 6 months. Having a kindergarten readiness test available for these kids will determine if the kid is truly gifted/precocious as opposed to what the parents think.

The difficulty here becomes evident when choosing whom to allow to take the test in the first place. If you argue that saying four and a half is an arbitrary figure agewise, then under that same argument, someone with an extremely bright and gifted three-year-old might think her child deserved to take the readiness test and, assuming the child passed the test, start kindergarden with the rest of the five- and six-year-olds. Physically and developmentally, it is more obvious to see where three years of age is nowhere near ready to start school with these children regardless of mental capacity; however, the lines are blurred when the age in question approaches closer and closer to the norm for kindergarden, which is usually five years old. I'm personally a fan of the September 1 cutoff, which is pretty standard in my area and AFAIK in my state as a whole.

carnation · #2 08-08-2007, 10:17 PM

I don't know if all the GA public schools have the Sept. 1 cutoff but a lot of the private schools have a later date. I like that. Several other fall birthday girls and I formed the majority of the top reading group all the way through school. While Sept. 1 works for most kids (especially boys), there are many of us out there who were glad to be able to get around it--we needed to be in school early.

AGDee · #3 08-08-2007, 10:53 PM

Our cutoff in Michigan is December 1st but they are continually talking about moving it back to September 1st. In our school district, kids take a readiness test if their birthday is after December 1st. You could fight for your child to take it a little bit earlier if you wanted to. Kids who don't pass the test go to Young 5's. The test includes an evaluation of social maturity as well as intellectual achievement and fine motor skills. My daughter's birthday is in mid January so she is one of the oldest in her class. She was advanced in all areas except fine motor skills. I chose not to have her take the test early because of the fine motor skills although she was reading long before she went to kindergarten. She is at the top of her class always and that's not a bad thing. I don't know if she would be at the top of her class if she was a grade ahead. I like the Young 5's concept in our district. If a child does extremely well in Young 5's, they sometimes go to first grade afterward. Most start kindergarten after Young 5's though. Development is so varied that a skill can suddenly appear or a child may mature in spurts. So, they may not pass the kindergarten readiness test but after one year, they may be ready for first grade. Flexibility is good. No matter what the cutoff date is though, there is potentially a difference in age of 364 days between the oldest and the youngest and that year can definitely make a difference.

In my mom's day, they had two classes each year. One started in September and one started in January. They graduated at different times. This seems like it would make things more individualized for each group, but it also seems like some aspects of it would be terribly complicated.

33girl · #4 08-09-2007, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AGDee

The test includes an evaluation of social maturity as well as intellectual achievement and fine motor skills. My daughter's birthday is in mid January so she is one of the oldest in her class. She was advanced in all areas except fine motor skills.

What are "fine motor skills"? Tying a bow & things like that? I could read before I started kindergarten, but I couldn't tie a bow till I was almost 7. I could do other things, just not that. It was some sort of freaky mental block, I guess.

alum · #5 08-09-2007, 10:52 AM

If you wnt to read more about this topic, it is being discussed here. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...69#post4541169

NutBrnHair · #6 08-09-2007, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

What are "fine motor skills"? Tying a bow & things like that? I could read before I started kindergarten, but I couldn't tie a bow till I was almost 7. I could do other things, just not that. It was some sort of freaky mental block, I guess.

So you were the kid with the velcro sneakers?!

kddani · #7 08-09-2007, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

So you were the kid with the velcro sneakers?!

So what if she was? Lots of 7 year olds have velcro sneakers. Why are you always picking on the ASAs?

Back on topic... I was "young" for my grade - my bday is Sept. 9th., our cut off was Sept. 30th. There were a couple kids younger than me- on in particular had a birthday in November - she went to private school kindergarten because the public school wouldn't allow her in because of her age, but then went to public school starting in first grade. She was certainly capable- she was in the gifted program with me.

If the cutoff were different, I would hope that my parents would've put me in private school as well. But back then (mid 80's) the helicoptering trend wasn't quite as strong. I was ready, but a lot of other kids wouldn't have been. I would've been bored and probably would've ended up skipping a grade along the way if I had started a year later.

Yes, I got my driver's license later than almost everyone else and couldn't drink legally until my senior year of college. But that wasn't too big of a deal.

My parents always allowed my brother and I to be very independent, and I thank them for that. Both of us are in good shape financially and have good jobs. I have friends and acquaintances who are up to to their eyeballs in debt because their parents always bail them out.

My boyfriend has a friend who is in his early 30's, has had numerous DUIs (thankfully never hurting anyone... he's in bad shape). He lives in Colorado. His parents allow him to stay on their car insurance because he'd never be able to get/afford it on his own.

That collegeconfidential message board is the biggest gathering of helicopter parents on the planet. It is disgusting how crazy some of these parents are. And we see a good amount of helicopter parenting here on GC as well...

33girl · #8 08-09-2007, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

So you were the kid with the velcro sneakers?!

I'm too old for velcro sneakers, silly...and even if I had been, I wouldn't have been making that fashion faux pas.

Munchkin03 - there was a documentary called "Go Tigers!" about a school/town in Ohio that absolutely revolve around the HS football team. Parents routinely held boys back from starting kindergarten, even if they were well past the cutoff, so they'd be bigger and more physically mature when it was time for them to try out for the team. It was crazy. Although I'm sure there are plenty of people around here who do the same thing.

NutBrnHair · #9 08-09-2007, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

I'm too old for velcro sneakers, silly...and even if I had been, I wouldn't have been making that fashion faux pas.

minDyG · #10 08-09-2007, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

I'm too old for velcro sneakers, silly...and even if I had been, I wouldn't have been making that fashion faux pas.

I loved my velcro sneakers. They had the Little Mermaid on them. And, they helped me make sure I had them on the right foot because I always knew the tabs went to the outside of the shoe.

DeltAlum · #11 08-09-2007, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

...there was a documentary called "Go Tigers!" about a school/town in Ohio that absolutely revolve around the HS football team.

That would probably be Massillon, OH. A former coach at the high school was a guy named Woody Hayes, I think.

"Back in the day," there were several huge football schools in Ohio including Cleveland East Tech, Cincinnati Princeton, Cincinnati Mohler (Notre Dame recruited Gerry F aust as head coach from the same job at Mohler -- which did not turn out well) and others. All of the Columbus schools were heavily into football, being in the figurative shadow of Ohio Stadium.

On a different subject, I think that the Columbus Public Schools must have worked off a calendar year for admissions for a while, because I dated a girl who was born on December 31 and she was the youngest kid in school for her entire K-12 career.

AGDee · #12 08-09-2007, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

What are "fine motor skills"? Tying a bow & things like that? I could read before I started kindergarten, but I couldn't tie a bow till I was almost 7. I could do other things, just not that. It was some sort of freaky mental block, I guess.

For her, it was writing, tying, etc. While she wasn't delayed in those areas, she wasn't advanced as she was with reading and math concepts. Interestingly, I had similar issues in 1st grade with my poor writing and coloring and my teacher gave my mom a list of crafts to have me do at home to further things along (like one of those loop looms to make pot holders). I still enjoy crafts!

ETA: My kids had the disadvantage of having an Occupational Therapist for a mom. I was constantly doing developmental testing on them, starting from birth with that Babinski reflex and pretty much always knew exactly where they were developmentally.

alum · #13 08-08-2007, 10:55 PM

Hmmm, I lost my post.

I should have started school at 6.5 instead of 5.5....

If you have a kid who will miss the cut-off AND you think he/she is ready, enroll him/her into the closest university laboratory school. Those schools (at least the one my siblings, my inlaw sibs, and I have encountered in various states) are much more concerned with intellectual ability as opposed to chronological age.

DeltAlum · #14 08-09-2007, 12:14 AM

I hated being one of the youngest in my classes all the way K-16.

Munchkin03 · #15 08-09-2007, 03:48 AM

What's the hurry? I'm sure people told my parents that I was "ready" for kindergarten at 4 1/2, but they knew I'd still be ready at 5. They declined an offer to allow me to jump forward a year because they didn't want me to get ahead of myself. Plus, they were aware that every year counts when you're that little as far as personal development and social skills go.

As much flack as I get now from clients who had no idea that I'd be "so young," I don't want to imagine what it would be like if I was a year or two younger.

In some areas, the opposite situation is occuring--some parents want their children to be in the top reading group, and to be better athletes than their classmates, so they're holding them back a year and enrolling them in enrichment classes or sports camps to achieve that goal.