We put Chloe in Kindergarten last year with the thought that she would repeat given she’s the youngest in her class. When we switch her over to a public school she won’t meet the October cut off date to be 6 years old. However when I went to the town Board of Ed to register her as a Kindergartener, they told me if she passes her reading and math test, she may be eligible to go right into 1st grade.
What!? This changed everything. So in the past couple of weeks, I took Chloe to a couple different schools to meet with a few different teachers to get tested and in the end, she qualifies academically. Now the decision is really up to us… and I’ve been talking to other parents, reading and researching about being the youngest in the class and how it affects the child… I was so stressed out about this decision and there was no absolute right answer. Every child is different and our decision today will impact her for the rest of her life.
So we asked Chloe how she felt about it:
Me: Chloe, do you really want to go to first grade? You would be the youngest in class and the other kids will be bigger than you.
Chloe: … (thinking)…
Me: What do you think Chloe? I know you were excited about going to first grade but do you think you are okay with being the youngest?
Chloe: Mommy. I’m small but I’m smart. I think I’m ready.
Me: Really? Wow, what a great answer! I’m so proud that you’re so confident!
Chloe: Yay!!
Me: But Chloe, if you do go back to Kindergarten, you can be with kids with your own age and it would be Easier.
Chloe: EASY?
Me: Sure, you’re already reading and you’ll probably know a lot of stuff that you will be learning already.
Chloe: Hmmm… easy…. Okay! I want to go to kindergarten again!
We both laughed so hard when she like the idea of school being easy. Haha, then I thought, why not? Let’s make it easy for everyone and just go with it. Plus, we didn’t want her to go off to college when she’s 17 because that’s one less year with us.
August 16th, 2012 at 9:32 pm
simply love the second photo of Chloe. I have been down with flu bugs since last Tuesday, not in the mood of doing anything at all. Getting slightly better today and i visited your blog, Chloe’s beautiful smile makes my day. I have two sisters who are December babies. They started really hard in school, they both ended doing very well [better than me a January baby (ha)]. Chloe is right – easy sounds like a good idea. She will get graduate in the end, what is that one year anyway.