The Kindergarten Conundrum

Ratatosk · Jul 25, 2008

So it's been about two months since we decided to put the kindergarten issue on the back burner and still keep going back and forth. DS turned 5 in June.

Our district is switching to all day kindergarten 8:10-2:30 this fall. And meals are a major concern. Both the daycare director and we as parents struggle to get him to eat. The kid could care less about food as long as he has a glass of water and a salt shaker.

My MIL is soooo embarrassed about the whole thing. Yesterday she had a "chat" with DH. She visited with a friend of hers, who is a playground supervisor. She doesn't DARE visit with the three family members who are special ed/speech therapy specialists because IMO, she's ashamed and doesn't want the family gossiping about it. We've spoken to one of the cousins, who also has a June child and she said she often wonders if it wouldn't have been better to hold her daughter back as well. It's not a matter of intelligence -- basically readiness.

So I've pretty much been going back and forth. Mainly because this wasn't the way I was raised. One went to kindergarten at the age of 5, no question about it. Sigh!

Ratatosk · Jul 25, 2008

So it's been about two months since we decided to put the kindergarten issue on the back burner and still keep going back and forth. DS turned 5 in June.

Our district is switching to all day kindergarten 8:10-2:30 this fall. And meals are a major concern. Both the daycare director and we as parents struggle to get him to eat. The kid could care less about food as long as he has a glass of water and a salt shaker.

My MIL is soooo embarrassed about the whole thing. Yesterday she had a "chat" with DH. She visited with a friend of hers, who is a playground supervisor. She doesn't DARE visit with the three family members who are special ed/speech therapy specialists because IMO, she's ashamed and doesn't want the family gossiping about it. We've spoken to one of the cousins, who also has a June child and she said she often wonders if it wouldn't have been better to hold her daughter back as well. It's not a matter of intelligence -- basically readiness.

So I've pretty much been going back and forth. Mainly because this wasn't the way I was raised. One went to kindergarten at the age of 5, no question about it. Sigh!

Ratatosk · Jul 25, 2008

So it's been about two months since we decided to put the kindergarten issue on the back burner and still keep going back and forth. DS turned 5 in June.

Our district is switching to all day kindergarten 8:10-2:30 this fall. And meals are a major concern. Both the daycare director and we as parents struggle to get him to eat. The kid could care less about food as long as he has a glass of water and a salt shaker.

My MIL is soooo embarrassed about the whole thing. Yesterday she had a "chat" with DH. She visited with a friend of hers, who is a playground supervisor. She doesn't DARE visit with the three family members who are special ed/speech therapy specialists because IMO, she's ashamed and doesn't want the family gossiping about it. We've spoken to one of the cousins, who also has a June child and she said she often wonders if it wouldn't have been better to hold her daughter back as well. It's not a matter of intelligence -- basically readiness.

So I've pretty much been going back and forth. Mainly because this wasn't the way I was raised. One went to kindergarten at the age of 5, no question about it. Sigh!

Ratatosk · Jul 25, 2008

So it's been about two months since we decided to put the kindergarten issue on the back burner and still keep going back and forth. DS turned 5 in June.

Our district is switching to all day kindergarten 8:10-2:30 this fall. And meals are a major concern. Both the daycare director and we as parents struggle to get him to eat. The kid could care less about food as long as he has a glass of water and a salt shaker.

My MIL is soooo embarrassed about the whole thing. Yesterday she had a "chat" with DH. She visited with a friend of hers, who is a playground supervisor. She doesn't DARE visit with the three family members who are special ed/speech therapy specialists because IMO, she's ashamed and doesn't want the family gossiping about it. We've spoken to one of the cousins, who also has a June child and she said she often wonders if it wouldn't have been better to hold her daughter back as well. It's not a matter of intelligence -- basically readiness.

So I've pretty much been going back and forth. Mainly because this wasn't the way I was raised. One went to kindergarten at the age of 5, no question about it. Sigh!

Ratatosk · Jul 25, 2008

So it's been about two months since we decided to put the kindergarten issue on the back burner and still keep going back and forth. DS turned 5 in June.
 
 Our district is switching to all day kindergarten 8:10-2:30 this fall. And meals are a major concern. Both the daycare director and we as parents struggle to get him to eat. The kid could care less about food as long as he has a glass of water and a salt shaker.
 
 My MIL is soooo embarrassed about the whole thing. Yesterday she had a "chat" with DH. She visited with a friend of hers, who is a playground supervisor. She doesn't DARE visit with the three family members who are special ed/speech therapy specialists because IMO, she's ashamed and doesn't want the family gossiping about it. We've spoken to one of the cousins, who also has a June child and she said she often wonders if it wouldn't have been better to hold her daughter back as well. It's not a matter of intelligence -- basically readiness.
 
 So I've pretty much been going back and forth. Mainly because this wasn't the way I was raised. One went to kindergarten at the age of 5, no question about it. Sigh!

CFHockeyMom · Jul 25, 2008

Sean has an August B-day and this was an issue for me and his school as well. He was in pre-school and his teacher thought it might be best if he did begindergarten instead of all day kindergarten. My husband said no way. He wanted Sean to go straight to kindergarten and I nor the school could argue with his logic...

CF is a progressive disease and there is no telling when, somewhere down the line, Sean could get sick and miss a lot of school. If he were to miss too much he might need to be held back then so why waste it on delaying kindergarten.

I was nervous about it then but now, Sean's heading into middle school and I'm glad we did it.

Would it possible for you to volunteer as a lunch room mom? That way you could keep an eye on his eating? If not, maybe you could get to know whomever is the lunch room mom and she might be willing to help out. Of course, there's always the 504 plan and you could make sure he gets the supervision he needs at lunch time.

CFHockeyMom · Jul 25, 2008

Sean has an August B-day and this was an issue for me and his school as well. He was in pre-school and his teacher thought it might be best if he did begindergarten instead of all day kindergarten. My husband said no way. He wanted Sean to go straight to kindergarten and I nor the school could argue with his logic...

CF is a progressive disease and there is no telling when, somewhere down the line, Sean could get sick and miss a lot of school. If he were to miss too much he might need to be held back then so why waste it on delaying kindergarten.

I was nervous about it then but now, Sean's heading into middle school and I'm glad we did it.

Would it possible for you to volunteer as a lunch room mom? That way you could keep an eye on his eating? If not, maybe you could get to know whomever is the lunch room mom and she might be willing to help out. Of course, there's always the 504 plan and you could make sure he gets the supervision he needs at lunch time.

CFHockeyMom · Jul 25, 2008

Sean has an August B-day and this was an issue for me and his school as well. He was in pre-school and his teacher thought it might be best if he did begindergarten instead of all day kindergarten. My husband said no way. He wanted Sean to go straight to kindergarten and I nor the school could argue with his logic...

CF is a progressive disease and there is no telling when, somewhere down the line, Sean could get sick and miss a lot of school. If he were to miss too much he might need to be held back then so why waste it on delaying kindergarten.

I was nervous about it then but now, Sean's heading into middle school and I'm glad we did it.

Would it possible for you to volunteer as a lunch room mom? That way you could keep an eye on his eating? If not, maybe you could get to know whomever is the lunch room mom and she might be willing to help out. Of course, there's always the 504 plan and you could make sure he gets the supervision he needs at lunch time.

CFHockeyMom · Jul 25, 2008

Sean has an August B-day and this was an issue for me and his school as well. He was in pre-school and his teacher thought it might be best if he did begindergarten instead of all day kindergarten. My husband said no way. He wanted Sean to go straight to kindergarten and I nor the school could argue with his logic...

CF is a progressive disease and there is no telling when, somewhere down the line, Sean could get sick and miss a lot of school. If he were to miss too much he might need to be held back then so why waste it on delaying kindergarten.

I was nervous about it then but now, Sean's heading into middle school and I'm glad we did it.

Would it possible for you to volunteer as a lunch room mom? That way you could keep an eye on his eating? If not, maybe you could get to know whomever is the lunch room mom and she might be willing to help out. Of course, there's always the 504 plan and you could make sure he gets the supervision he needs at lunch time.

CFHockeyMom · Jul 25, 2008

Sean has an August B-day and this was an issue for me and his school as well. He was in pre-school and his teacher thought it might be best if he did begindergarten instead of all day kindergarten. My husband said no way. He wanted Sean to go straight to kindergarten and I nor the school could argue with his logic...
 
 CF is a progressive disease and there is no telling when, somewhere down the line, Sean could get sick and miss a lot of school. If he were to miss too much he might need to be held back then so why waste it on delaying kindergarten.
 
 I was nervous about it then but now, Sean's heading into middle school and I'm glad we did it.
 
 Would it possible for you to volunteer as a lunch room mom? That way you could keep an eye on his eating? If not, maybe you could get to know whomever is the lunch room mom and she might be willing to help out. Of course, there's always the 504 plan and you could make sure he gets the supervision he needs at lunch time.

domsmom · Jul 25, 2008

Hi I don't post very often, but we have been faced with the same dilema. My DS also turned 5 in June and we also have full day kindergarten. Although at the moment he is pancreatic sufficent, I completely understand where you are coming from. It took much soul searching and numerous meetings with the principal and superindendent. My son has yet to enter school and I have already become "that mother". My advice is to have a solid 504 plan in place before start of school. Meet with the teachers and talk to his daycare/preschool provider about his readiness. DS preschool teacher was a great help in our decision. Her and the other educators at the preschool feel that he is ready intelectually, emotionaly and socially. It's a hard decision. I know I would love to keep him home 1 more year, however in our case it would be more for me than him. Good luck I am sure whatever your decision it will be right for you and DS.

domsmom · Jul 25, 2008

Hi I don't post very often, but we have been faced with the same dilema. My DS also turned 5 in June and we also have full day kindergarten. Although at the moment he is pancreatic sufficent, I completely understand where you are coming from. It took much soul searching and numerous meetings with the principal and superindendent. My son has yet to enter school and I have already become "that mother". My advice is to have a solid 504 plan in place before start of school. Meet with the teachers and talk to his daycare/preschool provider about his readiness. DS preschool teacher was a great help in our decision. Her and the other educators at the preschool feel that he is ready intelectually, emotionaly and socially. It's a hard decision. I know I would love to keep him home 1 more year, however in our case it would be more for me than him. Good luck I am sure whatever your decision it will be right for you and DS.

domsmom · Jul 25, 2008

Hi I don't post very often, but we have been faced with the same dilema. My DS also turned 5 in June and we also have full day kindergarten. Although at the moment he is pancreatic sufficent, I completely understand where you are coming from. It took much soul searching and numerous meetings with the principal and superindendent. My son has yet to enter school and I have already become "that mother". My advice is to have a solid 504 plan in place before start of school. Meet with the teachers and talk to his daycare/preschool provider about his readiness. DS preschool teacher was a great help in our decision. Her and the other educators at the preschool feel that he is ready intelectually, emotionaly and socially. It's a hard decision. I know I would love to keep him home 1 more year, however in our case it would be more for me than him. Good luck I am sure whatever your decision it will be right for you and DS.

domsmom · Jul 25, 2008

Hi I don't post very often, but we have been faced with the same dilema. My DS also turned 5 in June and we also have full day kindergarten. Although at the moment he is pancreatic sufficent, I completely understand where you are coming from. It took much soul searching and numerous meetings with the principal and superindendent. My son has yet to enter school and I have already become "that mother". My advice is to have a solid 504 plan in place before start of school. Meet with the teachers and talk to his daycare/preschool provider about his readiness. DS preschool teacher was a great help in our decision. Her and the other educators at the preschool feel that he is ready intelectually, emotionaly and socially. It's a hard decision. I know I would love to keep him home 1 more year, however in our case it would be more for me than him. Good luck I am sure whatever your decision it will be right for you and DS.

domsmom · Jul 25, 2008

Hi I don't post very often, but we have been faced with the same dilema. My DS also turned 5 in June and we also have full day kindergarten. Although at the moment he is pancreatic sufficent, I completely understand where you are coming from. It took much soul searching and numerous meetings with the principal and superindendent. My son has yet to enter school and I have already become "that mother". My advice is to have a solid 504 plan in place before start of school. Meet with the teachers and talk to his daycare/preschool provider about his readiness. DS preschool teacher was a great help in our decision. Her and the other educators at the preschool feel that he is ready intelectually, emotionaly and socially. It's a hard decision. I know I would love to keep him home 1 more year, however in our case it would be more for me than him. Good luck I am sure whatever your decision it will be right for you and DS.

Transplantmommy · Jul 25, 2008

I just wanted to chime in here. I know that I am not dealing with sending a child to school yet but I wanted to say as a CFer who has a June birthday, I did start school at the age of 5. This was way back before we had all of these new fancy treatments that we have today and I think that I did fine. The way I look at it, is you could always start him and if something happens, he can either be pulled out and start the next year or stay in and repeat the next year. It is not just kindergarten that you will have to worry about with missing school. Honestly, missing school in Kindergarten is not as bad as missing school in the later years.

I became more ill when I started high school and in my Junior year, I missed 3 months of school straight due to pneumonia. All of my teachers thought that I would not pull through and not be able to pass my Regents exams. They wanted me to either go to summer school or repeat my Junior year. If this happened and I had started school a year later, I would have been two years behind and no child wants to be in school longer than they have to....especially when they are getting sicker as the years go by. I graduated high school on time in 1999 and went on to college and that was even worse.

I'm not saying that this will happen with every CFer but I just want to point out that if I had stayed back those 2 years, that would have put me into college graduation in 2004 and 2004 is when my PFT's really started to drop and I was told that I needed transplants. I may have not made it to my college graduation had that happened.

There is always a lot of thinking to do when a CFer is in school. The school has to be aware of it and they should do all they can to help the child with what they need...no matter what age. Good luck in your decision.

Transplantmommy · Jul 25, 2008

I just wanted to chime in here. I know that I am not dealing with sending a child to school yet but I wanted to say as a CFer who has a June birthday, I did start school at the age of 5. This was way back before we had all of these new fancy treatments that we have today and I think that I did fine. The way I look at it, is you could always start him and if something happens, he can either be pulled out and start the next year or stay in and repeat the next year. It is not just kindergarten that you will have to worry about with missing school. Honestly, missing school in Kindergarten is not as bad as missing school in the later years.

I became more ill when I started high school and in my Junior year, I missed 3 months of school straight due to pneumonia. All of my teachers thought that I would not pull through and not be able to pass my Regents exams. They wanted me to either go to summer school or repeat my Junior year. If this happened and I had started school a year later, I would have been two years behind and no child wants to be in school longer than they have to....especially when they are getting sicker as the years go by. I graduated high school on time in 1999 and went on to college and that was even worse.

I'm not saying that this will happen with every CFer but I just want to point out that if I had stayed back those 2 years, that would have put me into college graduation in 2004 and 2004 is when my PFT's really started to drop and I was told that I needed transplants. I may have not made it to my college graduation had that happened.

There is always a lot of thinking to do when a CFer is in school. The school has to be aware of it and they should do all they can to help the child with what they need...no matter what age. Good luck in your decision.

Transplantmommy · Jul 25, 2008

I just wanted to chime in here. I know that I am not dealing with sending a child to school yet but I wanted to say as a CFer who has a June birthday, I did start school at the age of 5. This was way back before we had all of these new fancy treatments that we have today and I think that I did fine. The way I look at it, is you could always start him and if something happens, he can either be pulled out and start the next year or stay in and repeat the next year. It is not just kindergarten that you will have to worry about with missing school. Honestly, missing school in Kindergarten is not as bad as missing school in the later years.

I became more ill when I started high school and in my Junior year, I missed 3 months of school straight due to pneumonia. All of my teachers thought that I would not pull through and not be able to pass my Regents exams. They wanted me to either go to summer school or repeat my Junior year. If this happened and I had started school a year later, I would have been two years behind and no child wants to be in school longer than they have to....especially when they are getting sicker as the years go by. I graduated high school on time in 1999 and went on to college and that was even worse.

I'm not saying that this will happen with every CFer but I just want to point out that if I had stayed back those 2 years, that would have put me into college graduation in 2004 and 2004 is when my PFT's really started to drop and I was told that I needed transplants. I may have not made it to my college graduation had that happened.

There is always a lot of thinking to do when a CFer is in school. The school has to be aware of it and they should do all they can to help the child with what they need...no matter what age. Good luck in your decision.

Transplantmommy · Jul 25, 2008

I just wanted to chime in here. I know that I am not dealing with sending a child to school yet but I wanted to say as a CFer who has a June birthday, I did start school at the age of 5. This was way back before we had all of these new fancy treatments that we have today and I think that I did fine. The way I look at it, is you could always start him and if something happens, he can either be pulled out and start the next year or stay in and repeat the next year. It is not just kindergarten that you will have to worry about with missing school. Honestly, missing school in Kindergarten is not as bad as missing school in the later years.

I became more ill when I started high school and in my Junior year, I missed 3 months of school straight due to pneumonia. All of my teachers thought that I would not pull through and not be able to pass my Regents exams. They wanted me to either go to summer school or repeat my Junior year. If this happened and I had started school a year later, I would have been two years behind and no child wants to be in school longer than they have to....especially when they are getting sicker as the years go by. I graduated high school on time in 1999 and went on to college and that was even worse.

I'm not saying that this will happen with every CFer but I just want to point out that if I had stayed back those 2 years, that would have put me into college graduation in 2004 and 2004 is when my PFT's really started to drop and I was told that I needed transplants. I may have not made it to my college graduation had that happened.

There is always a lot of thinking to do when a CFer is in school. The school has to be aware of it and they should do all they can to help the child with what they need...no matter what age. Good luck in your decision.

Transplantmommy · Jul 25, 2008

I just wanted to chime in here. I know that I am not dealing with sending a child to school yet but I wanted to say as a CFer who has a June birthday, I did start school at the age of 5. This was way back before we had all of these new fancy treatments that we have today and I think that I did fine. The way I look at it, is you could always start him and if something happens, he can either be pulled out and start the next year or stay in and repeat the next year. It is not just kindergarten that you will have to worry about with missing school. Honestly, missing school in Kindergarten is not as bad as missing school in the later years.
 
 I became more ill when I started high school and in my Junior year, I missed 3 months of school straight due to pneumonia. All of my teachers thought that I would not pull through and not be able to pass my Regents exams. They wanted me to either go to summer school or repeat my Junior year. If this happened and I had started school a year later, I would have been two years behind and no child wants to be in school longer than they have to....especially when they are getting sicker as the years go by. I graduated high school on time in 1999 and went on to college and that was even worse.
 
 I'm not saying that this will happen with every CFer but I just want to point out that if I had stayed back those 2 years, that would have put me into college graduation in 2004 and 2004 is when my PFT's really started to drop and I was told that I needed transplants. I may have not made it to my college graduation had that happened.
 
 There is always a lot of thinking to do when a CFer is in school. The school has to be aware of it and they should do all they can to help the child with what they need...no matter what age. Good luck in your decision.

The Kindergarten Conundrum

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