It’s official!! We have a kindergarten graduate on our hands. Big Sister had her graduation on Wednesday night from private kindergarten It was fantastic. The teachers loved their Teacher Thank You Collage that I made for them. In fact the parents loved it so much that I promised to email them a copy as well.
This night was very bittersweet for us. Big Sister is going to public kindergarten again in the fall. And this was the hardest decision we have made to date. Big Sister has a mid September birthday and the cutoff for kindergarten in Georgia is September 1. She misses the cutoff by less than 20 days. She is ready for first grade. I say this as a parent and as a teacher. That master’s degree that I have in special education allows me this statement. Her current kindergarten teacher also agrees with us.
During the past year we have gone back and forth on what to do. We were set on public kindergarten but then waivered. We applied for private first grade and received our admittance letter…..and then bill for tuition. We gulped. Was this the right decision? Seeing all those dollar signs made it concrete. We had to decide.
We attended public kindergarten orientation where the teachers asked us to ensure that our children were independent in skills like hand washing and zippers prior to school starting. Umm? Yeah, those are long mastered skills. We rethought and thought some more. Do we put Big Sister ahead where she will be academically average to maybe a little above average or do we have her repeat kindergarten where she will be bored but a leader?
Is it better to be older or younger? Well, I have a December birthday and am on the older end of the spectrum. My husband, whom I have gone to school with since 6th grade, has a December birthday as well but he is one year and three weeks younger than me. His mom knew he was ready for kindergarten and tried all the legitimate ways to get him in to kindergarten. Going through all the hoops failed so she used some white out on the copy of his birth certificate and sent him early. (It was the early 80’s!) He missed the cutoff by 30 days. Fast forward to the present. I have a masters degree and my husband has a double bachelors degree. As one of the oldest and the absolute youngest in our high school class we cover both ends of the young/old spectrum and are both successful.
Well, that’s probably more than you were hoping for. 🙂 Currently Big Sister really isn’t enrolled in any school. Going to the public school and actually enrolling her slipped my mind and is really on the to-do list. Now I will leave you with some graduation pictures.
Little Sister had so much fun with the glitter at the end!
Leandrea is a married mom of two girls, ages 13 and 12, living in Atlanta, GA. She is passionate about helping people save money one coupon at a time. Read more