Smart Cookie #1

The owner of Leon’s preschool came out to talk to us last Monday when we picked him up. She asked us if we’d considered private kindergarten for this fall. I said not really; since he’s a January birthday we want him to grow up with kids his age, so we planned to start him in 2022.

She said “well, he’s a smart cookie,” and suggested we consider enrolling him in private kindergarten this year so he can stay challenged academically — they didn’t think his next classroom would be advanced enough for him this upcoming year. Then he would essentially repeat kindergarten next year in the public school, and we could find ways to keep him challenged there. She said she has quite a few families do that.

We had missed the deadline for the private kinder evaluation by a couple weeks — but we figured since it was free and they were the ones who offered, it wouldn’t hurt, right? So they assessed him to see if he’s ready from both an academic and emotional standpoint, and on Thursday the owner told us that they recommend that route for him.

My biggest concern was that he’d get bored doing kinder twice, but the owner said the school district can evaluate him for Gifted and Talented in December 2022 to make sure he stays challenged (that said, kindergarten G&T is essentially just meeting the teacher[s], and it wouldn’t even begin for him until March 2023). I also consulted with a friend who used to teach elementary school in the district, and she said she had kids every year who had done kinder twice, and her niece is currently doing private kinder with the plan to start public kinder next year. She also told us that we can request a teacher who is good with challenging her students, but she said she thinks that the environment will be so different that he’ll stay engaged regardless.

Some of the moms I talked to in my online moms group were skeptical and even went so far as to say that they’d enroll their child in another preschool if such a thing was suggested to them because kids this age need to just worry about playing and making friends. While I understand that point, he’s reading at about a first-grade level and knows addition and subtraction, and is ENJOYING learning. If he’s doing well and having fun, I want to maintain that momentum — why stop his progress for some arbitrary reason? I also don’t want them to take away time/resources from other kids to give him 1:1 time when the school is telling me that he’d be doing those exact things in a different classroom. This will still be play-based learning with lots of small-group activities with the teacher — it’s not like he’ll be at a desk reading a textbook all day. Yes, he’s a kid, but he does GREAT with structure and routine, so I’m not worried that kindergarten would cramp his style.

I wish more parenting decisions were black and white, but I hope Future Leon at least understands that even if this wasn’t the best choice in hindsight, we’re doing the best we can with the information we have. Minh is all on board and was ready to sign papers the moment the owner told us they recommended kindergarten; for once I’m the one who is waiting so I can look into every single option. But my research confirmed my gut reaction that (I think?) this is the best choice for him.

I still don’t love the idea of school uniforms though. 💩