Next year Burgundy will be in 1st grade. We are very excited about this! This has been something in the works (in my brain) for over a year now. Actually 2 years. The hundreds of dollars in gas, tuition, the hundreds of hours driving to her Montessori preschool in Ogden everyday, it was all for this… All because her birthday missed the cut-off last year to start kindergarten by about 2 months. So I was told she couldn’t start early, but the following year, she could possibly test in to first grade. And that’s exactly what she did.
Seems easy enough, no? No, not if you’re me. This entailed frustration, anxiety, hopefulness, doubt, certainty and just about any other emotion you can think of. It involved planning, begging of administrators, begging of new administrators when old administrators up & left a week before testing was scheduled, preschool transcripts and glowing letters of recommendation, prepping, research, all the while trying to show none of this to my lovely little innocent 5 year old. I didn’t want her to be stressed or worried, nervous or burdened. I told her she gets to meet the principal of her new school and play on the computers! yay! (while mom is sweating bullets over in the corner). So as she skips merrily into the computer lab, I am wondering if I have a paper bag in my purse to hyper-ventilate in. And she takes standardized tests in the forms of math & reading. Then she takes the pre-K test (for students entering kindergarten – do you know your shapes, colors, letters, etc).
So, the principal tells me, if she does kindergarten she will be the top of her class in math & reading, but possibly be bored (possibly??). If she goes to first grade she will probably be about the middle of the class. This is her assessment from a one-hour computer test. So of course, the decision our family has come to and reaffirmed now for months is called into question and suddenly my motherly-guilt kicks in and wonders, “am I doing the right thing?” But, yes. Yes, I know my kid, yes she will be bored to tears if she has to spend the next year learning the letters, shapes and colors she knew 2 years ago. She craves knowledge and needs to be challenged. She has been easily reading books I saved from when Finn was in 1st grade. I can confidently say she is beyond kindergarten. I could say that before, but now with the evidence of the all-holy standardized tests in our corner, there is little doubt.
She is now on a waiting list for 1st grade. Since we go to a charter school, 1st grade is full, but she is at the top of the list and the next open spot is hers. They are opening a new charter school this coming school year in the next town over, so a lot of kids will be transferring over. We’ve got time, she’ll get her spot. They wanted to test her at the end of summer so she had that “extra 3 months of learning under her belt”. Like she’d get a spot a week before school started? Duh. But old Mrs. Squeaky-Wheel over here. Nah, we’ll do it this way. Test her in April, get her on the list. All the stress was worth it.
Anyway, I know lots of people have lots of opinions on this matter. Feel free to share them in the comments. Whether you agree or disagree. We’re all friends here.
But let’s all say, Congratulations to Burgundy. We are so proud of you, babe!!
