Wow. No red-shirting allowed!

MrsBalletStar05 · May 2011

I know we've had a couple of discussions on red-shirting your Kindergartners lately. The majority seem to be against it. I talked about it with DH last night and we still thought it to be in the best interest of DS#1 to wait another year on starting school.

Well, I talked to some other local moms, looked up some info online, and figured it'd be best to call the school. Apparently, red-shirting isn't allowed! Ack. He has to start pre-k August 1st!! AND it's all day! *faints*

I went from thinking we'd send him for half days in fall 2012, to going to school in 2 months all day!

I'm totally ok and fine with all of this, it just blows my mind. This was not something I was prepared for and I'm so glad I called the school!! If we'd waited another year, he'd have to go into K with no pre-K, and had we not done pre-K (we were thinking about not doing pre-K, but I found I could make it work) and tried to get him into K when he was 6, he'd have had to go into 1st grade.

I'll go in on Wednesday to get him enrolled. I seriously can't believe I'm going to have a kid in school. NOT emotionally prepared for this and school hasn't even begun!

EnglishMajor03 · May 2011

Is pre-k like preschool? Right now Parker goes to preschool 2 half days a week. Next year she'll go 3 half days a week and then she'll go to K? I don't know if I could see Parker going full days next year. But she'd just be 4 1/2.

eaglesfan700 · May 2011

Do you have to use that school's pre-k? If not, maybe you could find another program that is only half days for pre-k and then he can do full day K at this school next year

I feel for you, I would NOT be prepared to send DS to full day pre-K right off the bat

MrsBalletStar05 · May 2011

I thought some would offer up other suggestions. Truthfully, like I said - I am ok with sending him all day, just wasn't prepared for it to be so soon! I just told DH the situation and his mind is sorta blown as well. We'll have a kid in school full-time in 2 months. eek! (which, btw - I think it's crazy to start school August 1st, but whatever haha)

We can't go to another school unless there is no space in our own. Since there is space, he will go. And private options just aren't affordable enough for us. Honestly though, I think it will be good for him and the full-day is more convenient for our schedule.

The regular public schools here are not so good, so after pre-k we'll look into sending him to a charter school.

mabma80 · May 2011

Our son went last year to prek3's for two days a week for three hours each. He's more then ready, and so am I, for Kindergarden. Except his birthday falls after the cut off of Sept. 1st so he was already 4 when he started 3k.

Next year will be 3 days/wk for three hours 4K and he'll be 5. So he will be 6 when he starts kindergarden. We're ok with that cause it wouldn't hurt to do one more year of prek. : )

JOEBunny · May 2011

Our way around this, if we need to, and I don't think we will, is to send DD to Pre-First at private school after Kinder if we don't think she is making the progress we want. Then they would have to take her in 1st grade at 7, since she won't have had 1st grade. I am hoping that she won't need it, but if she does, I will do it.

MrsBalletStar05 · May 2011

It was actually the principal who I talked to and I told her I was concerned about the summer birthday thing. Another mom (in a different district) told me she was going to be able to do pre-k twice, so I asked about that. She said they won't do pre-k twice, but K twice is a possibility/option.

I think the big push for all the pre-k stuff has to do with the fact that this school district is TERRIBLE. The elementary is just ok, but the high school for our area is really bad. It's been on the national "needs improvement" list for 10 years Indifferent Percentage of kids who meet or exceeds standards for science? 16! Most other subjects were only around 30%. It's crazy bad. We knew this though. Our plan is after pre-k, to try and get him in the charter elementary. Worse comes to worse, we stick it out with the *ok* elementary and stay very involved, then once middle school and high school comes - there are more options for different charter and fine arts schools. Or we may move, but we really like our location. It's convenient for our jobs and it's a nice area. If our plan doesn't seem to be working out though, we'll move to the suburbs :-P Or across the street. Seriously, if we lived across the street we'd be in a different school district! lol

KellyOsu23 · May 2011

What school district is this?

Everyone I know is redshirting the younger kids, which is super common in OK.

Also, I havent heard of full day pre-k which sounds amazing. I think we have some schools that have it but its a lottery system.

MrsBalletStar05 · May 2011

KellyOsu23:
What school district is this?

Everyone I know is redshirting the younger kids, which is super common in OK.

Also, I havent heard of full day pre-k which sounds amazing. I think we have some schools that have it but its a lottery system.

OKC district. She said they would not allow already 5 year olds in pre-k. If I tried next year, they'd automatically put him in K. Oh, and I was wrong about going into 1st - they have to do a K before they can go to 1st - so I suppose we could just wait 2 years for him to go to school at all, but then he wouldn't have any pre-k. I also found out that (and I doubt this gets enforced much) if you have a 5 year old not enrolled in school, you can be fined. So then I'd worry about being fined for not putting him in K until he was 6 :-P

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