A little background, my son will be turning five in September and through recommendation of his preschool teacher we have decided to give him another year of preschool before starting "regular" kindergarten. Academically he's doing great, maturity wise, not so much. Soooo, he's all signed up and ready to start "Jr. Kinder" in a few weeks...... Recently, I found out that our school district (all of California actually) offers a program through the elementary schools called transitional kindergarten, which is basically a 2 year modified kindergarten program spefically geared for kids with September 1 thru December 1 birthdays, giving them the extra year for academic and social maturity (exactly the reason we kept him back). Have any of your kids been through this program or something similar? If so, what are your feelings on it, likes, dislikes?
P.S. Although we are all ready to start the Jr K at his preschool it seems that the transitional k is such a better fit for him. Besides not having to pay for the Jr K would be a nice bonus, but not a deciding factor.
Edit: I have spoken to school, gotten all info but wanted some personal feedback.
What a wonderful program! How nice to get your kid started in "real" school too!
In almost every other state your child would not be old enough to start Kindergarten this year, everywhere else they have to be 5 years old before school starts. Then they are 5 turning 6 in Kindergarten. So, in my honest opinion he is pre-school age, not Kindergarten age.
My daughter started Kindergarten at 5 1/2. She didn't do so well and they had her do the transitional 1st grade after Kindergarten instead of going to the regular 1st grade class.
She hated being behind a year from her age group. She played soccer and was on the teams for her age group, so she was a grade behind all of them each season. She eventually dropped out of school. In her case she WAS the right age to start Kindergarten and didn't do well and was held back.
Go to the school, talk to them and check out the program.
My daughter did this and we loved it. When we were there it was called Early Enrichment Kindergarten.
She has an Oct birthday, I have recommended EEK to military members who move into Monterey with kids who have fall bdays. I wish other states would do it too.
One thing though, they did not teach reading. They gave all the prereading skills but stop at actual reading of books, a sight word here and there.
I taught her to read while in EEK. She then transferred to VA schools and did very well in Kinder.
There were many children, 2 in my daughter's class, in VA who had transferred in from CA schools. Of the ones I know, most had to repeat kinder in VA. One was even placed in first then moved back to K. EEK gave my daughter and her friend who moved to MD a great foundation, without having to repeat kinder.
I would absolutely recommend he do it. He is a boy, they mature later and it will give him a chance to be the oldest instead of the youngest. Plus all the kids turn five within 4 months of each other.
If I had another child with a fall birthday in CA I would absolutely do it again.
As per the law the transitional Kindergarten is supposed to be effective from 2012 school year because that is the year "Kindergarten readiness act" comes into effect. Also there are no guidelines about whether these transitional schools will accept students with only fall birthdays ie. Nov only in 2012, oct-nov in 2013 and sept, oct, nov in 2014 , so you should talk to someone from your school district to find out more about the program they are offering.
