primary school advice/knowledge request

[Ladyluck1 3]

Hi all,

My son and I just got approved and are moving over to US in 5 weeks. My son is going to turn 6 just before we go (were staying so he can have a party with his friends here)

Anyway my concerns are: will he be able to start school asap or do we need to do AOS or another stage before he can begin school?

My understanding is that if he were to enter school now he would be going into kindergarten, is this correct for his age? My concern with this is that he has already been in school in Ireland for almost two years, he can read, write, add and subtract, times tables etc. Would he be way ahead?

Anything else you feel would be useful to know would be more then welcome.

Thank you

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

It is going to depend on your school district/state. If he did Kindergarten in Ireland, he may very well be allowed into 1st grade for next year. For this year, it will most likely be Kindergarten and yes, you can start public school at any time.

The best place to start would be contact the school district, explain the child's educational background and level of progress, and then see what happens.

As to Kindergarten levels, I think that is again going to depend on the place. Last year, my daughter did Kindergarten in Connecticut, she started when she was 4 and turned 5. She was pretty much the only child that could not read at the beginning of the year. She could, however, do subtraction and addition and that was covered up to 2 digits in K. Because of the age requirements in our new state (all the kids do things like driver's ed together and she would be too young) and that she was behind in reading, we re-did Kindergarten this year. In our new state, many of the children are not reading or not very well in Kindergarten and she is ahead many grade levels in math.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

I missed the part where he will be 6 in the next 5 weeks. For almost all states, that should be old enough for 1st grade for next year.

[Ladyluck1 3]

Thank you, I'm just so worried it will affect his love for school. As it is he is ahead most in his school here. He's in his second year of school here (they start mainstream school at 4-5 here) and has been reading since 4 and writing. He gets extra work in school and higher level books then his classmates so I'm really worried that he will get bored and lose interest.

Of course there will be things such as American history that he would not have learnt and they learn there letters differently, so there will be benefits of him startng from the start again.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Thank you, I'm just so worried it will affect his love for school. As it is he is ahead most in his school here. He's in his second year of school here (they start mainstream school at 4-5 here) and has been reading since 4 and writing. He gets extra work in school and higher level books then his classmates so I'm really worried that he will get bored and lose interest.

Of course there will be things such as American history that he would not have learnt and they learn there letters differently, so there will be benefits of him startng from the start again.

I skipped a grade and was still way ahead of my classmates when I was younger, so I can speak to what you are talking about a little bit. I don't think a year is going to matter too much, if you are intelligent everything will be easy for you no matter where they place you.

Age wise and social progression wise, it might be better for fitting in with classmates to be among peers. 1st grade does seem like it would be a good fit - I mean my daughter can do algebra and I have no qualms about her sitting in a classroom and doing simple arithmetic next year in 1st grade.

It doesn't sound like he is far enough ahead to skip 1st, not that many places will even consider that anymore, so the other option is always enrichment. In most places or even online through reputable companies children can take classes outside of school to further challenge them. One place to look might be http://cty.jhu.edu or k12.com

Now that my daughter's English has caught up, we are going back to Danish lessons and I believe there are lessons sanctioned by the Danish government that give Danish school credentials and go year by year for this. Maybe there is something similar for Ireland? Many other cities offer children his age lessons in a variety of languages - Chinese, etc.

Edited January 24, 2015 by N-o-l-a

[Penguin_ie 5,986]

Ask them to assess him before he goes to school in the USA; they may be wiling to put him in 1st grade now, ie going into 2nd grade for the 2015-2016 school year. However, if you do that, be aware that he will be a full year older than most of his class, so while he may have no trouble academically, emotionally that may be an issue.

[Ladyluck1 3]

Ask them to assess him before he goes to school in the USA; they may be wiling to put him in 1st grade now, ie going into 2nd grade for the 2015-2016 school year. However, if you do that, be aware that he will be a full year older than most of his class, so while he may have no trouble academically, emotionally that may be an issue.

Yes that has crossed my mind, he is incredible clever academically but does struggle socially (I'm positive there is an underlying issue but nothing has ever been confirmed) also my USC has also expressed concerns about him being to far ahead of his peers, not so much now but more so for when he hits his teen age year, and his peers "maturing" ahead of him etc.

I have heard of K12 and other programs, maybe that would be the route to go, have him with his age and do extra bits at home and after school.

[agnesb 47]

My concern with this is that he has already been in school in Ireland for almost two years, he can read, write, add and subtract, times tables etc. Would he be way ahead?

Anything else you feel would be useful to know would be more then welcome.

Thank you

If it's of any help a lot of kids go to preschool ages 3-5 so chances are he wont be the only one that done 2 yrs of school before going to kindergarden or 1st grade.

[rlogan 2,036]

My understanding is that if he were to enter school now he would be going into kindergarten, is this correct for his age? My concern with this is that he has already been in school in Ireland for almost two years, he can read, write, add and subtract, times tables etc. Would he be way ahead?

Anything else you feel would be useful to know would be more then welcome.

Thank you

Go here:

http://www.pps.k12.or.us/departments/kindergarten/

Five years old buy Sept 1 of a school year is kindergarten eligibility. Academic standards vary right down to the individual classroom, not just the school or district. But this is useful in a general way:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment

In international assessments here we see Ireland coming in at 20th and the USA in 36th for math. Ireland was 14th in science, and the USA 28th. Ireland was 7th in reading (way to go Ireland!) and the USA 24th.

Generally speaking an average student moving from Ireland to the USA is going to be ahead in every core subject. Nevertheless you might be in a particularly good (or bad!) school district now.

Education is in a pretty bad state in the USA, right now in the throes of a boondoggle called Common Core. Some politically connected educrats are getting rich writing curricula for US school districts that pretend to be based upon national test standards. Just like No Child Left Behind and every other major initiative in the past half century, it is going to be dropped in favor of the next new fad. It is already underway: states are removing themselves from it. In Oregon, it is pretty controversial with teachers, parents, and administrators upset about it.

65% of Oregon's public school kids are expected to fail tests for common core by grade level:

http://koin.com/2014/05/01/set-fail-implementing-common-core-curriculum-oregon/

So regardless of how you feel about the politics of Common Core, Oregon public schools are, for the majority of kids, delivering below grade level. Ireland does much better.

If your objective is fitting in, then your child will be bored for a while waiting for his age cohorts to catch up. If your objective is educating your child, then you need to put some thought into alternatives or at least supplementing their public school education.