Kindergarten (take two)

We started school last week and the decision about what to do with Owen was not taken lightly or without anguish on my part. 

Owen has a summer birthday, he makes the cutoff by 26 days.  From the time he was 0 – 2 I figured he would start school when he was five, well, cause that is what you do.  Those two years were blissfully simple and lovely.  Then, we joined the co-op preschool and the assumption by all (including a highly respected and knowledgeable parent educator from the community college) was that he would start school when he was six.  This started the ball rolling for a lot of questioning and worrying for the next 4 years. 

And so the research (and insanity) began.  Greg and I have read books, researched on the Internet, read personal accounts of people who started school at 5 vs. 6, called up old friends from high school for their opinion (of which those that were young all replied they wished they were old and those that were old all said they loved it), asked the doctor at yearly visits, discussed our own personal experiences (me being young and Greg being old), and sought the opinions of family members (which I am sure they are tired of hearing and talking about).   

Our extensive research led us to believe that we would wait until Owen was 6 for kindergarten; however, being unable to commit to such a big decision, we made sure to leave our options open until the VERY end.  We put him in a one day a week preschool when he was 2 until he turned 4.  Then we did a three day a week preschool when he was 4 until he turned 5.   Then last year, when he turned 5, we put him in a private Montessori kindergarten/preschool 5 days a week.  This was done with the idea that we could move on to 1st grade if we felt he was ready, or stay there for one more year if we wanted to wait.  Or in other words, we could delay the decision one more year. 

He turned 6 this summer and there was no more delaying the decision.  The time had come and we did what we knew we were going to do deep down all along.  We put him back in the same private school to do Kindergarten.  He will move on to 1st grade next year when he turns 7. 

For so many reasons we kept him back, one of the strongest being my little brother and the words of my step-mom saying if she could take back 13 seconds of her life, it would be the ones where she decided to put him in school early.  We figure, what is the harm in holding him back.  He gets to be little one more year, he gets the edge in sports, he has one more year to work on his reading/writing, he will drive before his friends, and (heaven help me) when he starts to date, the girls he goes to school with will be younger than him (according to Ben, this was very important).  We found countless more reasons to hold him back, these are just a few. 

And so the decision is made, things are what they are, Owen is happy, and young or old in school, I suppose nothing else really matters!