OHHHH I GET IT NOW. WHEW. SO this wasn’t even a thing I had to worry about. NICE. I love that for me.
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My first was a terrible, terrible baby. She screamed and she did not sleep and when she took a break from screaming she nursed. (OTOH, she was delightful as a teen.)
So I was really, really braced for her sister - who slept a lot, rarely cried, and was done nursing as soon as she was full.
You just can’t tell.
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Many people will be strongly advised to wait a year even if they are under the cutoff date - a lot of districts really push waiting an extra year for kids with summer birthdays now.
Kindergarten is very academic now, and even with a great program, it’s a stretch for a lot of kids, especially boys.
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Okay so we just hadt his convo in my journal about how boys and girls are not different in pupae stage so what’s the deal with the research on this? Not an accusation of sexism, just genuinely curious.
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I think there’s a lot of pretty good research that shows that boys develop fine motor and verbal skills a bit slower than girls do - and even if it’s only a matter of months, that’s pretty significant at the age of 5. It all evens out in the long run, but it’s discouraging for kids to be expected to work in ways that they aren’t developmentally ready.
The real problem is that the curriculum is being pushed down but that’s because we’re rating schools based on standardized testing and it’s many, many flaws.
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Is this just public? I feel like my switch from private to public really sucked. Suddenly the learning felt very stale and focused only on test scoring vs. knowing what the heck we were doing and having fun applying it.
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We’re pretty sure we’re just going with our local school (literally down the street) but I’m not entirely sure how we’re going to handle all the late starts, days off, early dismissal, etc. I’m hoping that I find some amazing aftercare that handles this but from what I’ve been hearing from local moms this is tough. Our jobs have some flexibility but not that flexible.
I’m willing to pay as much as I pay now for full time daycare though, so hopefully that will help.
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Also curious about this topic! I came across this, which confirms some differences on average, but also cites some studies showing this may be due to which skills are encouraged and developed from a young age.
The study Glass references shows that parents were more likely to promote intense physical play with boys, while they were also more likely to encourage girls to do individual play with toys, like drawing.
Also, after some reading around it seems “slower” in boys often refers to the skills that are specifically useful for kindergarten (fine motor, verbal).
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My mom was a stay-at-home parent for most of my childhood. For several years, she was also the after-school and backup caregiver for our family friends who had two kids about the same age as my brother. It made life easier for them, added some earnings for my mom, and also was a nice element of built-in community. I don’t really know what we’ll do once we hit school age either, but keeping that in my back pocket as an option!
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That’s so interesting! My kid is 100% all fine motor and verbal and really struggles with physical play and ability. This is somewhat nature, he’s kind of a low tone kid who wasn’t so much motivated by physical feats, but also, we are just more sedentary “in our head” type people.
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I need a pick-me-up mentally and emotionally today so I’m going to list a few things I feel I’m doing well re: parenthood at the moment
- Providing nutrients via breastmilk
- Protecting him from viruses by limiting who can see him and reminding visitors to wash hands
- Maintaining patience and having empathy when he cries
- Telling my spouse when I need a break or alone time
- Showering regularly lol
- Leaning on family and friends to get through this sleep deprivation period
- Providing visual stimulation and tummy time so he can strengthen his neck and eyesight
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Feel free to join me!! I would love it if you did!
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I wouldn’t say so, but “private” covers many things from Catholic schools with 35 kids in a first grade classroom to Waldorf school where there’s no reading until you’re 7. You’d have to evaluate that on a case by case basis.
I loved the little Montessori school where I taught, and kids could work on their own level, and there were no report cards, and we didn’t give the state tests. The downside is that we really didn’t have any special ed options and is was a darned shoestring operation (as many private schools are.)
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Here are some things that are going well:
- I made Pipsqueak her own cup of “tea” a few days ago (lukewarm water with almond milk and a drop of honey, or sometimes actual camomile tea) and she loved being big enough for her own mug. We’ve had tea together 3 times in the last week and it’s so fun.
- I’ve been doing a better job of putting my phone down for the two hours in between work/daycare and toddler bedtime. Yesterday we spent half the time jumping on pillows in her room and half of it marching around the living room to “the ants go marching”
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everyone is alive.
thats all i got today.
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Latte got back to school today. Between the week off for thanksgiving and her doctors appointment, she hadn’t been to school in 15 days. She was THRILLED. Apparently spent the entire 3 hours giggling for no reason.
I’m reading “how to raise a reader” and feeling vaguely smug that I’m already doing all off it and own or have checked out 75%+ of the books she’s mentioned so far.
The sleep stuff. Omg. I’m so glad it worked this time and I don’t get up before 5:30 (and often at 4:30) every single day anymore.
I found reasonably priced frozen strawberries for her (Costco hollah) and she ate a giant bowl for lunch and was soooo happy. She’s been asking for strawberries for weeks but I just couldn’t stomach paying $5/lb for ones I knew would be sour and woody.
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I want to read that book!!!
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It’s a quick read and has tons of actionable suggestions and direct book reccs! I like it so far. My library had it on Libby 
like a 3 week wait I think? Not too bad.
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Got the 2 year old dressed for snow time in under 10 min!
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Wooowoo! Gunning for the PR.