We May Think a Bit Too Much

Pirate's birthday is October. As it happens, so is mine. When I was younger, my parents gave no thought as to when I would attend kindergarten; it was assumed that I would start the September before I turned 5. Nowadays, there is a school of thought that it would better to hold a child back who is not 5 within the first few weeks of school. This is even more true, people say, when the child in question is a boy. Paco and I (okay, probably more me) have been struggling with a timetable for Pirate. He will be 4 this year, so should probably start preschool in the fall. (This is another issue, for another time...if you don't send your kids to preschool these days, they are behind before they even start.) The question is, should he be in a 3 year old program or a 4 year old program? Because he is a boy, there is the matter of maturity to take into consideration. There is a concern that he just wouldn't be mature enough to be with other 4 year olds. However, will he be too advanced for the 3 year old class? Then, what about the next year? Should he go to kindergarten the year he is eligible? I have gotten more opinions about this than I care to share and was starting to lose my mind.

Anyway, the preschool that we utilize took Pirate in for a trial class with the current 3 year olds; these are the kids that will be in his class next year if he were to go into the 4 year old class. He was a little hesitant when I dropped him off, but finally did walk away from me and went to play. They did not call for the entire 2 1/2 hours of the class and he was so excited about everything when I went to pick him up. The teachers both said that he should absolutely go into the 4 year old class. (I think a lot of this is due to his many years of therapy - his arts and crafts skills are exceptional ;) )

So after a lot of pointless thinking, Pirate will be entering the 4 year old preschool program this September. TBell will be in kindergarten. Princess will be in 2nd grade. I will be old.

The entire reason I wrote this post was to show this picture - here is Pirate before leaving for his trial class.