Random Thoughts XII - This Thread Delivers

[ImJustKCClone]

Me too - plus I skipped the second grade (people in South Dakota were easily amused) and so I was always the youngest and smallest in my class. There was no TAG then, either, which would have made things a lot more bearable.

One son was a late July birthday. He was beyond ready for K when they tested him, so we decided to send him. He was thrilled when he got to junior high (7th grade) and one of the kids from the other feeder elementary was born in August so he wasn't the youngest any more.

Academically, he was still bored at times. Socially, he nearly always played with the kids in the next grade down. Early on, they wanted to have him skip a grade due to academics, and at that point we decided against it. He would have wound up in the same class as his (19 months) older brother due to the small school size, and he was already dealing with comparisons from teachers between them. Older brother was a typical firstborn personality, younger son was actually smarter, but more easily distracted. He could ace nearly any test, but homework and busy work bored him.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

A pun place!

 

[BCClone]

One son was a late July birthday. He was beyond ready for K when they tested him, so we decided to send him. He was thrilled when he got to junior high (7th grade) and one of the kids from the other feeder elementary was born in August so he wasn't the youngest any more.

Academically, he was still bored at times. Socially, he nearly always played with the kids in the next grade down. Early on, they wanted to have him skip a grade due to academics, and at that point we decided against it. He would have wound up in the same class as his (19 months) older brother due to the small school size, and he was already dealing with comparisons from teachers between them. Older brother was a typical firstborn personality, younger son was actually smarter, but more easily distracted. He could ace nearly any test, but homework and busy work bored him.

What was it with schools wanting kids to skip grades back then?

 

[ImJustKCClone]

What was it with schools wanting kids to skip grades back then?

One friend's son skipped two grades, iirc. Academically brilliant, socially inept. I wanted more balance for my son.

I can't remember; I'm thinking you & Lawman are the 1/2 generation between me & my kids...the son I was talking about will turn 39 next month.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

Finally, today we are finally now part of the new company. Now the agony of setting up email, profiles all all the other garbage associated with a new employer

 

[Cybirdy]

It's going to be weird afterwards. There's a choice to go the Kindergarten or 1st grade after this year.
Academically, they spend this coming year doing Kindergarten stuff. It'll be interesting, because I have trouble seeing Z just going through the same stuff a second time.

We open enrolled to early K at Northwood for our 12yr old (how was that seven years ago already?!) Gilbert didn’t have Early K, and it was exactly what she needed. We didn’t see any issues with “repeating” information or anything. For her it was more for social-emotional development. She is one of the oldest in her class, but right now going into 7th grade she is right on par socially with her grade level peers and has lots of great friends. She found a group of slightly nerdy smart girls obsessed with Star Wars and Harry Potter and books just like her. She is small for her age and has had to deal with a few health issues growing up. For us personally it was the best decision.

When our oldest was in preschool there were 4 kids with May birthdays. She was the only one of the 4 who went on to K, the rest went to early K. One of those went on to 1st grade, the other two went to K.

We have one that was in 1st grade last year. Our neighbor called and asked me what the 1st grade girls were like because they were thinking of testing their K and passing her on to 1st halfway through the year (mostly due to personal issues with the K teacher). Yes this child could do 1st grade math and 1st grade reading, but she was still pretty average at them. Socially the maturity level was more toward K.

 

[VeloClone]

Ferk, got a dish of ice cream went to the fridge to pour a glass of milk to go with it and then realized I forgot I was out of milk #disappointed. I assume the ice cream was healthy since I added a handful of walnuts to it.

I like a tall glass of water after a bowl of ice cream - not with, but after. Something about the ice cream taste in my mouth with the water is always refreshing.

 

[VeloClone]

What was it with schools wanting kids to skip grades back then?

I can't speak to everyone's situation but in mine I was in a small rural school district that had basic courses K-12 - no TAG courses and such to challenge a bored mind so the only way to keep a smart kid challenged was to accelerate him/her.

 

[SCyclone]

What was it with schools wanting kids to skip grades back then?

When they skipped me, they told my parents that they felt I wouldn't be challenged, and might get distracted. At the time, this was probably the best case scenario they could come up with.

In retrospect, almost anything else would have been better. I ended up being bullied a lot, which didn't do wonders for my personality. Some years ago I went to a counselor and was able to get a lot of the old anger and other issues resolved.....but it cost me a lot of good will for along time in my life.

(Sorry for the pity party - I'm glad there are better options now!)

 

[wxman1]

LittleWx is enrolled in a 3 year old pre-school next year. It is only two days a week in the mornings but we figure it at least gets him out of the house and interacting with others in a good learning environment.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

LittleWx is enrolled in a 3 year old pre-school next year. It is only two days a week in the mornings but we figure it at least gets him out of the house and interacting with others in a good learning environment.

IMO, preschool or Sunday school & VBS are important to learning social skills like sharing with non-siblings prior to entering kindergarten. But maybe that's just me.

 

[BCClone]

LittleWx is enrolled in a 3 year old pre-school next year. It is only two days a week in the mornings but we figure it at least gets him out of the house and interacting with others in a good learning environment.

That’s what you believe, but by the time they hit 4 year old pre-K you will get calls about him vaping outside after the bus drops him off.

 

[ImJustKCClone]

That’s what you believe, but by the time they hit 4 year old pre-K you will get calls about him vaping outside after the bus drops him off.

You are SUCH an optimist!

 

[cowgirl836]

Ooooooooo the holding back convo. The one thing I don't love about calf's due date is that it'll put them as one of the youngest in their class. I think the cut off here is 9/1 or 9/15, something like that. DH and I are May/June bdays and it was never a problem for us, but I think we'll have to see with our own kid. My siblings were all held back a year but I have no idea if it helped or not. The bigger deal was probably the lack of any type of pre-k/social interaction with other kids, which our kid will have.

 

[wxman1]

Ooooooooo the holding back convo. The one thing I don't love about calf's due date is that it'll put them as one of the youngest in their class. I think the cut off here is 9/1 or 9/15, something like that. DH and I are May/June bdays and it was never a problem for us, but I think we'll have to see with our own kid. My siblings were all held back a year but I have no idea if it helped or not. The bigger deal was probably the lack of any type of pre-k/social interaction with other kids, which our kid will have.

Our daughter was 9/23 so we are right there with you. On a slightly different topic...I can't wait to tell your kid one day that you called them a calf.

 

[carvers4math]

People here hold their boys back for sports.

All five of ours started when they legally could. They wanted to grade skip them all and we insisted just in math. All completed high school calculus by their sophomore year, and have done a bunch of AP. TAG program is helpful. They have participated in a lot of enrichment activities we have found for them.

Judging by the crowd in my house, they do fine socially. Too fine.

Preschool should give a good idea if child is ready. The whole world doesn’t need to be held back a year although a worldwide timeout isn’t a bad idea.

 

[CycloneErik]

Visiting prof job open at Ole Miss for someone to teach 3 sections of the US History to 1877 survey. Very few supplemental questions. In this case, where did you hear of the job (the ad effective question) and will you have a PhD at the time of appointment?

The only thing that's going to give me trouble here: They don't want references. They want the actual letters enclosed in the packet. One of mine is in Iceland, one out East trapsing through archives, and the other is our department chair, so he's probably around.

I think they'll get an e-mail asking if I can have a couple of people e-mail letters to them.
Most places work around this by having you include your reference info on your CV or in its own document. I finally found someone who wants the actual letter, and they post a job during the summer when historians scatter.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

When I was a kid the cutoff was Dec 31 so you could start kindergarten at 4 and not turn 5 until Dec 31. I can't remember when they changed the cutoff because some of those kids were too young to be starting school.

 

[carvers4math]

Visiting prof job open at Ole Miss for someone to teach 3 sections of the US History to 1877 survey. Very few supplemental questions. In this case, where did you hear of the job (the ad effective question) and will you have a PhD at the time of appointment?

The only thing that's going to give me trouble here: They don't want references. They want the actual letters enclosed in the packet. One of mine is in Iceland, one out East trapsing through archives, and the other is our department chair, so he's probably around.

I think they'll get an e-mail asking if I can have a couple of people e-mail letters to them.
Most places work around this by having you include your reference info on your CV or in its own document. I finally found someone who wants the actual letter, and they post a job during the summer when historians scatter.

I think they will understand this. It seems common in academia.

Son’s prof goes to Germany for a month during summer. Another on dissertation committee is in Russia for a month. That and shorter time deadlines are why he didn’t try to finish out this summer now that he has a couple of publications as primary author. He is king of the lab with prof gone.

 

[CycloneErik]

I think they will understand this. It seems common in academia.

Son’s prof goes to Germany for a month during summer. Another on dissertation committee is in Russia for a month. That and shorter time deadlines are why he didn’t try to finish out this summer now that he has a couple of publications as primary author. He is king of the lab with prof gone.

Yup, and these folks are historians. They've likely scattered, too.
The ad actually didn't list a contact person, so I'll e-mail their department chair. She'll probably answer quickly, or forward it right away to the search committee chair.

I'm looking at their faculty page and seeing where they all went to school. All Ivy League and top-end state schools. It reminds me that this place is beyond my reach right now for a FT job, but maybe this temp thing works out. On the plus side, I have actual cutting-edge research.

https://history.olemiss.edu/faculty/