Help! Should Peter skip kindergarten?
So I went to kindergarten registration and it was about what I expected. Peter had a one-on-one testing thing where they asked him to identify pictures and draw a picture of himself.
Anyhoo, when I took him back to school the Montessori coven was eager to hear what kind of stuff they were asking, and I let them know Peter had managed all the aforementioned tasks. Then, and here's the point of this, they started to encourage me to test him out of kindergarten. The director and his teacher went on and on about how bright he is and how little he will get from the kindergarten program. I know Pete's bright, and could definitely have handled kindy this year, but it seems dangerous to push him past it.
So here's what I ask you folks, those who got this far, what are your feelings about the importance of kindergarten, the dangers of being the youngest in your class, how best to keep a smart kid motivated, and how to protect a sweet sensitive kid from the world of bullies and the like?
(The teachers also told me the cutest story. A teacher was explaining to one of the 5-year-old girls why she should be nice to her friends (Adolescent girls have nothing on the 5 yo set) and Peter chimed in that you shouldn't be mean b/c it "makes your soul dirty." This is funny to me, but he then persuaded her that if she wasn't nice, she would be punished for her unkindness and be reincarnated as a bug. He actually said "reincarnated." Whole story made my day)
Anyhoo, when I took him back to school the Montessori coven was eager to hear what kind of stuff they were asking, and I let them know Peter had managed all the aforementioned tasks. Then, and here's the point of this, they started to encourage me to test him out of kindergarten. The director and his teacher went on and on about how bright he is and how little he will get from the kindergarten program. I know Pete's bright, and could definitely have handled kindy this year, but it seems dangerous to push him past it.
So here's what I ask you folks, those who got this far, what are your feelings about the importance of kindergarten, the dangers of being the youngest in your class, how best to keep a smart kid motivated, and how to protect a sweet sensitive kid from the world of bullies and the like?
(The teachers also told me the cutest story. A teacher was explaining to one of the 5-year-old girls why she should be nice to her friends (Adolescent girls have nothing on the 5 yo set) and Peter chimed in that you shouldn't be mean b/c it "makes your soul dirty." This is funny to me, but he then persuaded her that if she wasn't nice, she would be punished for her unkindness and be reincarnated as a bug. He actually said "reincarnated." Whole story made my day)