The day I gave birth to my son, HJ, is a day I’ll never forget. Induction nightmare? Check. Post baby snuggles? Check. September 3rd birth date? Check.
Little did I know at the time how much my son’s birthday would impact his development and education but flash forward to 2013 and here I sit, faced with the first of many educational concerns.
Living in Paris meant that on September 4th, 2012, my son formally entered the French education system. At just three years old, he was invited to attend nursery school, or maternelle, which comprises the first three years of schooling. Due to his inability to speak French, my son was invited to attend school four mornings per week from 8:30 a.m. until 11:40 a.m. As he began to thrive in school, his teacher gently suggested that I begin leaving him for one full-day per week after the holiday break in December. By late-January, he was attending school all day until 4:15 p.m., eating French catered lunch in the cantine (cafeteria), enjoying rest time, and thriving.
Combining his easy going attitude and tall stature (95% percentile for height), most parents thought my son was one of the older kids in the class. In order to start school in September, children must turn three by December 31st, and with a September 3rd birthday, my son was one of the younger students. When I would share this with the parents, they’d say, “Wow, but he is so tall!”
Our plans for HJ’s education were that he would be in French school until we moved home, and at that point he’d transition into kindergarten at the local school. When our contract ended sooner than expected, I began the joyous task of figuring out what options we had to continue HJ’s formal education, and the results were shocking.
HJ misses the US cut-off for kindergarten by two days. This means that he has to wait until he is six to enter kindergarten! I neatly placed that reality aside and instead focused on what education he could receive now, at four years old.
My choices floored me.
Option A) the public school offers a “lottery” for kids ages 3-4 for preschool, and the schedule only allows kids to get one of three spots: two mornings from 8-11, three mornings, four afternoons, or five mornings. And all this for the staggering price of more than $6,000.
Option B) the local Montessori school, which has no openings until September of 2014, and again runs mornings only. Did I mention that they also refused to reveal the actual cost of the program?
And finally, Option C) a local Catholic school that offers five all-day classes for around $7,000.
So what’s the big deal?!
Children in France have access to all-day education beginning at age three for FREE, with master’s degree trained teachers. While every school isn’t as amazing as the one my son attends, the French may be on to something. For two working parents, morning-only, formal education settings are an inconvenience, and for single-income families, shelling out over $6,000 for a few hours a day may be too much.
All around the United States, parents are struggling with making hard financial decisions and I wonder if it seems fair that we have to do so when it comes to our children’s educations?
For us, having HJ evaluated and exploring how he measures up to his peers is one solution. How he falls in the range of social and emotional intelligence will give us a window into how he may fair in kindergarten and will be necessary if we plan on fighting the school district for a spot in kindergarten if it seems logical and appropriate for our son.
The second option is to just ride the wave and instead allow our six year old to join his peers, perhaps giving him a leg up on his classmates. Then I question, “Will he be bored?” “Too big?” At this point I’m just not sure which choice is best for our little guy but it did get my wheels moving, wondering about the significant differences in how each country approaches education. What is it like for children in Germany, or Canada? Do parents struggle with similar issues in Sydney, Australia?
So please, World Moms Blog readers, share your location/country’s educational process! When does school begin? When did your children start school? Anything you wish you could change about your child’s educational experiences?
This is an original post to World Moms Blog from Jacki, mother of one now living in XXX but formerly blogging from Paris, France.
I live in Cape Town (South Africa). Only the poorest of the poor get free education, the rest of us pay higher than normal fees for “public” education in order to subsidize said poor.
Our school years are January to December (because our Christmas is in Summer!). You have to have turned 6 years old in order to start formal education. Prior to age 6 only private Preschools are available. They’re quite expensive but are usually open from 6:30am to 6:30pm to accommodate working parents and provide the children with breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch and mid-afternoon snack.
My son was born 26 January, so I faced a similar dilemma – do I let him go to Primary School the year he turns 6 (making him the youngest in the class) or do I let him do a second year in Preschool to start when he turned 7? We had him assessed an (although he tested in the “gifted” range) we were advised the emotionally he wasn’t ready. We kept him back and it was the best decision we could have made. Being older he was much better able to cope with school.
My son is nearly 21 years old now and my daughter is busy writing her end-of-year exams for grade 11. By this time next year she will have practically completed High School! I wish you and your little one a wonderful school experience. It will be over before you know it! 🙂
In the Netherlands, children start school at age 4, but it is only mandatory after age 5. I was very anxious about sending my daughter to school at this age, but so far she is thriving and the school she goes to is geat! She loves her school and is happy there. In the Netherlands, just as in France, many of the parents work, but the system seems more flexible than the one in France. I am very happy to live here! This being said, my husband’s work pays for the school (it’s an international one) and Dutch schools are free. Thanks for sharing! Great post!
We also had to deal with Kindergarten when we returned from Thailand, leaving Nikolai’s international preschool behind. We chose to put him, then 5 year old on Sept 1, into a pricey, nurturing, private Kindergarten and then he repeated Kindergarten at the public school. In his school in the States he is more than a year older than some of his classmates. Yet, it has worked out for him because the school’s academics are rigorous. Here is Nicaragua, it’s another story altogether. He is attending a small private bilingual school and is in mixed-aged classes. He likes it — the level of academics is lower but since he is learning a new language it works out.
Wow..that is a tough situation. I’m here in the US, and my older son is now in 2nd grade. When he started Kindergarten, things just worked out in terms of his age, academic and emotional ability, and access to full-day Kindergarten in our rural town. He was able to go full day from the get go with a minimal cost to us at our local school, but I know this isn’t the norm for many in urban areas of the US. I wonder how I will approach this with my younger son when it’s his time to enter public education. Right now, we pay a pretty penny for him to attend a Montessori preschool, which is an wonderful fit. But when it’s time for him to enter Kindergarten, I’m not sure if I’ll look at half day, full day, or other options altogether. Hmm.
Good luck to you and HJ!