An extra year.

My toddler is amazing. Not only is she super smart but she LOVES to learn. She's been begging to go to school but I don't work so it doesn't make sense to have her in a preschool or daycare full time. So I am doing lessons with her each day and looked into a morning program or a class that's a few days a week.

I found several, but here's my pickle... they all have a cut off based on your age as of September 1st (just like schools do). The reason this is an issue is that puts her about a year behind because of her September 4th birthday!

I'm do not have delusions of Ds educations grandeur but the kid is sharp. She learns easy and fast and to put her in a class where they are learning shapes and colors seems silly when she's writing and knows the difference between horizontal, vertical, diagonal and curved lines. This is a kid who's starting to read and already know some sight words. She doesn't need to learn her ABCs, we covered that.

So even though she's not going to be 3 by the cut off I just don't want to put her in a class that's below her level developmentally. I don't want her to get bored and I don't want her to feel like she's held back because it could ruin this time that learning is so amazing and new and fun for her.

So this makes me worry about the future when she is in real school. I love that she will be a year older, wiser and more mature (hopefully) than her classmates. I love that she will start high school and subsequently Drivers Ed a year later. I love that she will graduate and move out for an extra year. Maybe she won't always be as ahead of the educational game as she is now but if she is we already have decided that we would prefer gifted classes as opposed to skipping a grade (optimistic parenting right?).

But knowing that most of her friends will start school a year ahead of her stinks. I realize the pals you make at playgroup when your 1 don't always withstand the test of time but I was looking forward to sharing some Homeroom Mom responsibilities with a friend I already knew (and therefore could stand).

So the age thing isn't a huge deal but it comes with some issues, a few good features and a few bad. But what can I do? The kid refused to be born any earlier and I distinctly remember laying in bed with a 9 month belly begging her to "get out already". I guess the silver lining to it all is because of how her birthday falls I get an extra year with her at home and after all that's pretty cool. I mean I love staying home with her. I don't know what I'll do once she's in school all day. Oh great, now I can start worrying about that... but I'll try to put it off till that extra year I have coming.