Red Shirt

Jackson's self portrait

Tomorrow is Jackson's last day of preschool.  He has made great progress over this school year, since moving him to his new school.  When he transferred to this school in October, he barely recognized any letters or numbers and could not write his name, trace letters, or even hold a pencil correctly.  Thankfully, now he can do those things.  

Jackson will turn 5 this summer, making him eligible for public kindergarten next school year, but we are planning to 'red shirt' him (hold him back).  This decision seems to be a heated topic of debate on facebook and mommy blogs-- with some of the more controversial statements being that people who hold their children (primarily boys) back are just doing it so that their child will be good in sports.  Believe me, if you'd seen Jackson play tball, you would know that sports are not the reason we are holding him back.  Jackson's strengths lie elsewhere.

The 'red shirt' decision was an easy decision for us to make.  Our job is to set our kids up for success. We believe that Jackson could get through it but would struggle in public kindergarten next year.  He isn't a huge fan of school, and we definitely don't want to make it worse by him having to struggle with it. 

We are giving him this gift of a year to mature, develop, and learn.  In the Fall, Jackson will be in private kindergarten in the school he was at this year, in hopes that he will be able to hit the ground running when he goes to public school kindergarten the following Fall (2013).  And if Jackson seems overly ready after this next year, we always have the option of placing him in first grade instead of kinder.  We will just have to wait to see how the year goes. For now, we are thankful that this past year has turned out so well!

In October, Jackson couldn't even trace over the letters his teacher wrote.

By April, Jackson could write his name independently, follow directions, and write letters on his own.  Vast improvement!