Did anyone watch Table for 12 the other night? I DVRed it and just watched it (kids are in nap) and man, those 4 year olds talk a lot better than the Gosselins. It was also refreshing to see them eat without bibs and sippy cups.
I do think that they are a little old to be wearing bibs (unless it was a special occassion like Easter dinner and they were wearing a beautiful Easter dress). I don't think sippy cups at 4 is too unreasonable though. Could you imagine constantly cleaning up the spills? That would drive me crazy. I use a cup with a lid pretty much all of the time and I'm 40! Of course, it's one of my resort mugs from WDW!
Most people could not afford to move before their old house had sold. So, I don't think they are hurting for money one bit. TLC probably pays some of their bills since their house is the set for the show. So, that is money they probably use for the old house bills...which could be put into savings for the kids...but I digress.
Sometimes, you don't necessarily have a choice. We really needed to move before my 2nd DD was born. We made double house payments for 5 months.
It wasn't easy, but we did it because we knew that we could not get the other home w/ a contingency clause and we knew it was a really good deal. We figured we were still saving money in the long run even after subtracting the amount we paid in mortgage payments for the empty place. Don't know if you can still get them now with the mortgage crisis, but there used to be a mortgage where you could buy your new home and still have 6 mo. to sell the old one. I believe I was told that it was called a 'bridge loan'?
Recent research shows that holding children back a year before they start kindergarten has no impact at all. In fact, in some cases, it showed to be a set-back for them (being a year old, being bigger, more mature than their classmates). *stepping off teacher soapbox**
While I am not saying that you are incorrect, I find your statement very interesting. I have always lived in MD. When I was a child, the birthday cutoff for school was always the end of the year, 12/31. About 5 years ago, MD instituted a new policy changing the cutoff date for kindergarten to Sept. 1. It was phased in over multiple years, each year being a month earlier until it reached the current cutoff of Sept 1. Their findings here were the opposite of what you posted. Kids needed more time before starting kindergarten. I do believe that there are many more factors involved in the whole decision though. Kindergarten here, now adays, is more like first grade 7 or 8 years ago. Much LESS playtime, much MORE structure and specific learning. The exit outcomes of kindergarteners here are that they are reading and writing and somewhat well. I had a close DF that taught kindergarten. The school system used 4 criteria for determining 'readiness' for Kdgn 1) social skills, 2) cognitive dev, 3) attention span, and 4) maturity. Youngest DD was 4 when she started school and didn't turn 5 until Nov. I was very torn as to whether to hold her back (for her own benefit, as I would've loved to keep her home w/ me for another year as I was a SAHM). Upon evaluation by her teacher (who was overly qualified to be in the classroom), DD had 3 out of the 4 skills mastered for the start of Kdgn. The one she was lacking was the cognitive dev, but the teacher said don't worry as that's the ONE we CAN teach her.
DD was the youngest or maybe 2nd youngest in the class but teacher used to laugh about how she had the best attention span of the class. Each child is very unique. I hope they decide what is best. And if it's best for them to wait another year so be it as long as it's for the kids sake and not use filming as a determination. BTW in MD, there's a thing called a waiver of maturity. And you are not required to have your child enrolled in school until they are 7. You do need to submit a letter though stating that you are choosing to keep them home and exercising the waiver of maturity. I would hope though that almost no one would wait until a child is 7 to enroll them in kdgn. They could be 20 when they were graduating from High School.
