Comment

Comment by Elizabeth Shugg on February 5, 2009 at 3:39pm

Kindergarten/1st grade registration began Feb. 2 for Chapel Hill/Carrboro schools, and Feb. 5 for Wake County Schools. Registration in Chatham County is April 27-May 1. Orange County Schools registration takes place between April 17 and May 1, and Durham County Public Schools has a website set up for kindergarten registration info, but no dates are posted at this time.

Comment by Elizabeth Shugg on February 4, 2009 at 11:47pm

I have children in both categories--and another right in the middle. My oldest has a July birthday but was academically ready for kindergarten, so we put him in. Socially he had some difficulties, but academically he did great. My youngest has an early October birthday so she made the cut-off date. Since we are in year-round school we decided it made much more sense for her to wait a year to begin school and we are very happy with our decision. She is mastering all subjects and shows a great deal of confidence in the classroom. My middle son's birthday is also in the middle--January--so we never had issues with his birthday.

I feel that 9 times out of 10 it's better to wait, so I applaud the decision to move the cut-off date to Aug. 31. I think another benefit of this is it will narrow the range of ages for teachers to teach. At times, I'm sure they feel like they are teaching two grade levels instead of one, so this should help with that.