I can’t stress enough how important it is to get the child into grade school, says Laura T. Miller, a social worker at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Children and Families.
Miller says there are certain rules of thumb when it comes to how to get kindergarten students into grade schools.
Miller recommends keeping the children from being late.
If there’s an emergency, you don’t want to send the kids home, she says.
Also, she suggests keeping the school out of the sight of adults and the community.
“It is not a safe place for them to be,” Miller says.
“There are dangers in going to school, but the safest place for kids is in school.”
Miller says some kids will get into trouble, and that’s fine.
“Some kids get really good at the language, but you can’t really teach them that.”
What is grade school?
For a child to become a grade school student, he or she must have received a grade of C, D, F, or G. These are grades of competence, which is the highest of the six grades.
“A child has to be able to learn, learn, and learn,” Miller said.
Some kindergarten students get into Grade 3 or 4 before going to grade 6.
Some have grades of F and G. Some kids also have the lowest grades of C or D in kindergarten, Miller said, but are still learning.
Kindergarten is the last step in the curriculum.
Kindergartens are the first step to kindergarten, and it’s important that parents are comfortable with that.
Miller advises that if the child is a special needs child, the parents try to have the child read for three weeks, and then put the child in a special education classroom for two weeks.
Miller also recommends that parents teach their children about how to read and write.
“I think it’s best to make it part of the curriculum,” Miller recommends.
“To give them a little bit of help, it’s also important that they can understand how to use the internet.”
Miller also suggests that parents give their kids the opportunity to do some outdoor play, or go hiking.
“We know it’s a good way for children to engage with the outdoors,” she says, and recommends that kids do a little outdoors exercise, too.
Miller adds that she doesn’t recommend sending your child to school until they’re older.
“When I was a child, I would send my children to school when they were a few years old,” Miller explained.
“You know, they’re still getting used to the world.”
Miller recommends that schools keep the children home from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., because that’s when they need the most help in learning, and for them, it can be more convenient.
“The best time to get kids to school is around 7:30 or 8:30,” Miller suggests.
“If they can’t go to school right away, then you can send them back to bed at 7:15 or 8 p.mp.”
If you think your child is ready to go to grade school or to go into kindergarten, the next step is finding a school that has a schedule that’s flexible enough for them.
Miller has found that some school districts have “flexibility agreements,” that allow schools to have one-day, two-day or three-day classes.
For example, in Minneapolis, the school district has a “flexibility agreement” that allows for one- or two-days of school, Miller says, but it has no schedule.
“Sometimes there’s a flexibility agreement that allows the school to take in the kids at a certain time,” she said.
“And that’s really the difference between flexibility agreements and schedules that are rigid, that are structured in some way to make sure that kids can’t get there and then be sent back to school.”
