Repeating first grade

amother

Tue, Aug 19 2014, 7:13 pm

Hi mommies!
I was wondering how you broke the news to your daughter/son that they had to repeat a grade.
I need some advice . Thank you!

Chayalle

Tue, Aug 19 2014, 7:27 pm

I repeated Kindergarten. When my niece was repeating Primary, I took her out to icecream, just the two of us.

I don't remember how my parents told me I was repeating a grade, but I can tell you I don't have any negative associations with it.

PAMOM

Tue, Aug 19 2014, 7:38 pm

One of my good friends' daughters had to repeat kindergarten. She's now an
MD. Her mother told her that children grow up at different rates and that the teachers thought she would be able to
learn faster and show how smart she really is if she got to be a year older before first grade. She didn't go into long explanations and was very matter of fact. If your dd has a late birthday or isn't your oldest child, you can include that as a reason for being a little young still.

seeker

Tue, Aug 19 2014, 7:49 pm

I haven't had to do it but I'd probably just treat it as a very normal thing and hope the child doesn't see it as a big deal... what is going to be different this time around? Maybe that could be a focus of the conversation as opposed to going backward or doing the same thing again - something will be new and different. (If nothing will be new and different, I urge you to reconsider that - repeating a grade without changing anything else is generally not a good idea)

shanie5

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 1:15 am

Use the word "repeat" as opposed to "left back".
Kids really dont understand what that means in 1st grade. Its the parent who has the problem that "MY child needs to repeat"

At least, thats how it was for me-I had to accept it more than my child did. Said child was fine then and today is a happily married young woman.

jayne

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 8:26 am

My son had to repeat kindergarten, too. It was the best thing ever. He gained the maturity and physical growth to be confident and successful throughout school.
As a teacher, I can assure you that the older children in a class are almost always the strongest students.
It's really for the best....

Scrabble123

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 10:16 am

My brother had to repeat kindergarten, and no one really remembered or cared. His teacher told him that every year, some big kindergarten kids need to repeat kindergarten to help the newcomers. Anyways, he ended up skipping 3rd and 12th, and graduated high school at 16, so I'm not sure how necessary the skipping was, except for the fact that he was born in January And probably did not make the date cutoff.

bnm

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 11:29 am

I repeated my kid kindergarten. I blamed it on her age, said she is one of the youngest in the class. it helped that her best friend also repeated and was put in the same class as her and at orientation we saw 2 more girls repeated and where put in the other class. We called it repeat, not left back.

pink flower

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 6:17 pm

Had this issue with my oldest daughter. She was the youngest of the class and had difficulties with everything. School suggested repeating reception, which we went for. Unfortunately that was not the case, we figured out she has speech and language issues and needs therapy, but still happy that we have taken that step. Maybe make sure your child just needs the repeat to catch up and has no other issue. The early an issue is dealt with, the easier it is to rectify. Wishing you lots of Hatzlooche and naches!

imasinger

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 9:37 pm

One way to handle it is to tell him he will be a "Super First Grader", able to help all the other kids learn what to do at first. If the teacher can help him feel important at first, he will soon see it as a positive.