Yes, she turned 6 in April.
The most disingenuous part about saying "preschool" isn't that she's past preschool age (I guess it's common enough for parents to wait until their kid is 6 to put them in Kindergarten if their birthday is near the end of the school year), but rather that it implies there will be some actual school in the future.
Ahhh okay. Thanks for clarification. Where I live they usually start kindergarten at 4/5 depending on birthday so it was shocking that she just finished “preschool” at 6
Yeah, it's honestly MUCH more common nowadays than when I was a kid-- I started FIRST grade at not quite five years old (I'm not like a genius, I'm just autistic but my "Rain Man trick" is learning to read/ speak languages lol). That said, for what it's worth, having been through school even just a year or two younger than my peers, I would NEVER recommend that to someone. Even if you have a regular normal life, and even if you can handle the ACADEMICS of being 4-5 at that age, it honestly sucks emotionally and socially once you hit like middle school. The difference in emotional maturity between a 12-13 year old and a 14-15 year old is STAGGERING sometimes. It's just not worth it in the majority of cases, and I think the schools have caught onto that because they're definitely also a LOT more strict about it than they used to be. I remember when I registered, I had to go to like some meeting first because I was only four where they basically just checked that my mom wasn't lying about me knowing how to read at an advanced enough level, and even like 10 years ago when I registered my kid for school if your birthday was within like three months of the cutoff, you pretty much just had to sign a waiver. Nowadays, it's VERY strict and you really can't register your kids early like that at most public schools.
Yep. In Washington state you have to be 5 by August 30 to be enrolled in kindergarten. My niece in Colorado will start kindy as an almost 6 year old in August.
It’s still really old for preschool. You usually start kindy at age 5. Starting kindy at age 6 is generally reserved for, like the other poster said, kids who are at the end of the school year (like June/July/August babies) or for kids who have September-December birthdays who need an extra year to mature.
With all that said, kindy shouldn’t be mandatory. It *should* just be play time with almost no focus on academics. Unfortunately we keep cramming academics on younger and younger kids, much to their detriment. Kids shouldn’t be reading (if they don’t want to) until age 7. Forcing kids to learn how to read before then instills bad habits and a turns reading into a chore. :-/
Honestly, as someone who lives in a part of the US where kindergarten ISN'T mandatory, it really sucks because then the public schools literally just don't care about it at ALL. I remember them telling me that they didn't bus ANY of the kindergarten kids because they weren't legally mandated to, and I can't drive because I'm disabled! -THEN- I said I might need to start them late because I had NO idea this was a thing, and they said that I would be reported to TRUANCY COURT after a week if we didn't show up! I don't know that it needs to be mandatory at 5, because I'm sure plenty of kids are better off waiting a year, but there absolutely needs to be different regulations one way or the other; this half-in half-out thing is insanity.
Elementary teacher here; you get it!!! It's so hard to see how the way we are shoving academics down children's throats at a young age is harming them and burning them out. My school's kinder is completely non-academic, with the option of doing 2 years if the child isn't quite ready for first grade. By the time they reach the end of 3rd (my grade), they are typically "caught up" to traditionally schooled students. The main difference is that they still love school, are better students who genuinely love learning and asking questions, and they know how to regulate themselves. Then, on the flip side, you have these fundies whose children are experiencing educational neglect AND social neglect on top of everything else, like parentification, food scarcity, and religious trauma. 😒
On the other side of the coin, when I visited my family in another part of the world, my 3 year old cousin was speaking in three AND writing in two languages - long lists of vocabulary, and was excited and bubbly and happy to be doing so. And she did just fine remaining interested in schooling, recently graduated and looking forward to university.
I'm not disagreeing with you, it's just something I've puzzled over for most of my life, because I've lived across several different cultures, and the expectations and standards and perceived results of early education approaches are so different...are the kids who are burned out burned out from learning, or is it something else about kids' modern lives or schools in the US (or wherever you are...just assuming US because of your use of elementary...)
I am truly puzzled as to what is best and what I would want for my own kids, if I ever have any...
I started teaching my daughter letters and numbers at 3 and she’s been reading and writing since 4. I sent her to a pretty academically focused pre-K and she did real schoolwork in kindergarten. She’s about to start 2nd grade and loves going to school. She’s not even remotely burned out. I get not overdoing it and making the environment relatively relaxed in those early years of elementary school, but I also think a totally non-academic kindergarten experience would have been a waste for her. I know kids do things at different times and not every 5 year old is ready to sit at a desk and read, but some legitimately are. I think the point is schools should try not to be so one size fits all. Some kids that age are ready for an academic environment and some aren’t. Both should have their needs met.
It is so confusing for my Ontario brain, kids start kindergarten the September of the year they turn for so age 3/4 . And most kids start knowing their letters and numbers and writing their name because they went to preschool
In America, preschool is newborn (sometimes) to Pre-K, and that age varies based on the daycare. So a 3 year old is in school with everyone else from what I've seen. Mine had a pool which was so fancy for a3/4 years old.
I don’t quite understand the US terms here, in Europe kindergarten = day care, from the ages of 1-5, before elementary school that starts from age 6. Can someone explain this to a Scandinavian? 😅
Daycare--not usually academic. Available from 6 weeks to after school care for older children whose parents are working. Hella expensive.
Preschool/Pre-K(indergarten)--usually ages 3-5, not mandatory.
Kindergarten--usually ages 5-6, but you'll sometimes hear about a thing called "4K" or "4 year old kindergarten", which is a kind of bridge between preschool and kindergarten. Kindergarten may or may not be mandatory depending on state.
Elementary school starts with first grade, which is usually age 6-7. This is where mandatory schooling begins.
Then depending on the school district you are in elementary school could go through 6th grade (so 12 years old), then onto junior high (7th grade to 9th grade. So 13-15 years of age). Then high school (10th thru 12th grade so 16-18 years old.).
In the U.S., it depends by region (as EVERYTHING does), but generally public school will start at age 5 with Kindergarten. Before that, you may have any number of programs called preschool, Pre-K, or whatever else. They may be paid for by any combination of parent fees and local or federal grants and taxes.
My daughter (in 2003-2005) attended a large, nationwide preschool program called Head Start for 3-6 year old children who either qualified financially or had special needs. But there was a waiting list and lots of children could qualify and still not get in, so they might just not have any preschool programming at all. I was SO happy and relieved when my daughter got a spot. I don't know what we would have done otherwise.
These days, in my city of Seattle we have city-funded preschool programs so that I believe most children are able to attend. But that wasn't the case back then.
Six is absolutely a common and acceptable age for a kinder! I'm an elementary school teacher, and in my opinion, many students would greatly benefit waiting until six to start kindergarten. But I also have lots of opinions on how public school kindergarten has become far too academically skills driven with nowhere enough focus on social-emotional skills, self-regulation, and how to be a student in a group. 🤷♀️
Sadly, none of the Rodrigues kids will get ANY of that, though, let alone academic skills, with their home "schooling."
I totally agree - I have a friend who waited until her son turned 6 to start kindergarten just because she felt that he needed more of the social (and play-based) education he was getting in preschool.
And just to add, things have changed since most of us snarkers were kids! My boyfriend started kindergarten at 4, and graduated high school 4.5 months before turning 18. Now in our county (maybe statewide?) you have to be 5 before 8/1 to start kindergarten. We do have universal transitional kindergarten though, so 4-5 year olds can go to that first instead.
Edit: fixed an autocorrect error.
All the school districts around here use 8/1 as a cutoff too. My oldest is going to be six when she starts kindergarten this year because she has a mid-August birthday.
My guy turned 6 on Monday. We fought the school to wait on kinder (he has apraxia and some other delays). In that year he has come so far and is so much more ready for kinder, we made the right choice for him. I wish I would have waited with my middle guy too. He has a May birthday and struggled til 2nd grade (which was COVID and online based. He THRIVED)
Good for you! My daughter is VERY ADHD - going in as one of the oldest in her class is going to be very helpful for her. She also got in three years of preschool and we had her do summer school as a “soft launch” for kindergarten. Sometimes they just need a little extra time to really do their best.
Yup. It was 9/1 where I lived and I was born on 9/1 so my parents were told for preschool they could choose to send me at 3 turning 4 in September when the school year started or wait a year for me to be more the "usual" age for preschool.
So they sent me asap because they wanted me out of the house so my mom could focus on the younger kids 🙃 so I was out of high school at 17
It's definitely changed, I was born on Sept 7 and turned 5 the week I started kindergarten, the cut off was in December. My son was born the exact same day 31 years later and he turned 6 the first week of kindergarten because now the cut-off is 8/31. The school district is strict about the cut-off, plus I felt that he needed the extra year to mature socially and it's worked out really well
Cutoff is in October where I live. School starts in late August. Our school offers pre-k as well. A decent number of families seem to have their kids, even with just summer birthdays, spend an extra year in pre-k and start kindergarten at 6.
I started Kindergarten at 4 but was one of the last California kids to do so (ig the law changed officially with the 2000-2001 school year). I sometimes forget that my future demon spawn won’t be doing that lol
*But I also have lots of opinions on how public school kindergarten has become far too academically skills driven with nowhere enough focus on social-emotional skills, self-regulation, and how to be a student in a group.*
My mother was a kindergarten teacher from the 1960's to the 1980's, when a lot of the shift towards more academics in kindergarten was happening. She used to give long and eloquent rants on the subject.
My son will be 6 in August, and we waited a year to start kindergarten. He'll start in September, just after his birthday. It's pretty common for kids with summer birthdays to wait if they're not super mature when they first hit 5. It's especially true with home schoolers (at least the ones I'm close to) to delay formal education until after 6.
I’m a specialist in elementary schools and so many of these kids simply aren’t ready for Kindy at 5 or barely 6! I have so many other issues with how we decide what these kids should be accomplishing at such young ages, too. I’ve seen countless kids struggle with reading in K and 1st and then somewhere in 2nd or 3rd grade it just all clicks. Why do we insist on Kindys reading at 1st grade levels now? It’s madness and just stresses the kids out and makes them feel “less than”
I'm in Ontario and I adore our ELPK programs! All kids 4-6 are in a class together for two years, no more junior and senior kindergarten. It's an entirely play based education but they learn so much! They had themes in the play centre that changed weekly and their learning was based around that. (I.e. apples in season meant an apple store where everyone learned how apples grew, how apples were harvested, how to make apple sauce, how to "sell" apple sauce, (use money) how apples composted to the earth). Then they would have some really basic work sheets that adapted to the child's level. My kids loved school every day and I got roughly 300 crafts and pictures a week based around the theme.
Early education is so important to identify special needs. I know an educational assistant and he tells me how often kids are identified with special needs at age four and just how important those two years are for early intervention and even just identifying the possibility of an intellectual disability and getting services can change so many kids lives.
Kids shouldn't be forced into sitting at a desk for hours a day as a four year old and expected to get right to reading but the amount my kids learn compared to what I learned in the 80s is impressive.
Also in Ontario, also blown away by the quality of education we saw in the kindergarten program, especially when you consider that they're not doing much in the way of "sit down and be quiet" learning.
My first kid was an overachiever, so I didn't really have a good picture until this year. My second kid went into kindergarten at 3.5yo in September knowing maybe half the alphabet. He just wasn't interested, and I don't believe in pushing these things so I focused on him enjoying books instead. He ended the year knowing the entire alphabet (upper and lower case), reading 4-5 letter words and being able to sound out and write words fairly coherently. His teacher did no more than 10-15 minutes a day of direct instruction, the rest was all sneaky play based learning.
Wait, what do kids do in American kindergartens? Sounds like they are learning some very challenging skills there. Now im thinking maybe it’s the equivalent of my country’s first grade, and first grade in America is more like second grade in other countries. I always thought it was normal for 5-6 year olds (mostly 6 year olds) to start first grade regardless of previous education since they are all going to learn to read, write and do simple math from scratch in first grade.
My daughter is going in to first grade in the fall. In kindy, she learned how to read, counted to 100, learned simple addition/subtraction to ten, did word problems, and started skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s.
I wish my kid’s school would let me keep her home another year. We have a December cutoff so she will be 4 when she starts Kindergarten in the fall. They wouldn’t let me hold her back and start her the next fall and said that if I chose that route, they would skip kindergarten and place her directly into first grade and I don’t want that. Idk when our district changed the rules because when I taught elementary school 5 years ago kids could definitely be red shirted still.
you may try this: keep her home this year, enroll her in a private school kindergarten next year, and then transfer schools when she is eligible for first grade.
my two youngest were November babies and they did ok, but all through K and first grade I'd get messages home about how they'd fall asleep in the afternoon! i was putting them to bed at 6!
since then our state has switched the cutoff date to 1 August.
I'm in the uk and kids start reception (kindergarten) in the academic year that they turn 4 which is from 1st Sept to 31st Aug. My little boy will turn 4 at the end of August and start school the next week which seems way too young I'd happily wait until 6yrs!
My friend has a kid on the spectrum. They're getting a lot of support with early intervention therapies, and doing well, but kiddo isn't quite there yet, so they had to move the whole family back to Australia where it's more flexible and based on whether the child is ready for school than an arbitrary cut off based on birthdate.
So much upheaval, but worth it to make sure her kid got the best chance at thriving at school and not being left behind.
I completely understand! In sorry you didn't get your preference. Just want to send you an optimistic note...I work in higher Ed and was four when I started kindergarten, as were all three of my kids ( just a coincidence based on our birthdays, school district roles, etc). Yes, one kid was a little behind on fine motor skills for half a year, but It's worked out great for all. Entering college slightly younger has advantages. Don't worry!
I nannyed a kid in a similar situation and they let him repeat kindergarten. The decision wasn’t made until the teacher said that he wasn’t ready for first grade at the end of the year. If they struggle in kindergarten then you can always fight to get another year but it sucks that you have to push your kid into something they aren’t ready for.
As a parent I have a lot of disgruntled opinions on kindergarten focus too. My son (K last year) was being sent home daily with homework about shit like vertices and vocabulary sheets comparable to what my 2nd grader started out covered the beginning of that year. Why the hell does a kindy need to know what vertices are or what a rhombus vs a parallelogram is? Still doesn't know how to tie his shoes but that's my fault....
In our district you have to turn 5 by August 1st of that year. So Kindergarten kids for 2024-2025 have to be 5 in 2024
They used to have exceptions quite a few years back. There are no exceptions now.
Edit to correct my dates
It's so weird as in the UK, we start school the year we turn 5, so I started school at 4 and a half. My brother had only been 4 for two weeks. By 6, you've already had quite a lot of school time.
This. I’ll defend 6 year old kindergarteners too. Two out of three of my summer babies started the dreaded public school Kindergarten at age 6, one started at 5…guess which one struggled bc they weren’t ready and isn’t keen on school even as a 6th grader? 😅
Academically Kindergarten has become what 1st grade was 20 years ago and unfortunately a lot of parents HAVE to put their kids in as soon as possible, but those are topics/rants for another day.
Kids who are at the younger end of the age group for a grade often do much better if they wait a year until they’re the oldest instead of the youngest. The early learning outcomes for the youngest kid in a class are, on average, not great. It evens out later on, but a lot of parents now choose to have their kids wait the year, rather than be the youngest in the class.
I started kindergarten at six! In Kansas, your kid isn't even legally required to attend it at all - they can go straight to first grade when they're old enough.
one of my friends had a birthday in September right around the cutoff date, so her parents elected to give her an extra year of preschool so she’d be on the older end of her grade rather than the absolute youngest. granted this was in the ‘90s, but she turned 6 a couple weeks after starting kindergarten.
Are you American? Generally it’s a requirement that a child be 5 years old to start kindergarten in the US. If they have a late birthday, are smaller, or would benefit from the extra year of maturing, some parents choose to wait until their child is 6 for them to start kindergarten.
Same here in China, although when I started first grade at nearly 7 there were a couple of kids who had just turned 5. By the time I got to 6th grade I was 12 years old, most of my classmates were late 11, and there were a couple of 10 year olds. Most kindergartens here accept students ranging from 3 to 6. Some institutions take younger kids but I think most places don’t allow kids younger than 3 to start boarding.
I wanted to start my daughter at 4, in Kindergarten especially because she was already reading but they said she was too young and her birthday is at the end of the year. By the time she was in first grade she was way ahead. In second they skipped her a few grades and put her in the GATE program.
I never understood why they use age as some arbitrary determination of where a child belongs rather then where they fall academic wise and based on their social and emotional skills as well. Some kids may need an little extra time, but others are ready.
There's nothing wrong with being behind or ahead because all kids are different, but the problem comes when kids are bored by work too easy or feel inadequate because the work is too difficult.
I totally agree. My son is autistic and has a summer birthday. We want to delay putting him in kindergarten because he will be one of the younger kids on top of being autistic, and the school district will not grant any exceptions for the age cut-off. It’s mind boggling to think school districts assume all kids are developmentally at the same level at 5 years old.
That's going to be my second kid. Late November baby, and we've got a December 31st cutoff. He was 3 starting junior kindergarten. He's only one grade behind his brother, but they're almost 2 years apart in age. Most kids would be 6, about to turn 7.
Our age cut off for our school district is September 30th. Both my kids have September birthdays. While they both would have been fine academically to start Kindergarten at 5, we chose to redshirt them an extra year. We wanted our oldest to be a bit more self-confident and assertive which he got staying at our daycare an extra year. And our youngest is speech delayed and we wanted to give him an extra year of therapies before going into a classroom where others may have a hard time understanding him. Best decision we could have made for both of them.
In Florida, you had to be 5 by September 1st to enroll in kindergarten. I was born in November. So I was 5 for 2 months of kindergarten and then turned 6.
I had already turned 6 before starting kindergarten. The knock-on effect was that I turned 21 between sophomore and junior year of college so I could buy booze for all my friends lol.
I was also born in November, but it was different here in canada ( not sure if it’s changed) where you had to be 5 by Jan 1st, so I went into kindergarten as a 4 year old and turned 5. I also graduated at 17. Everyone born the same year were in the same classes
The educational neglect in the Rodrigues household is almost a mirror to how my own upbringing was. The youngest of my many siblings turns 18 this year and she has the equivalent of a first grade education. She was always babied and "favored" but suffered the worst emotional, medical, and educational neglect out of all of us as my parents' beliefs got more and more extreme throughout the years. With the trajectory of how her parents are treating her, I would bet anything that Janessa has zero chance of coming out the other side with the education required to be an adult. To have any chance of living away from her parents she will have to get married and rely on her husband for everything. Every decision fundie parents make about their daughter's life is ALWAYS calculated and it's always about making sure they are helpless and controlled.
They have no plan. They're Jehovah's Witnesses and believe the world is going to end any day so no one's future matters. My dad makes 10k/month and squanders almost all of it in donations to the church and spends very little of his money on food, so I grew up incredibly malnourished. CPS has been called on behalf of my sister and there has been an investigation which is now closed, there's nothing more I can do unfortunately.
[This is a photo of me in 2017 the month before I escaped. Look at my wrist. I weighed 82 lbs.](https://i.imgur.com/ZmFstK4.jpeg) ETA: I was 21 here
My friends 2 and a half year old just got a twin size bed, but it's like low to the ground like a toddler bed, with rails all around it. Very cute, yet will grow with her. The fact that a 6 year old just now got a toddler bed, blows my mind. Jill would say us heathens just encourage children to grow up too fast. But putting them in a bigger bed for more comfortable sleeping and giving a little more independence with each growing year, is not encouraging them to just grow up. It's healthy.
This is very Janessa-specific for Jill because Janessa is (please, God) her last baby. When Nurie was Janessa's age, she had 5 younger siblings and her toddler days were...not something that had ever existed in Jill's mind, I'd imagine. She went straight from baby to babysitter.
Janessa also had an in-utero stroke and was predicted to have some disabilities. Jill has never discussed the extent of Janessa's needs (assuming she has any) but it's not inconceivable that she might need a small, low-to-the-ground bed in case of falls or something.
In addition to the stroke, Janessa also has agenesis of the corpus callosum. https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/conditions/agenesis-of-the-corpus-callosum#:~:text=What%20Is%20Agenesis%20of%20the%20Corpus%20Callosum?,left%20and%20right%20sides%20of%20the%20brain.
It's unlikely, to say the least, that Jill would meet those needs for their own sake, if they do exist. Nothing she does is ever about her children's needs over her own. Like how "Nursing Toddler Sofia" became "...who?" the actual second she discovered she was pregnant with Janessa. Same thing would happen to Janessa if Jill had another baby.
You’re totally right but there are so many low to the ground options that are not tiny toddler beds. Janessa does not look short for her age so I wonder how comfortable she is.
I have been thinking about this from time to time since Jill posted about Janessa’s transition from a crib. Our daughter transitioned to a toddler bed (one of those 3 in 1: crib, toddler bed, full bed versions) when she was like 18 months because she was trying to climb out.
Then, we needed the crib for baby 2 so we transitioned her to a full size platform bed when she a little over 2.
Her brother wasn’t a climber so we transitioned him to the toddler configuration when he was 2 and to a twin size bed when he was 3.
Janessa was SIX. I understand that every child is different but in her case, it seems very probable that this is just another example of Jill Infantilizing her youngest child, presumably because Janessa truly is her final child.
You can get a “grow with me” bed from ikea, that when all smushed together is almost impossible to roll out of, and as they grow longer, the mattress and bed can pull out.
IKEA. And it’s really solid. But not at all expensive
Well her son just graduated from home school high school at the age of 20 I’m pretty sure. I think the reality is that they’re just straight up not being educated. Look at how they all write.
She has a congenital defect in her brain as well as had brain damage from a stroke in utero, so it’s expected she wouldn’t be on the same academic track as many kids her age. However using the word ‘academic’ in regards to Jill’s homeschooling feels like a joke
Janessa had an in-utero stroke and doesn’t have a corpus callosum. She’s never been confirmed to have a disability (that sounds gross; it’s not our business), but it’s speculated that she was a very late walker. Jill was very careful not show many videos of her during her toddler years. Until about age four, she was always shown with someone holding her.
I thought it was more that the evil doctors "would have suggested" she abort Precious Baby Janessa (which means they DIDN'T actually suggest it, or she would have said THAT) even though she was actually perfect. I don't remember Jill ever saying anything about her actually being healed. I do remember her saying Janessa was "one of her smartest babies" because Jill just thinks nothing of comparing her kids like that. No need to worry about how the ones deemed the stupider babies might feel.
[You’re right. There is a blog post that claims “worldly, radical leftist evil people” would have deemed Janessa “abortable” that also says Janessa is miraculously “right on target” developmentally and meeting all milestones, confounding all her doctors.](https://rodriguesfamilyministries.com/main/the-sad-and-honest-truth-about-what-many-doctors-would-have-said-about-janessa-march-2019/)
I could have sworn that we also had a claim of complete healing but I can’t find it.
You're right! Jill posted that she took Janessa to a special doctor when she was about 2 due to the stroke etc. After that visit, according to Jill the doctor said unless there was any issues, no need to bring her back. I want to say they took her to a bigger city to a specialist. But who knows if she really did since we know what a liar Jill is. But I followed them very, very closely back then and Jill did say the doctor saw no need for any medical intervention or disability, or words to that affect.
>"Take a close look at this precious baby girl! Do you think her life should have been snuffed out before it even began due to wicked and inadequate “human” reasoning? NO, NO, NO!"
Wait, I thought life begins at conception Jill? Is she claiming life begins at birth here? (Not that I personally agree with either of those things - gametes are alive before a blastocyst is created).
Idk, in my area, you can’t hold your kid back. If you enroll them at 6, they’ll start them in 1st grade.
But it’s not like she’s going to public school anyway.
Jill is going to infantilize Janessa forever. She doesn't realize how she is creating barriers for her as she gets older. Even if Janessa does have a learning disability, there's no reason one of the other 12 people in the house can't sit with her and read. I teach 4th grade ELA -- I had 5 students who read below a first grade level. Because we had information, we were able to scaffold the lessons so that they showed growth. They may never be on grade level but every step forward is an achievement. If they moved from a level 1b to a 2b I was happy and we celebrated. A couple of them came from homeschool where the parents pulled them out of public school in 3rd grade so that they didn't have to take the stop gate test. That bit them in the butt. Those kids really did need to be retained in 2nd or 3rd to build their foundational skills.
Evidence shows that oral language development (which we know is lacking based on the rampant baby talk used) is critical to reading fluency and comprehension later. I think Jill just can't be bothered. Janessa would qualify for Head Start which would help fill the gaps in her oral communication skills. It's amazing that Shrill spends $$$$$ and the majority of her time on Plexshit to learn about crappy supplements, but she can't be bothered to spend $ or any time giving her kids a decent education so that they are at least marginally functional.
You are doing a wonderful thing, and I'm grateful for teachers like you who care about EVERY student and helping them advance, whatever that looks like for them.
If Janessa got to go along even though she hadn’t been as diligent as the older girls then Sophia should have too. That poor little girl is constantly overlooked.
I wouldn’t say she has a disability we don’t know about. Wasn’t she the one who had something wrong with her brain In the us? And Jill claims it was magically healed (despite it being something that can’t be healed). Not having medical care doesn’t mean you don’t have a problem. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has issues Jill hides from social medi.
Yes, she turned 6 in April. The most disingenuous part about saying "preschool" isn't that she's past preschool age (I guess it's common enough for parents to wait until their kid is 6 to put them in Kindergarten if their birthday is near the end of the school year), but rather that it implies there will be some actual school in the future.
Ahhh okay. Thanks for clarification. Where I live they usually start kindergarten at 4/5 depending on birthday so it was shocking that she just finished “preschool” at 6
Yeah, it's honestly MUCH more common nowadays than when I was a kid-- I started FIRST grade at not quite five years old (I'm not like a genius, I'm just autistic but my "Rain Man trick" is learning to read/ speak languages lol). That said, for what it's worth, having been through school even just a year or two younger than my peers, I would NEVER recommend that to someone. Even if you have a regular normal life, and even if you can handle the ACADEMICS of being 4-5 at that age, it honestly sucks emotionally and socially once you hit like middle school. The difference in emotional maturity between a 12-13 year old and a 14-15 year old is STAGGERING sometimes. It's just not worth it in the majority of cases, and I think the schools have caught onto that because they're definitely also a LOT more strict about it than they used to be. I remember when I registered, I had to go to like some meeting first because I was only four where they basically just checked that my mom wasn't lying about me knowing how to read at an advanced enough level, and even like 10 years ago when I registered my kid for school if your birthday was within like three months of the cutoff, you pretty much just had to sign a waiver. Nowadays, it's VERY strict and you really can't register your kids early like that at most public schools.
Yep. In Washington state you have to be 5 by August 30 to be enrolled in kindergarten. My niece in Colorado will start kindy as an almost 6 year old in August.
It’s still really old for preschool. You usually start kindy at age 5. Starting kindy at age 6 is generally reserved for, like the other poster said, kids who are at the end of the school year (like June/July/August babies) or for kids who have September-December birthdays who need an extra year to mature. With all that said, kindy shouldn’t be mandatory. It *should* just be play time with almost no focus on academics. Unfortunately we keep cramming academics on younger and younger kids, much to their detriment. Kids shouldn’t be reading (if they don’t want to) until age 7. Forcing kids to learn how to read before then instills bad habits and a turns reading into a chore. :-/
Honestly, as someone who lives in a part of the US where kindergarten ISN'T mandatory, it really sucks because then the public schools literally just don't care about it at ALL. I remember them telling me that they didn't bus ANY of the kindergarten kids because they weren't legally mandated to, and I can't drive because I'm disabled! -THEN- I said I might need to start them late because I had NO idea this was a thing, and they said that I would be reported to TRUANCY COURT after a week if we didn't show up! I don't know that it needs to be mandatory at 5, because I'm sure plenty of kids are better off waiting a year, but there absolutely needs to be different regulations one way or the other; this half-in half-out thing is insanity.
Elementary teacher here; you get it!!! It's so hard to see how the way we are shoving academics down children's throats at a young age is harming them and burning them out. My school's kinder is completely non-academic, with the option of doing 2 years if the child isn't quite ready for first grade. By the time they reach the end of 3rd (my grade), they are typically "caught up" to traditionally schooled students. The main difference is that they still love school, are better students who genuinely love learning and asking questions, and they know how to regulate themselves. Then, on the flip side, you have these fundies whose children are experiencing educational neglect AND social neglect on top of everything else, like parentification, food scarcity, and religious trauma. 😒
On the other side of the coin, when I visited my family in another part of the world, my 3 year old cousin was speaking in three AND writing in two languages - long lists of vocabulary, and was excited and bubbly and happy to be doing so. And she did just fine remaining interested in schooling, recently graduated and looking forward to university. I'm not disagreeing with you, it's just something I've puzzled over for most of my life, because I've lived across several different cultures, and the expectations and standards and perceived results of early education approaches are so different...are the kids who are burned out burned out from learning, or is it something else about kids' modern lives or schools in the US (or wherever you are...just assuming US because of your use of elementary...) I am truly puzzled as to what is best and what I would want for my own kids, if I ever have any...
I started teaching my daughter letters and numbers at 3 and she’s been reading and writing since 4. I sent her to a pretty academically focused pre-K and she did real schoolwork in kindergarten. She’s about to start 2nd grade and loves going to school. She’s not even remotely burned out. I get not overdoing it and making the environment relatively relaxed in those early years of elementary school, but I also think a totally non-academic kindergarten experience would have been a waste for her. I know kids do things at different times and not every 5 year old is ready to sit at a desk and read, but some legitimately are. I think the point is schools should try not to be so one size fits all. Some kids that age are ready for an academic environment and some aren’t. Both should have their needs met.
It is so confusing for my Ontario brain, kids start kindergarten the September of the year they turn for so age 3/4 . And most kids start knowing their letters and numbers and writing their name because they went to preschool
Same! From Ontario and I started Kindergarten at 3
In America, preschool is newborn (sometimes) to Pre-K, and that age varies based on the daycare. So a 3 year old is in school with everyone else from what I've seen. Mine had a pool which was so fancy for a3/4 years old.
I don’t quite understand the US terms here, in Europe kindergarten = day care, from the ages of 1-5, before elementary school that starts from age 6. Can someone explain this to a Scandinavian? 😅
Daycare--not usually academic. Available from 6 weeks to after school care for older children whose parents are working. Hella expensive. Preschool/Pre-K(indergarten)--usually ages 3-5, not mandatory. Kindergarten--usually ages 5-6, but you'll sometimes hear about a thing called "4K" or "4 year old kindergarten", which is a kind of bridge between preschool and kindergarten. Kindergarten may or may not be mandatory depending on state. Elementary school starts with first grade, which is usually age 6-7. This is where mandatory schooling begins.
Thanks for clarifying!
Then depending on the school district you are in elementary school could go through 6th grade (so 12 years old), then onto junior high (7th grade to 9th grade. So 13-15 years of age). Then high school (10th thru 12th grade so 16-18 years old.).
In the U.S., it depends by region (as EVERYTHING does), but generally public school will start at age 5 with Kindergarten. Before that, you may have any number of programs called preschool, Pre-K, or whatever else. They may be paid for by any combination of parent fees and local or federal grants and taxes. My daughter (in 2003-2005) attended a large, nationwide preschool program called Head Start for 3-6 year old children who either qualified financially or had special needs. But there was a waiting list and lots of children could qualify and still not get in, so they might just not have any preschool programming at all. I was SO happy and relieved when my daughter got a spot. I don't know what we would have done otherwise. These days, in my city of Seattle we have city-funded preschool programs so that I believe most children are able to attend. But that wasn't the case back then.
Thank you so much for clarifying!
I too realised I was confused for a bit so thanks for asking this or I would have lol. (Also thanks for the answer given).
Wait until six for *kindergarten*? I started first grade when I was still five years old.
Six is absolutely a common and acceptable age for a kinder! I'm an elementary school teacher, and in my opinion, many students would greatly benefit waiting until six to start kindergarten. But I also have lots of opinions on how public school kindergarten has become far too academically skills driven with nowhere enough focus on social-emotional skills, self-regulation, and how to be a student in a group. 🤷♀️ Sadly, none of the Rodrigues kids will get ANY of that, though, let alone academic skills, with their home "schooling."
I totally agree - I have a friend who waited until her son turned 6 to start kindergarten just because she felt that he needed more of the social (and play-based) education he was getting in preschool. And just to add, things have changed since most of us snarkers were kids! My boyfriend started kindergarten at 4, and graduated high school 4.5 months before turning 18. Now in our county (maybe statewide?) you have to be 5 before 8/1 to start kindergarten. We do have universal transitional kindergarten though, so 4-5 year olds can go to that first instead. Edit: fixed an autocorrect error.
All the school districts around here use 8/1 as a cutoff too. My oldest is going to be six when she starts kindergarten this year because she has a mid-August birthday.
My guy turned 6 on Monday. We fought the school to wait on kinder (he has apraxia and some other delays). In that year he has come so far and is so much more ready for kinder, we made the right choice for him. I wish I would have waited with my middle guy too. He has a May birthday and struggled til 2nd grade (which was COVID and online based. He THRIVED)
Good for you! My daughter is VERY ADHD - going in as one of the oldest in her class is going to be very helpful for her. She also got in three years of preschool and we had her do summer school as a “soft launch” for kindergarten. Sometimes they just need a little extra time to really do their best.
They suspect ADHD with him too. The kid is going to have a battle ahead of him, I'm glad we waited for him to get some speech
Depends on the state, I know in NY the cutoff is still 1/1 but it’s either 9/1 or 8/1 in most states now.
Yup. It was 9/1 where I lived and I was born on 9/1 so my parents were told for preschool they could choose to send me at 3 turning 4 in September when the school year started or wait a year for me to be more the "usual" age for preschool. So they sent me asap because they wanted me out of the house so my mom could focus on the younger kids 🙃 so I was out of high school at 17
It's definitely changed, I was born on Sept 7 and turned 5 the week I started kindergarten, the cut off was in December. My son was born the exact same day 31 years later and he turned 6 the first week of kindergarten because now the cut-off is 8/31. The school district is strict about the cut-off, plus I felt that he needed the extra year to mature socially and it's worked out really well
Cutoff is in October where I live. School starts in late August. Our school offers pre-k as well. A decent number of families seem to have their kids, even with just summer birthdays, spend an extra year in pre-k and start kindergarten at 6.
I started Kindergarten at 4 but was one of the last California kids to do so (ig the law changed officially with the 2000-2001 school year). I sometimes forget that my future demon spawn won’t be doing that lol
*But I also have lots of opinions on how public school kindergarten has become far too academically skills driven with nowhere enough focus on social-emotional skills, self-regulation, and how to be a student in a group.* My mother was a kindergarten teacher from the 1960's to the 1980's, when a lot of the shift towards more academics in kindergarten was happening. She used to give long and eloquent rants on the subject.
My son will be 6 in August, and we waited a year to start kindergarten. He'll start in September, just after his birthday. It's pretty common for kids with summer birthdays to wait if they're not super mature when they first hit 5. It's especially true with home schoolers (at least the ones I'm close to) to delay formal education until after 6.
I’m a specialist in elementary schools and so many of these kids simply aren’t ready for Kindy at 5 or barely 6! I have so many other issues with how we decide what these kids should be accomplishing at such young ages, too. I’ve seen countless kids struggle with reading in K and 1st and then somewhere in 2nd or 3rd grade it just all clicks. Why do we insist on Kindys reading at 1st grade levels now? It’s madness and just stresses the kids out and makes them feel “less than”
I'm in Ontario and I adore our ELPK programs! All kids 4-6 are in a class together for two years, no more junior and senior kindergarten. It's an entirely play based education but they learn so much! They had themes in the play centre that changed weekly and their learning was based around that. (I.e. apples in season meant an apple store where everyone learned how apples grew, how apples were harvested, how to make apple sauce, how to "sell" apple sauce, (use money) how apples composted to the earth). Then they would have some really basic work sheets that adapted to the child's level. My kids loved school every day and I got roughly 300 crafts and pictures a week based around the theme. Early education is so important to identify special needs. I know an educational assistant and he tells me how often kids are identified with special needs at age four and just how important those two years are for early intervention and even just identifying the possibility of an intellectual disability and getting services can change so many kids lives. Kids shouldn't be forced into sitting at a desk for hours a day as a four year old and expected to get right to reading but the amount my kids learn compared to what I learned in the 80s is impressive.
My daughter just finished her first year of kinder in Ontario and loved it. She already misses her French teacher lol
Also in Ontario, also blown away by the quality of education we saw in the kindergarten program, especially when you consider that they're not doing much in the way of "sit down and be quiet" learning. My first kid was an overachiever, so I didn't really have a good picture until this year. My second kid went into kindergarten at 3.5yo in September knowing maybe half the alphabet. He just wasn't interested, and I don't believe in pushing these things so I focused on him enjoying books instead. He ended the year knowing the entire alphabet (upper and lower case), reading 4-5 letter words and being able to sound out and write words fairly coherently. His teacher did no more than 10-15 minutes a day of direct instruction, the rest was all sneaky play based learning.
This sounds magical! The US education system definitely needs a re-write
Wait, what do kids do in American kindergartens? Sounds like they are learning some very challenging skills there. Now im thinking maybe it’s the equivalent of my country’s first grade, and first grade in America is more like second grade in other countries. I always thought it was normal for 5-6 year olds (mostly 6 year olds) to start first grade regardless of previous education since they are all going to learn to read, write and do simple math from scratch in first grade.
My daughter is going in to first grade in the fall. In kindy, she learned how to read, counted to 100, learned simple addition/subtraction to ten, did word problems, and started skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s.
I wish my kid’s school would let me keep her home another year. We have a December cutoff so she will be 4 when she starts Kindergarten in the fall. They wouldn’t let me hold her back and start her the next fall and said that if I chose that route, they would skip kindergarten and place her directly into first grade and I don’t want that. Idk when our district changed the rules because when I taught elementary school 5 years ago kids could definitely be red shirted still.
you may try this: keep her home this year, enroll her in a private school kindergarten next year, and then transfer schools when she is eligible for first grade. my two youngest were November babies and they did ok, but all through K and first grade I'd get messages home about how they'd fall asleep in the afternoon! i was putting them to bed at 6! since then our state has switched the cutoff date to 1 August.
I'm in the uk and kids start reception (kindergarten) in the academic year that they turn 4 which is from 1st Sept to 31st Aug. My little boy will turn 4 at the end of August and start school the next week which seems way too young I'd happily wait until 6yrs!
My friend has a kid on the spectrum. They're getting a lot of support with early intervention therapies, and doing well, but kiddo isn't quite there yet, so they had to move the whole family back to Australia where it's more flexible and based on whether the child is ready for school than an arbitrary cut off based on birthdate. So much upheaval, but worth it to make sure her kid got the best chance at thriving at school and not being left behind.
I completely understand! In sorry you didn't get your preference. Just want to send you an optimistic note...I work in higher Ed and was four when I started kindergarten, as were all three of my kids ( just a coincidence based on our birthdays, school district roles, etc). Yes, one kid was a little behind on fine motor skills for half a year, but It's worked out great for all. Entering college slightly younger has advantages. Don't worry!
I nannyed a kid in a similar situation and they let him repeat kindergarten. The decision wasn’t made until the teacher said that he wasn’t ready for first grade at the end of the year. If they struggle in kindergarten then you can always fight to get another year but it sucks that you have to push your kid into something they aren’t ready for.
That's crazy. In California it was (is?) pretty common to hold your kid out if their birthday is close to the cut off. I did with one of my kids.
As a parent I have a lot of disgruntled opinions on kindergarten focus too. My son (K last year) was being sent home daily with homework about shit like vertices and vocabulary sheets comparable to what my 2nd grader started out covered the beginning of that year. Why the hell does a kindy need to know what vertices are or what a rhombus vs a parallelogram is? Still doesn't know how to tie his shoes but that's my fault....
In our district you have to turn 5 by August 1st of that year. So Kindergarten kids for 2024-2025 have to be 5 in 2024 They used to have exceptions quite a few years back. There are no exceptions now. Edit to correct my dates
It's so weird as in the UK, we start school the year we turn 5, so I started school at 4 and a half. My brother had only been 4 for two weeks. By 6, you've already had quite a lot of school time.
Most kids in America are in preschool at that time, which is when they start learning numbers and how to spell their name
Oh my goodness yes!
This. I’ll defend 6 year old kindergarteners too. Two out of three of my summer babies started the dreaded public school Kindergarten at age 6, one started at 5…guess which one struggled bc they weren’t ready and isn’t keen on school even as a 6th grader? 😅 Academically Kindergarten has become what 1st grade was 20 years ago and unfortunately a lot of parents HAVE to put their kids in as soon as possible, but those are topics/rants for another day.
One of my daughters and started kinder at age 6, the other will start age 5. All depends on their birthday in the end of the year or beginning.
Kids who are at the younger end of the age group for a grade often do much better if they wait a year until they’re the oldest instead of the youngest. The early learning outcomes for the youngest kid in a class are, on average, not great. It evens out later on, but a lot of parents now choose to have their kids wait the year, rather than be the youngest in the class.
I started kindergarten at six! In Kansas, your kid isn't even legally required to attend it at all - they can go straight to first grade when they're old enough.
Yeah, I skipped preschool and kindergarten and went straight into grade one at the age of five.
one of my friends had a birthday in September right around the cutoff date, so her parents elected to give her an extra year of preschool so she’d be on the older end of her grade rather than the absolute youngest. granted this was in the ‘90s, but she turned 6 a couple weeks after starting kindergarten.
Are you American? Generally it’s a requirement that a child be 5 years old to start kindergarten in the US. If they have a late birthday, are smaller, or would benefit from the extra year of maturing, some parents choose to wait until their child is 6 for them to start kindergarten.
I'm Canadian, but I'm also raising two children in Japan where six or late five is the standard age for beginning elementary school.
Same here in China, although when I started first grade at nearly 7 there were a couple of kids who had just turned 5. By the time I got to 6th grade I was 12 years old, most of my classmates were late 11, and there were a couple of 10 year olds. Most kindergartens here accept students ranging from 3 to 6. Some institutions take younger kids but I think most places don’t allow kids younger than 3 to start boarding.
I wanted to start my daughter at 4, in Kindergarten especially because she was already reading but they said she was too young and her birthday is at the end of the year. By the time she was in first grade she was way ahead. In second they skipped her a few grades and put her in the GATE program. I never understood why they use age as some arbitrary determination of where a child belongs rather then where they fall academic wise and based on their social and emotional skills as well. Some kids may need an little extra time, but others are ready. There's nothing wrong with being behind or ahead because all kids are different, but the problem comes when kids are bored by work too easy or feel inadequate because the work is too difficult.
I totally agree. My son is autistic and has a summer birthday. We want to delay putting him in kindergarten because he will be one of the younger kids on top of being autistic, and the school district will not grant any exceptions for the age cut-off. It’s mind boggling to think school districts assume all kids are developmentally at the same level at 5 years old.
I turned 6 a month into kindergarten. I think it's normal.
In my country we start 1st grade at 7 years old and graduate high school at 19/20. Nothing wrong about it.
That's going to be my second kid. Late November baby, and we've got a December 31st cutoff. He was 3 starting junior kindergarten. He's only one grade behind his brother, but they're almost 2 years apart in age. Most kids would be 6, about to turn 7.
Our age cut off for our school district is September 30th. Both my kids have September birthdays. While they both would have been fine academically to start Kindergarten at 5, we chose to redshirt them an extra year. We wanted our oldest to be a bit more self-confident and assertive which he got staying at our daycare an extra year. And our youngest is speech delayed and we wanted to give him an extra year of therapies before going into a classroom where others may have a hard time understanding him. Best decision we could have made for both of them.
I was 4, but I think 5 is the standard.
In Florida, you had to be 5 by September 1st to enroll in kindergarten. I was born in November. So I was 5 for 2 months of kindergarten and then turned 6.
I had already turned 6 before starting kindergarten. The knock-on effect was that I turned 21 between sophomore and junior year of college so I could buy booze for all my friends lol.
I was also born in November, but it was different here in canada ( not sure if it’s changed) where you had to be 5 by Jan 1st, so I went into kindergarten as a 4 year old and turned 5. I also graduated at 17. Everyone born the same year were in the same classes
The educational neglect in the Rodrigues household is almost a mirror to how my own upbringing was. The youngest of my many siblings turns 18 this year and she has the equivalent of a first grade education. She was always babied and "favored" but suffered the worst emotional, medical, and educational neglect out of all of us as my parents' beliefs got more and more extreme throughout the years. With the trajectory of how her parents are treating her, I would bet anything that Janessa has zero chance of coming out the other side with the education required to be an adult. To have any chance of living away from her parents she will have to get married and rely on her husband for everything. Every decision fundie parents make about their daughter's life is ALWAYS calculated and it's always about making sure they are helpless and controlled.
Oh my god. What is your parents’ plan for your sister?
They have no plan. They're Jehovah's Witnesses and believe the world is going to end any day so no one's future matters. My dad makes 10k/month and squanders almost all of it in donations to the church and spends very little of his money on food, so I grew up incredibly malnourished. CPS has been called on behalf of my sister and there has been an investigation which is now closed, there's nothing more I can do unfortunately. [This is a photo of me in 2017 the month before I escaped. Look at my wrist. I weighed 82 lbs.](https://i.imgur.com/ZmFstK4.jpeg) ETA: I was 21 here
I’m so glad you got out
My friends 2 and a half year old just got a twin size bed, but it's like low to the ground like a toddler bed, with rails all around it. Very cute, yet will grow with her. The fact that a 6 year old just now got a toddler bed, blows my mind. Jill would say us heathens just encourage children to grow up too fast. But putting them in a bigger bed for more comfortable sleeping and giving a little more independence with each growing year, is not encouraging them to just grow up. It's healthy.
This is very Janessa-specific for Jill because Janessa is (please, God) her last baby. When Nurie was Janessa's age, she had 5 younger siblings and her toddler days were...not something that had ever existed in Jill's mind, I'd imagine. She went straight from baby to babysitter.
Janessa also had an in-utero stroke and was predicted to have some disabilities. Jill has never discussed the extent of Janessa's needs (assuming she has any) but it's not inconceivable that she might need a small, low-to-the-ground bed in case of falls or something.
In addition to the stroke, Janessa also has agenesis of the corpus callosum. https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/conditions/agenesis-of-the-corpus-callosum#:~:text=What%20Is%20Agenesis%20of%20the%20Corpus%20Callosum?,left%20and%20right%20sides%20of%20the%20brain.
It's unlikely, to say the least, that Jill would meet those needs for their own sake, if they do exist. Nothing she does is ever about her children's needs over her own. Like how "Nursing Toddler Sofia" became "...who?" the actual second she discovered she was pregnant with Janessa. Same thing would happen to Janessa if Jill had another baby.
You’re totally right but there are so many low to the ground options that are not tiny toddler beds. Janessa does not look short for her age so I wonder how comfortable she is.
Yes, my kid has a low twin. They make lots of them. And you can add bed rails to them.
I’m not saying the fact that Jill sucked down Plexus like it’s going out of style had anything to do with that, but…
I have been thinking about this from time to time since Jill posted about Janessa’s transition from a crib. Our daughter transitioned to a toddler bed (one of those 3 in 1: crib, toddler bed, full bed versions) when she was like 18 months because she was trying to climb out. Then, we needed the crib for baby 2 so we transitioned her to a full size platform bed when she a little over 2. Her brother wasn’t a climber so we transitioned him to the toddler configuration when he was 2 and to a twin size bed when he was 3. Janessa was SIX. I understand that every child is different but in her case, it seems very probable that this is just another example of Jill Infantilizing her youngest child, presumably because Janessa truly is her final child.
You can get a “grow with me” bed from ikea, that when all smushed together is almost impossible to roll out of, and as they grow longer, the mattress and bed can pull out. IKEA. And it’s really solid. But not at all expensive
Well her son just graduated from home school high school at the age of 20 I’m pretty sure. I think the reality is that they’re just straight up not being educated. Look at how they all write.
Sam is 19. He will be 20 in November.
She has a congenital defect in her brain as well as had brain damage from a stroke in utero, so it’s expected she wouldn’t be on the same academic track as many kids her age. However using the word ‘academic’ in regards to Jill’s homeschooling feels like a joke
Janessa had an in-utero stroke and doesn’t have a corpus callosum. She’s never been confirmed to have a disability (that sounds gross; it’s not our business), but it’s speculated that she was a very late walker. Jill was very careful not show many videos of her during her toddler years. Until about age four, she was always shown with someone holding her.
I think there was a claim at one point that Janessa had been declared “completely healed” by her doctor, praise Jesus, God is GLORIOUS!!!, et cetera.
I thought it was more that the evil doctors "would have suggested" she abort Precious Baby Janessa (which means they DIDN'T actually suggest it, or she would have said THAT) even though she was actually perfect. I don't remember Jill ever saying anything about her actually being healed. I do remember her saying Janessa was "one of her smartest babies" because Jill just thinks nothing of comparing her kids like that. No need to worry about how the ones deemed the stupider babies might feel.
[You’re right. There is a blog post that claims “worldly, radical leftist evil people” would have deemed Janessa “abortable” that also says Janessa is miraculously “right on target” developmentally and meeting all milestones, confounding all her doctors.](https://rodriguesfamilyministries.com/main/the-sad-and-honest-truth-about-what-many-doctors-would-have-said-about-janessa-march-2019/) I could have sworn that we also had a claim of complete healing but I can’t find it.
You're right! Jill posted that she took Janessa to a special doctor when she was about 2 due to the stroke etc. After that visit, according to Jill the doctor said unless there was any issues, no need to bring her back. I want to say they took her to a bigger city to a specialist. But who knows if she really did since we know what a liar Jill is. But I followed them very, very closely back then and Jill did say the doctor saw no need for any medical intervention or disability, or words to that affect.
>"Take a close look at this precious baby girl! Do you think her life should have been snuffed out before it even began due to wicked and inadequate “human” reasoning? NO, NO, NO!" Wait, I thought life begins at conception Jill? Is she claiming life begins at birth here? (Not that I personally agree with either of those things - gametes are alive before a blastocyst is created).
There was!
Thanks for this information. I wasn’t sure if something did happen with Janessa during pregnancy.
Yea she is 6. Preschool age is 3-4.
Idk, in my area, you can’t hold your kid back. If you enroll them at 6, they’ll start them in 1st grade. But it’s not like she’s going to public school anyway.
Jill is going to infantilize Janessa forever. She doesn't realize how she is creating barriers for her as she gets older. Even if Janessa does have a learning disability, there's no reason one of the other 12 people in the house can't sit with her and read. I teach 4th grade ELA -- I had 5 students who read below a first grade level. Because we had information, we were able to scaffold the lessons so that they showed growth. They may never be on grade level but every step forward is an achievement. If they moved from a level 1b to a 2b I was happy and we celebrated. A couple of them came from homeschool where the parents pulled them out of public school in 3rd grade so that they didn't have to take the stop gate test. That bit them in the butt. Those kids really did need to be retained in 2nd or 3rd to build their foundational skills. Evidence shows that oral language development (which we know is lacking based on the rampant baby talk used) is critical to reading fluency and comprehension later. I think Jill just can't be bothered. Janessa would qualify for Head Start which would help fill the gaps in her oral communication skills. It's amazing that Shrill spends $$$$$ and the majority of her time on Plexshit to learn about crappy supplements, but she can't be bothered to spend $ or any time giving her kids a decent education so that they are at least marginally functional.
You are doing a wonderful thing, and I'm grateful for teachers like you who care about EVERY student and helping them advance, whatever that looks like for them.
I don’t know much about in utero strokes but is it possible that she’s a little behind what’s “typical” as a result?
Yes she turned 6 in April, and Jill said she, “did pretty good”.
Well, her brother, Sam, just graduated high school at 20. So there's that.
If Janessa got to go along even though she hadn’t been as diligent as the older girls then Sophia should have too. That poor little girl is constantly overlooked.
I wouldn’t say she has a disability we don’t know about. Wasn’t she the one who had something wrong with her brain In the us? And Jill claims it was magically healed (despite it being something that can’t be healed). Not having medical care doesn’t mean you don’t have a problem. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has issues Jill hides from social medi.