While filling in the school application form for our kids in Canada, there’s a field for date of birth of the child. Once you input the date of birth, it automatically calculates the age of the child by December 31st of the previous year and automatically assigns the class the child will be in.
For example, kids born in 2017 will be 7 years old by December 31st 2024 and therefore will be in Grade 2 (Year/Primary 2). There’s no argument.
I have always been a proponent of kids completing their allocated years in primary and secondary school. Nothing like double promotion.
I was double promoted twice in school and I finished secondary at 14 years. Yes I was a brilliant child but emotional and socially immature. It had an adverse effect on me in secondary school and university and I don’t want my kids to pass through that.
I told my wife while we were courting that our kids must follow the process and while she was against it initially, she later saw reason with me and agreed.
There are many reasons why I took this stance.
A child at 8 years old is not the same child at 8 years, 9 months and is definitely not the same child at 9 years. The maturity level is different. A few months is enough for a child to attain a new level of maturity. If you work with children you will confirm what I’m saying. Having founded 9jacodekids Academy and worked with kids extensively I know this
Parents are quick to round up their children’s ages in order to give them privileges that are meant for older children. Not knowing they are exposing the children to what their minds cannot carry. A 10 year old and 12 year old in the same class is not OK.
Another reason for me saying my kids will not skip any class is because I’m not in a hurry to send them off. Basically as a father, I have 18 years to train and prepare them for the future. By 18 they will be off to University and that means they have practically left home. Anything they do after then is just “visiting”. So whatever I haven’t taught them in that 18 years is as good as gone.
Giving them double promotion, skipping classes etc reduces the amount of time I really truly have with them to nurture and equip them and I’m not sacrificing that for anything. This is the same reason they won’t go to boarding school (another discussion for another day. I was a boarder )
Now my girls were in year 5 in Nigeria but Canada has sent them to their normal class of Grade 4 and I’m cool with it. They were in year 5 in Nigeria because they started creche at 1year 4 months.
So my recommendation is for parents to allow their kids mature at their own pace. If they are too brilliant for the class they are in, then they have no excuse not to be the best in that class. You can supplement their learning with other skills like coding, robotics, arts, sports etc. Life isn’t all about book intelligence.
Emotional and Social Intelligence matters a whole lot and kids need time to develop this. They can’t cram them like books.