Long Consideration

Well Ken and I have always known that Ben has been really shy. He does not ever talk to someone that he does not know and he will not just go up to other kids and start to play with them. That is one reason that I wanted to get him into preschool last year and that I wanted to find a group of kids that he could play with. I am so glad that I have mommy friends that also have kids Ben's age so he gets to socialize a little more. Whenever someone talks to Ben he always tends to hide behind either Ken or I and not want to talk with them. We really don't know why this is but after yesterday talking to the kindergarten teacher it seems normal for little boys. I guess they don't have the social skills that girls of the same age have. So it is perfectly normal. So since Ben is so small for his age Ken and I have been talking about him and school. He does not really seem to have the maturity to sit and focus yet in a classroom that is more of a learning based rather than a preschool based class. After all in kindergarten they expect kids to start to read and we don't think Ben is ready just yet.
So this year Ken and I have had to make the HUGE decision whether to keep Ben in preschool or to push him forward to kindergarten. I hate making this choice especially since I am pregnant and over emotional. It does not help at all. If we put him in kindergarten he might struggle because he is not very social and will not ask for help if he really needs it. However if we put him in preschool again he will be six before he starts kindergarten. Ken was six because of his birthday when he started kindergarten and he did very well in school. Madison has no choice but to be six when she starts because of her late birthday. I however was five and my birthday was just before the cut off date and I always feel as if I had to work harder then the other kids to get the same goal. I think that if my parents would have waited another year my grades and academics would have shown that it would have been much better for me. Ken and I graduated the exact same year but shy of 15 days he is a whole year older than me. I was the second youngest in my whole class. The kid that was younger had terrible grades. So we have been thinking and thinking about what to do.
We have finally decided to send him to the Lutheran school this year but he will again be in preschool. It will be better for him in the long run because next year he will be more mature and more social as that comes with age for boys. Also he will have and advantage because he will be a little older. There will be other kids in his class that will also be six because of their late birthdays as well so he will not be the big kid in the class. He actually has a friend on his t-ball team that will also be going to preschool again this year even though he will be five as well.
We hated making the choice but it really needed to be done and we think that we have made the choice that was best for him. It did take some praying!