Disadvantage?

Some of you may remember that Isaac was our Christmas present when he came to this world on 26th Dec 2007. Being born so late at the end of the year makes him much smaller in size when compared to his peers born in the same year.

Take his cousin for example. Chad was born in January so he is almost a year older than Isaac and one could never have guessed they are of the same age just from looking at their sizes. However size is not really the issue here cause given time Isaac can surely catch up. It is only prominent now when they are this young.

What concerned me most is the disadvantage in terms of time given to him for his development. Honestly I never thought much of it until last week when the Mrs brought (more like dragged) me along for her nursery (as in school) shopping.

Most if not all the nurseries are already taking in students who were born in 2007. My initial reaction was nonchalant because to me Isaac is still very much a baby so the idea of sending him to Nursery 1 class seems so distant.

This trip to a very popular nursery really woke me up! It was in the administrator’s office that I realized that Issac is due to go for Nursery 1 next January!!! My baby is going to school (ok, a little drama here since it is not really school school but you know what I mean) next year!! Picturing him in his little school uniform brings a smile to my face because he will look so cute! At the same time I have this sour feeling deep inside also because it sort of mark his growing up.

While touring the school and their many facilities, we saw students in the current Nursery 1 classes walking down the corridor hand in hand. They are of various shapes and sizes but all of them look so cute in their uniforms. We could tell that some were born in the beginning of the year while others at the end. I can already visualize Isaac being bullied by the big fat kid who was born in January.

When it finally dawned on me that Isaac will be big enough to go to Nursery 1 next year I suddenly got confused. I always thought that we will be sending him to play school first before nursery but in this case it does not quite add up.

Later I realized it was due to the fact that Isaac was born in December. As far as I know typically the Play Schools will take in children when they turn 18 to 20 months old. I always wanted to put off sending him to school, Play School or otherwise, until he turns 24 months but I just realized that by the time he turns 24 months, he is also 3 years old and can be enrolled into nursery 1.

Confused? Let me explain. We look at the actual month that Isaac is born so he will turn 24 months end of this year but according to the government Isaac is 3 by January so he can go for his Nursery 1 class already. This means he will be attending nursery when he is really just 24 months and 2 weeks old.

Now it suddenly looks like Isaac will miss attending Play School unless of course we enroll him when he turns 18 months instead of the original 24 months. He will get a taste of Play School for 4 to 6 months before being promoted to Nursery 1.

Not too long ago I have a friend who warned me that children born at the end of the year may be a little slower in terms of absorbing what is taught in school. He would know since 2 of his 3 children are born in December. It seems their academic results are not that ideal. I believe this may be true to a certain extend especially when they are younger.

To think I was originally hoping that Isaac could wait till 1st January before coming to this world and I will enroll him together with those born ‘a year’ before him. This way I thought I could save him a year in his life. Now I understand why when shared with Dr N, he too felt that it was not such a good idea after all.

Of course if the Mrs is a SAHM then maybe we can consider skipping Play School all the way up to Kindergarden and let her play and educate him herself. But for now it looks like we will just have to see if he is able to fend off the big bully on his own.