Debt Dumpers 2021

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@Tygerlilly wishing you a speedy recovery!!!

 

[Tygerlilly]

Thanks for the well wishes everyone! I was released this morning and have some strict orders to relax, some really good steroids and inhalers, and instructions to check my oxygen levels throughout the day.

I found out I get full pay for 2 weeks and hubby should get 10 days off with pay since he is directly exposed and obviously needs to be home to take care of the kids too. So that makes me feel a little better that we'll get paid and I get him for at least a week to help while I rest.

 

[DLgal]

Thanks for the well wishes everyone! I was released this morning and have some strict orders to relax, some really good steroids and inhalers, and instructions to check my oxygen levels throughout the day.

I found out I get full pay for 2 weeks and hubby should get 10 days off with pay since he is directly exposed and obviously needs to be home to take care of the kids too. So that makes me feel a little better that we'll get paid and I get him for at least a week to help while I rest.

Glad you are feeling better! Were you vaccinated? I'm guessing the kid's "colds" were also covid. It's so crazy how the Delta variant just seems like a cold. My husband got a breakthrough infection and was sneezing and had a runny nose, but otherwise that was it. He never would have though it was covid if I hadn't insisted he take one of the rapid tests we had at home. He was ready to write it off as a cold.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Glad you are feeling better! Were you vaccinated? I'm guessing the kid's "colds" were also covid. It's so crazy how the Delta variant just seems like a cold. My husband got a breakthrough infection and was sneezing and had a runny nose, but otherwise that was it. He never would have though it was covid if I hadn't insisted he take one of the rapid tests we had at home. He was ready to write it off as a cold.

I was not vaccinated. I was pregnant and I wasn't comfortable with the research on safety in pregnant women and with the baby. And I just hadn't gotten around to it over the last couple months.
The kids were tested and were negative. Husband is also negative. Guess I was just the lucky one. The doctor said he sees a lot of recently postpartum moms catch it because of our hormones still trying to level out and our immune system kinda sucks. Especially since I had just weaned off breast feeding over the last few weeks.

 

[FQLover]

@Tygerlilly Glad that you are home and can rest and relax with your hubby looking after the kids. I hope that you keep improving steadily and feel a lot better soon.

@Jen and Ashwin Here is something to consider that close friends of mine used to decide that same issue. Their daughter has a late September birthday and she was quite advanced cognitively. The husband just said that he did not want this child, their only, out of the house a year earlier (for college) than she needed to be. They wanted to enjoy another year of her being at home. I had not heard anyone state that as a reason before, but it made sense to me, another parent of an only. Why rush it? In school earlier means out of school (and home) earlier. Their daughter was not bored because she was able to attend 1st through 8th at two schools for the "highly capable" kids. Then in high school, she went into an IB program. For her, maturity wise, the extra year at home before full time kindergarten was also a good idea.

Good luck making your decision!

 

[piglet1979]

I know, guys. It is hard for me to believe too. Time has really just gone so fast.

I am starting to have to think seriously about our plans for next year. Based on DD's age, she could do Young 5's or go into Kindergarten. The pre-K staff has already told me that they think she will be fully ready for Kindergarten next year. I definitely don't want her to be bored in school, but if she starts Kindergarten then she will definitely be on the young side for her grade.

I am pretty sure that I want to put her in the Spanish immersion program in our local school district. I like the idea of her starting language learning at a young age. I didn't start with Spanish until I was 12 or 13 and found it really hard. The school also has split-level classes, so K/1, 2/3, 4/5. I did a 4/5 split class when I was in 4th grade and really loved it.

If anyone has thoughts or personal experiences, I would love to hear them.

I know personally both sides of this. I was held back in Kindergarten so I was the oldest in my class. My mom made the right choice as I had some learning disabilities and also a speech issue. I have a late July birthday so I was 18 for my whole senior year. I was a good kid up until this point. I was never really bad but I pulled the "I am 18 and can do what I want". That did not go over well. I also tried staying out later. I never did anything to get in real trouble other then come into school late. A group of us would go to breakfast and knew what time we had to be back before our parents were called. We also new how many tardies we could get before we got a detention. We never went over that. Also, with being 18 my whole senior year, I could have dropped out with a parent signature. They didn't even need to know. I liked school so this was not an issue. It would have been for my brother. Thankfully he didn't turn 18 until a few weeks before he graduated.

My daughter is the opposite. Her birthday is August 22. She started kindergarten when she was 4 (for only a week or so). We were told in her preschool that she was ready plus I didn't want her to be 18 her senior year. I weighed heavily on my own experiences and shouldn't have. It was a big surprise at her first conference that she was not doing good. She was behind academically as well as socially. Her teachers her first few years really worked with her as well as us at home. She was also in title 1 (like tutoring but not on an IEP yet). We did find out that she has an eye issue that caused we eyes not to focus. With all of this and her own determination she is doing great now. She is a freshman in high school and this year she is now in honors math and science. All the hard work paid off. I won't lie. It was a struggle and a lot of work. Many fights with her over the years.

My best advise is, you know your child. Do what you feel will be the best for them. If I took out my feelings from my situation and just thought about my daughter, I think I would have waited. Though it still may not have changed what she went though. Just gave her a bit more majority.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Also. There is zero shame in starting the first year and re-evaluating as the year progresses to either repeat the current year again or even pull back early on and start over. Academic readiness is only a small part of school readiness.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Both LOA approval letters came through email today so seeing in writing we both get our full pay is comforting, even though HR assured me we both would. I'm expecting it to just be as much as my maternity leave pay was and his should be the same, if not a little more.

Since I know we are going to have those full checks and I don't need to necessarily hold on to our "winnings" from our casino date, I made a small payment towards our vacation and am going to pull the trigger on laptops for the girls school work tomorrow since they are on early black Friday sale at Walmart for $87 each for Chrome books. I feel like I probably won't find them on sale much more than that over the next few months and I'd like to get their learning programs downloaded and ready to go.

 

[jen7233]

Good wishes to your recovery @Tygerlilly!

@Jen and Ashwin, if they young 5s program has a good curriculum and is fun and engaging, which even could be something outside of a typical if you will Kindergarten type of class, that may be something to consider. I don't think you can go wrong if the school and program is good in either case, and then considering if daughter is ready.

 

[ADisneyFamilyof5]

I know, guys. It is hard for me to believe too. Time has really just gone so fast.

I am starting to have to think seriously about our plans for next year. Based on DD's age, she could do Young 5's or go into Kindergarten. The pre-K staff has already told me that they think she will be fully ready for Kindergarten next year. I definitely don't want her to be bored in school, but if she starts Kindergarten then she will definitely be on the young side for her grade.

I am pretty sure that I want to put her in the Spanish immersion program in our local school district. I like the idea of her starting language learning at a young age. I didn't start with Spanish until I was 12 or 13 and found it really hard. The school also has split-level classes, so K/1, 2/3, 4/5. I did a 4/5 split class when I was in 4th grade and really loved it.

If anyone has thoughts or personal experiences, I would love to hear them.

My son has a Sept 10 birthday. The advice we were given by his preschool teacher and some family members who are educators was give him another year to mature, there is no harm in giving him another year. Even though academic and behavior wise he could have gone to K, we listened to the advise and held him back. I wished we hadn't. He is now 12 and in the sixth grade. My big problem in holding him back is that he is a competitive soccer player. Unlike school sports, our governing league for club soccer places player by birthdate instead of grade in school. Except for one other player, his entire team is in the 7th grade. While it is fine for now, when they get into later years in high school and are traveling for college showcases, he and the other boy will have another year of high school while the rest of his team moves on. There will be a team for him to play on senior year, but with the majority of players that he has played with since he was 7 gone to college, it will not be the experience I would want him to have his senior year. I feel most people when deciding to send their child to K or give them another year of Pre-K only look at it in terms of how successful their child will or won't be in K, and don't look further ahead. To me, a young for your grade is better than old.

As for the split level classes, I love them. However, you need to make sure why they are offering split level classes. The idea of having a blended level class to benefit the students by grouping them within the class by ability instead of just grade is phenomenal. Some teachers really excell at this at I think students tend to learn more and really thrive. But some schools offer split level classes due to student numbers and staffing issues. These classes teachers will have separate curriculum for the different grades with only some activities overlapping. My second son experienced this and I was so unhappy with how it was ran, we switched schools. I mean, they made the two different grade levels take separate field trips! I won't hesitate to put my younger 2 kids in an actual blended class if offered, they really are great.

 

[DLgal]

I was 4 when I started kindergarten and I suffered no ill effects and was consistently one of the smartest kids in my grade. If a kid is ready to go to Kindergarten, send them. This whole idea of holding kids back so they are at some kind of social advantage has gotten out of hand, in my opinion. My sister did this with her kids and now her daughter is 9 and in 3rd grade and has a 7 year old 1st grade son. They both have summer birthdays. They will be 18 before they even start senior year of high school. I find that crazy.

 

[Needsanap]

My DD is a November baby. I waited till she was 5. She could of gone early, but I didn’t want her to go away to college at 17.

I wasn’t a fan of split classes at our school. I opted out with my oldest and was never asked again.

 

[crazycatstacy]

My daughter turned 5 in August and started school a couple of weeks later. If I had it to do over I would wait a year. Academically she was fine, I just think maturity would have been better. Who knows really, I think that now but hindsight is 20/20 and maybe it wouldn't have made a difference and she would have been exactly the same anyway.

Ordered all of the Christmas gifts for my daughter and son-in-law and had them shipped to their home. Will send their stocking stuffers (I have already bought them) in December when I send baked treats. Feels good to be done with this.

30 days till we are in Disney. I would like all of my shopping, wrapping, and decorating done before we leave so I can come home and do my Christmas baking and then just enjoy the last two weeks of the year.

Schawns is having a new customer sale where you can get 40% off so I did an order for some frozen pizzas and stuff for my husband and also got a spiral ham for Christmas.

 

[barkley]

I am starting to have to think seriously about our plans for next year. Based on DD's age, she could do Young 5's or go into Kindergarten. The pre-K staff has already told me that they think she will be fully ready for Kindergarten next year. I definitely don't want her to be bored in school, but if she starts Kindergarten then she will definitely be on the young side for her grade.

I am pretty sure that I want to put her in the Spanish immersion program in our local school district. I like the idea of her starting language learning at a young age. I didn't start with Spanish until I was 12 or 13 and found it really hard. The school also has split-level classes, so K/1, 2/3, 4/5. I did a 4/5 split class when I was in 4th grade and really loved it.

If anyone has thoughts or personal experiences, I would love to hear them.

so is she doing pre-k now at some kind of daycare or private school? do they offer kindergarten? the reason i ask is a million years ago i taught at a hybrid daycare/preschool/k-12 private school. there was a significant population of parents in the same situation you are in, and what they opted to do was to 'bite the bullet' and pay for one more year of tuition to have their kids do kindergarten at the private school THEN make a decision the FOLLOWING academic year on weather to enroll the kiddo in 1st or do another year of k at their assigned public school. this way if the child struggled either academically or socially they could do another year of kindergarten without any kind of stigma about repeating the grade. if they sailed through then they were enrolled for their first year of public in 1st grade. the added advantage was, in that part of california kindergarten was only half days so since we had daycare on site the kids already had before and aftercare available that also extended during the summer for working parents.

i think it's also valuable to look at 2 aspects of your local public schools-

what is the median age for kindergartners?

i ask this b/c despite what the state mandates, the trends in a given region/district can be very different. since kids in my state (washington) aren't required to attend until age 8 it's not unusual to have MUCH older kids in school-my oldest turned 18 2 weeks prior to starting her senior year-she was in NO WAY the oldest, there were many 19 year olds. when i graduated from high school in california a month after my 18th birthday i was one of a handful out of many hundreds of fellow grads who hadn't started the year at 18 or quickly after.

what is the curriculum for kindergarten at the public school you are looking at?

when i taught early kindergarten (called pre-k at most places) our curriculum was identical or exceeded the public school's so when we said a kiddo was ready for k we meant the k at OUR school which was closer to 1st grade at the public school. i had students whose parents moved them from private to public for k but quickly bumped them up to 1st when they found the kiddos were bored to tears. when you are researching this make sure to check the actual school district your child will attend b/c in some states (like mine) the state establishes a curriculum but the individual districts can choose to meet OR exceed (our local district is psycho about exceeding it in the higher grades so their young grades have higher expectations).

good luck on whatever you decide. i wish more kids could have the experience mine ended up with-one room schools yup, from 1st-8th. (well, 2 room actually-1st-3rd, 4th-8th), the advantage i saw was that every year in the younger grade classroom my kids got to overhear the teacher doing all the basic foundational concepts with the younger students so it really got embedded in their brains, and as younger students with the older students they got to overhear the teachers speak to the older about what they would be applying those basic concepts to so they learned early on about how learning skills build upon themselves and expand with the introduction of new concepts and practices.

 

[Tygerlilly]

All this school talk makes me really happy we have the opportunity to homeschool. Lol.

 

[imbatman]

Well, well, well. Look who’s decided to come back to the fold! Hello all! What a manic month it’s been for me. Working two jobs, got Covid, etc. I didn’t leave because I fell off the debt wagon. Just got too busy with life.

New job is fabulous. Although I found out that I have to pay more for insurance because I’m out of state. It’s irritating but I’m finding out about bonuses at work and will work toward them. Hoping old job will end soon. Offered to help train the new gal and that’s going like a facepalm. I’ve asked them to get a different person and I’ll happily ride into the sunset. I left amazing insurance and pension, but know it’ll pay off for me personally, as it was giving me health issues.

Update on my goals:
CC 1: $1850 - had to charge a couple of large items. Long story. Will have this paid off at the end of the month. Have had to adjust to a monthly paycheck and the learning curve is steep.

The house is under $43k now. We decided that putting more savings aside is more important than paying down the house or car right now. Still looking at a WDW trip with my mom next year. Waiting to hear if we can borrow a friend’s points for a minimal amount in December 2022.

And in other fun news, I started my own business: a cut flower farm. It’s just a hobby for my mom and I. I’ve been able to meet some local gals and get a head start on my seeds. The start up was less than $200, and it’ll be easy to break even if I have blooms for Mother’s Day next year.

 

[DnA2010]

I am starting to have to think seriously about our plans for next year. Based on DD's age, she could do Young 5's or go into Kindergarten. The pre-K staff has already told me that they think she will be fully ready for Kindergarten next year. I definitely don't want her to be bored in school, but if she starts Kindergarten then she will definitely be on the young side for her grade.

I am pretty sure that I want to put her in the Spanish immersion program in our local school district. I like the idea of her starting language learning at a young age. I didn't start with Spanish until I was 12 or 13 and found it really hard. The school also has split-level classes, so K/1, 2/3, 4/5. I did a 4/5 split class when I was in 4th grade and really loved it.

If anyone has thoughts or personal experiences, I would love to hear them.

My little one turned 5 September 9th and started Kindergarten- here (BC Canada) it's normal for them to start in their 5 year old year, even if it's later in the year. She was even asked to move into a K/1 split (which we allowed) as she was loving school so much. I would go ahead with K, especially if her current carers say she is ready.

 

[Tygerlilly]

My big girl turned 6 today. I did the best I could considering we're on quarantine until tomorrow and she couldn't see anyone but us. But we decorated the house last night, I made crazy waffles and bacon for brunch, and she got a pile of presents, cake and ice cream. She said she had a good day so that's all that matters, but you better believe I'll be splurging on some extra fun for her and a couple friends in the next few weeks to make up for having to cancel her party.

 

[barkley]

Although I found out that I have to pay more for insurance because I’m out of state.

it's crazy how much more expensive it is isnt it? it's the same situation many retirees find themselves in if they are lucky enough to have plans that cover them into retirement from their prior employers-it can quadruple, quintuple....and the choices for out of state coverage can be slim to none. we only had a choice of one plan, a psychotically expensive ppo that interestingly had next to no preferred providers in our state let alone our region. then if there's an issue with coverage you get stuck between the state you live in saying their insurance laws don't apply b/c it's a company from another state but that state says it's laws don't apply b/c you're not a resident of THAT state it's why i always cringe when i read of people's plans to retire out of their home states early (pre medicare eligible)-i just hope they've researched how much more it will cost them premium wise (ours dropped by about $700 a month when our kids aged out/another over $1000 per month when we dropped it on ourselves).

 

[AmyAnne]

I know, guys. It is hard for me to believe too. Time has really just gone so fast.

I am starting to have to think seriously about our plans for next year. Based on DD's age, she could do Young 5's or go into Kindergarten. The pre-K staff has already told me that they think she will be fully ready for Kindergarten next year. I definitely don't want her to be bored in school, but if she starts Kindergarten then she will definitely be on the young side for her grade.

I am pretty sure that I want to put her in the Spanish immersion program in our local school district. I like the idea of her starting language learning at a young age. I didn't start with Spanish until I was 12 or 13 and found it really hard. The school also has split-level classes, so K/1, 2/3, 4/5. I did a 4/5 split class when I was in 4th grade and really loved it.

If anyone has thoughts or personal experiences, I would love to hear them.

We had a similar although not identical issue with one of my sons. I don't think there's anything necessarily bad about being on the young side, but for my son it did present some issues--although he was academically ready for kindergarten, socially/emotionally he really wasn't. (I do think his particular kindergarten teacher was not an especially good match for him, and that he might have had a better experience in a less rigid classroom.) We moved him to another school where he repeated K and finished elementary school. He did really well at that school (and ended up valedictorian of his HS class).

We knew going in to his first K year that there might be issues and were prepared to have him repeat K (at a different school) if needed. It's hard to know if putting him in K rather than giving him another year of pre-K was a mistake; I do think he benefitted from the first K year even though it was not a success. In terms of the longer term effects of being younger or older (in middle or high school), I would say there's so much that you just cannot predict about that it doesn't make sense to worry about now.