with the youngest child in a first grade classroom on the first day of school being anywhere from 5 years 9 months to 6 years 9 months
Random personal-experience anecdote in support of your point -- as far as I can tell, based on when I graduated college plus family lore, I started kindergarten at 4y11mo in a k-1 combination class, and was so bored with school that they bumped me mid-year to 1st grade. So I was technically 5 at the beginning of *second* grade...
(I am aware I'm an outlier, lol.)
I find the terminology variation fascinating. I didn't have "middle school", which makes me think grades 5-6 for some reason. I had different schools for k-3 and 4-6 but both were "elementary" (just upper/lower); the 4-6 school was a Gifted & Talented program. Then "junior high" 7-9 and "high school" 10-12.
Social dynamics had big upheavals at 7th and 10th grades because there were multiple elementary schools, two JHs, and one main HS, and the geographical boundaries were different each time. Social groups from elementary got split between the two JHs, plus new people, and then when HS came you were lumped back in with people you hadn't seen in 3 years.
Plus it was fine for 5th and 6th graders to be friends but harder to maintain that the next year, where the 5th-now-6th grader and 6th-now-7th grader were at ... not just different schools but different school *levels*.
Also my personal terminology wrt getting together is that "play dates" are organized / initiated by the parents, usually of babies or young kids. By middle school the kid is generally able to, y'know, have preferences of their own...
no subject
Random personal-experience anecdote in support of your point -- as far as I can tell, based on when I graduated college plus family lore, I started kindergarten at 4y11mo in a k-1 combination class, and was so bored with school that they bumped me mid-year to 1st grade. So I was technically 5 at the beginning of *second* grade...
(I am aware I'm an outlier, lol.)
I find the terminology variation fascinating. I didn't have "middle school", which makes me think grades 5-6 for some reason. I had different schools for k-3 and 4-6 but both were "elementary" (just upper/lower); the 4-6 school was a Gifted & Talented program. Then "junior high" 7-9 and "high school" 10-12.
Social dynamics had big upheavals at 7th and 10th grades because there were multiple elementary schools, two JHs, and one main HS, and the geographical boundaries were different each time. Social groups from elementary got split between the two JHs, plus new people, and then when HS came you were lumped back in with people you hadn't seen in 3 years.
Plus it was fine for 5th and 6th graders to be friends but harder to maintain that the next year, where the 5th-now-6th grader and 6th-now-7th grader were at ... not just different schools but different school *levels*.
Also my personal terminology wrt getting together is that "play dates" are organized / initiated by the parents, usually of babies or young kids. By middle school the kid is generally able to, y'know, have preferences of their own...