Rule for classifying Nursery and Primary?

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
jwtaber
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Posts: 109
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 8:01 am
Location: Elsmere, Delaware, USA

#11

Post by jwtaber »

rmrichesjr wrote:When I mentioned this thread to my wife, she informed me of an issue I had not thought of. If a child is moved into sunbeams prior to turning age 3, then a decision must be made the next year whether to flunk the child and have him/her repeat sunbeams or keep moving the child ahead. My wife pointed out that this will cause awkwardness during the year the rest of the children in the class turn 8 and get baptized.

Another possible issue could come up if the child's family moves or ward leadership changes such that new leadership is more strict about following the birthday-based guidelines.

(Sorry to take the thread away from technology.)
Then that's the choice: two years as a Sunbeam, or staying in Nursery until almost four. In one ward I was in, the Primary president's daughter was in the latter option by default, and didn't want to go to Sunbeams because she was having such a good time in Nursery. So when my sister was in the same situation that year, the Primary president gave my parents the first option, and they took it. (She was already in the "older" nursery.)

Sure, as far as the quarterly report is concerned, such children are in Nursery until that second year, but what happens on the ground should be what's best for the child.
vhilton4000
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Joined: Sat Nov 11, 2017 8:18 pm

Re:

#12

Post by vhilton4000 »

dannykos wrote:
wwoodford wrote:They remain in the nursery until the first January after they turn 3.
I personally find this bit really strange - although it makes it easy for people to understand the requirements, it takes little or no account of children turning 3 in february for instance - and having to wait 11 months to move up. I worry for the development of a child approaching 4yrs, being taught with an 18month old.

I presume many wards are judicious in their strict application of this particular one.
A simple solution is to have a Sr. and jr. nursery. There is a huge difference in development those first few years. Of course a smaller Ward might not feel the need but I recommend having both.
bentho
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Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:43 am

Re: Rule for classifying Nursery and Primary?

#13

Post by bentho »

There seems to be confusion regarding Jan 1st. For a child we have born on January 1st, the birth year doesn't correspond and it's difficult to reconcile. I was always told before that assignments were based on the birth year and it causes some confusion from the automatic MLS assignments. Has this been addressed before?
rmrichesjr
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Joined: Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:32 am
Location: Dundee, Oregon, USA

Re: Rule for classifying Nursery and Primary?

#14

Post by rmrichesjr »

bentho wrote:There seems to be confusion regarding Jan 1st. For a child we have born on January 1st, the birth year doesn't correspond and it's difficult to reconcile. I was always told before that assignments were based on the birth year and it causes some confusion from the automatic MLS assignments. Has this been addressed before?
Where exactly are you seeing a discrepancy in birth year for a child born on January 1st? I would think it _should_ be pretty clear what year is involved--unless there's an off-by-one bug in the software. There might be a bug involving '>' vs. '>=' or something similar. If the software is calculating something incorrectly, a bug report should be submitted so it can get fixed.
russellhltn
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Location: U.S.

Re: Rule for classifying Nursery and Primary?

#15

Post by russellhltn »

Handbook 2: 11.4.3 says "Children begin attending a new Primary class on the first Sunday of each calendar year. They are normally divided into classes based on their age on January 1, as shown in the following chart."

So what happens to a child born on Jan 1? For example, Jan 1, 2014?

On Jan 1, 2018, they'd usually be considered "4" and would start attending CTR 4 according to the chart. (While technically, the child doesn't turn 4 until the hour of their birth has passed, I've never seen anyone make that distinction - most consider them turning 4 just after midnight.) This would put them in the same class as a child born on Dec 31, 2013 who turned 4 just the day before. A child born on Jan 2, 2014 would still be "3" and they'd attend Sunbeam.

Bottom line, it's not "birth year", it's age. And that makes all the difference.

As such, I don't know as this is a bug. It's following the handbook.
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