The Busby Quints Are Starting Kindergarten, and ‘OutDaughtered’ Fans Have Lots of Questions
It’s a big day for the Busby quints. The five little girls at the heart of TLC’s OutDaughtered started kindergarten on August 17. Their mom, Danielle Busby, shared the news in an Instagram post
“I can’t believe these little NICU GRADUATES of mine are starting KINDERGARTEN TOMORROW,” she wrote on August 16. “They have come so far, grown so much and have made me one PROUD MAMA!”
Danielle Busby says she’s ‘sad’ but ‘excited’ to see her daughters growing up
In a second Instagram update, Danielle got even more candid about how it felt to see her daughters grow up, especially during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. After one follower said she was praying for both Danielle and her kids, the TLC reality star replied.
“LOL thank you! It’s such an ‘unfun’ year to start kinder….but I’m prob more excited they can get out of the house and be around friends, then I am emotionally sad they are growing up so fast…hahaha,” she wrote.
‘OutDaughtered’ fans wonder if Riley Busby is repeating kindergarten
OutDaughtered fans were almost as excited as Danielle to see Riley, Parker, Hazel, Ava, and Olivia start school. But some had questions. Last year, Riley was placed in a kindergarten class while her sisters remained in a preschool class. She had tested above her siblings in an assessment, her teacher explained in an episode of OutDaughtered. But now, it sounds like Riley might be repeating kindergarten.
“Isn’t Riley in first grade?” one person asked. Several other people asked a similar question.
Danielle didn’t answer fans’ questions about whether Riley was going through kindergarten again, but a few people had a theory about what might be going on. They suspected the private kindergarten Riley was enrolled in wasn’t equivalent to the public school kindergarten the quints would be attending.
The “kindergarten class that she was in last year was a class in her preschool. So may not actually be considered kindergarten for the public school system,” one person commented.
“[M]ost likely she just did a Junior K type of class at her preschool. They clearly hyped it up to be ‘kindergarten’ in order to make a storyline for the show,” another wrote.
Another person wondered if Riley was repeating kindergarten because the last school year ended early due to the pandemic.
Adam Busby explained why the quints are attending class in-person
Danielle’s husband Adam Busby also posted about his daughters starting kindergarten. On that Instagram update, one person wanted to know if the quints and their older sister Blayke would be attending school virtually or in-person. Adam explained why he and Danielle had decided to not have their children learn at home in the fall.
“Homeschooling 6 kids is not sustainable for us,” he replied. “We had a taste of home school last school year and learned real quick that we can’t keep all of our business and other obligations afloat and also run a school out of our home.”
Adam went on to say that the risk of kids becoming seriously ill as a result of contracting the COVID-19 was low and that he and his wife were confident the local schools were taking the right precautions to keep everyone safe. He pushed back on those who questioned the decision.
“We went back and forth for a month wrestling with this,” he wrote. “It isn’t something that we decided easily and people that follow our pages have no right to second guess a decision that we as parents have made for our family.”
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