I am biting my nails right now.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions to make.
My son (age 4) will turn 5 in October 2009.
Which means according to the California School guidelines, he's eligible to start Kindergarten in August 2009.
My question is:
1. IF your child turned 5 before December of a certain school year, did you start them that year OR did you wait until the following year? What were/are the Pros and Cons?
This isn't a DEBATE on which choice is better. It's just a DISCUSSION to find out what worked and didn't work for your situation.
Thank you in advance.
To be honest, I just brought him home from the hospital. How did we get to this point already?
*faints*
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Pros and Cons for starting or waiting on Kindy! Please, help! Forward to friends! Thanks.
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I know what you mean. It seems as if I was just laying up in the hospital after having that big headed boy.
Now he will be starting kindergarten next fall(2010). My have the years have flown by.
He is in a daycare everday now. So I plan on starting him in school when he turns five.
My baby isn't a baby anymore. *sniff* *sniff*
Does he socialize well? That's one of the best indicators of kindergarten readiness.
Also, what is he like academically? Does he enjoy learning and helping others learn?
My son turned 5 in November and we waited. And I am so glad that we did. He was a bright child, and very social, but I still thought he would do better if we waited. In our state, the cutoff is Sept 1st, but you can force it if you want. The girl turned 5 in Oct, and we are waiting with her, as well. Both of them went to pre-school, though.
Boys tend to do better when they are at the older end of the spectrum rather than at the younger end. For that reason, I didn't push to have Joey start any earlier. Also, in NC, I would have had to get a special exemption because the cut off date was 5 by Oct. 15 and Joey's birthday is November 15th.
WOW I feel like you just brought him home too:)
According to PA Gavin can't go to Kindy until he fall of 2010. I look forward to reading the comments.
I really don't have any advice since my girls are March/May babies. BUT I am an October baby and I did well in school from the very beginning. DJ is a smart boy, how did he do in pre-school? Since he is leearning at home as well, he might be bored if he starts kindy when he's older since he'll probably know everything that is being taught.
Our cut off is Sept 1st. If your cutoff was Sept, would you be upset? or just let him wait?
Good luck with your decision.
Mikey has been in private school since he was 3, started Pre-K this past September. He goes a full day (8:30am-2:40pm) and he will be 5 in May & starting Kindy in September. He loves it!
You seem to have given DJ a really good head start academically and he should have no problem with kindy. It will be fun for him and hard for you in the beginning, believe me. But it will get easier for you a little every day. I cried every day for month when he started and he was only in school 2 1/2 hours a day.
But only you and he know if it's right for him.
I hit the cutoff in VA. My birthday is 1 October, so I was scooped in and graduated high school at 17 and went right to college. I think I turned out okay.
I'd wait until after.
Our cutoff is Sept 1 but a lot of parents choose to hold back kids that have summer birthdays. The primary reasons friends have is a) maturity level b) size of child (typically they want to hold the smaller boys to let the gain more height) c) sports maturity (which I think is a bit off but they want the boys to have size advantage for sports in later years). You know what's best for DJ, I'd also recommend going to meet with your local school he would be attending to get some insight from the kindergarden teachers and observe some classes. Also one friend who held her very bright son back has had a miserable kindergarden year because he is insanely bored and causes problems because he's not challenged.
We all know how smart DJ is so you might want to consider that his mind is more than ready for kindergarden, but you as his mother know best if he's mature enough to handle starting every day school.
Personally, I like it when kids (especially boys!) are a bit older. I would wait if I were you.
(Having said that, it depends on your family situation/schedule as well as the potential school situation that he would be in. I'm sure that whatever you and your husband decide will work out great.)
-Kimberly/Mom in the City
Trust me - I know how tempting the thought is that you will get to send your child away to school and you will get a few blessed hours to yourself (plus - school is free -- kind of). But like other posters have said, it is always better to wait and have the child be OLDER instead of YOUNGER. This is speaking from an emotional maturity standpoint, not an intellectual academic standpoint. YOu can teach a bright child academics, but you can't make an immature child become more mature if that makes sense. As an educator myself I will whole heartedly agree that you can tell which children were CORRECTLY placed according to their age group vs. the children who were INCORRECTLY placed according to their parents who thought they were old enough.
Also, think of it this way, you will be giving him the gift of being older and therefore kind of the "leader" of the group. Good luck (and please don't put our cute DJ in kinder too early!! I would hate to stiffle that spirit of his).
My daughter will start kindergarten late due to her birthday, but I'm not pushing for her to begin before then because she’s in a great private preschool program.
DJ is one smart cookie and I think he'll do fine.
There, that's my two cents!
OK, I am commenting a second time, because I have been thinking about it some more. I noticed some comments saying that the commenter went early and did fine, and it was the same with me. However, looking at the work (the amount and difficulty) they do now as opposed to what we did, I think it would be harder.
With my birthday being October 1, I was in the same situation. My mom started me in school earlier rather than waiting another year. I did just fine. Based on what I can gather it seems DJ is a very well socialized child with advanced skills for his age, so I wouldn't wait. However you know him better than any of us and can sense if he will be able to adapt well.
I started kindergarten when I was 4 and so I was able to start college when I was 17. Sometimes it was annoying being younger than everyone else and having to wait until 11th grade to drive, but then again, it was great to start college so early.
I would base the decision on his maturity. You could also go to the schools and meet with the kindergarten teachers. The school has a lot to do with the environment of the classroom. At my daughter's old K class, the teacher had the students sit at a desk nearly the whole day and they worked on worksheets all the day and rarely went outside. (I was NOT happy and neither was she!!!) She has switched schools and is doing much better. They have learning centers, play outside, are learning to read, and so forth. If the kids are up and moving around a lot, the choice will be easier.
Well Mr DJ is a sharp young man so I would have him start. Usually boys are way more immature than girls and that might be too early for some but our DJ is SO SO smart so I would say send him. I guess you guys have to think long and hard about it. Y'all will make the right decision :)
My oldest started K this year, and while she was 5, barely, before the start, a LOT of the kids in her class were not. In the first month of school, we had at least 5 birthdays in a class of 20. That is a lot of 4 year olds. I have seen that while most of them do ok, in fact, one of the boys that turned 5 in October is probably one of the most well behaved kids in class, some of them are really very immature and have constant problems.
All of that is to say, that only you know what is best for your child. Do what you think will work best for him. I'm sure he will thrive regardless with you as his mom.
I feel your pain! I feel your pain girlfriend. My daughter is now 15 and I have a 2 1/2 yo son. ACK! To think I'll be dealing with this in about 2 1/2 more yrs. Ugh. As far as my daughter she thrived when she went to kindy at 4 yo.
I know you mentioned he had difficulties with the home preschool he was attending. I believe you had some issues with lack of supervisor. You may want to see how he does in a setting where he will be with 15-25 students and only 1 teacher and maybe an assistant. How does he cope when he doesn't have exclusive attention all the time? Does he interact well with other students without a lot of intervention? Is he good with following a schedule? Does he take instruction well? Some kids are academically advanced, but struggle with social interactions.
Ryan's birthday is October, so when the school year started where he was four but turning five in October, he could have gone to Kindergarten. However, his preschool teacher told us she didn't think he was ready and to have him do another year of preschool.
Which meant that when he did go to Kindergarten, he was five and turned SIX that October. Sure, he was the oldest and tallest in the class, but emotionally, he was right where he needed to be.
I don't know if that helped or not :)
I was 4 when I started kindergarten. I didn't turn 5 until the end of November of that school year. And look how GREAT I turned out. haha.
sorry, that's the only kindergarten reference I have.
It has been interesting reading the comments on this thread. I don't know how the cut-off thing works for you guys but in the UK your child normally starts school the September before they turn 5. This means Joey will be starting (in theory) this September. Although he is in nursery full-time I expressed concern to my friend who is a primary school teacher that this seemed kind of young and maybe waiting for the second intake or even the following year would be better. He said that actually, Joey would benefit from starting sooner rather than later as it would give him a head-start. I am not sure if he was talking emotionally or academically but he seemed to think I should try and get Joey to start school as soon as I could rather than waiting. Obviously the US is different and you know your child better than any of us but I am kind of glad Joey is going to start in September as I think he is getting bored/ under-stimulated at nursery and is desperate to start learning more. Fingers crossed he will be ok with going to "big school" but I am terrified that the past 4 years have flown by so quickly and my baby is going to school already!!
Absolutely wait. I dealt with the same issue with my son and I actually waited to send him until he was six. What happened, was I was going to send him to pre-school for one year and then kindergarten. When his pre-school teacher recommended me giving him another year due to the fact he was an August baby I originally thought-No way, but then she took the time to explain how it would work in his favor, academically,athletically,and mentally. My son was good at baseball from the day he walked and I said oh he will do fine athletically -her response, maybe but if you put him up with kids older he may not shine as much as he will if he is the older one and that can mean scholarships. I took her advice and never regretted it. He is doing awesome and my oldest daughter who was also a summer baby and I sent at age 5 (no one had the talk with me then) seems to struggle a bit. Hope my story helped a bit
Thank you to everyone for your input. He turns 5 in October! We've rolled the dice and decided to send him in the Fall.
I think he'll be just fine :)
I think he'll be fine. If you want more input a good person to talk to is Kiersten, who waited with B. (who is finishing up kinder now.) She was a kindergarten teacher in a previous life so she probably has a lot of professional-ish stuff she looked at to make the decision.
I don't envy you folks with fall bdays. Both of my girls are spring bdays and it's much easier to not have to decide.
Well, since we're living in Florida now, the cutoff is Sept. 1. He has to do another year of Pre-K. That's fine.
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