Is anyone here sending their 4/young 5 to kindergarten this year?

semdkm

I'm starting to feel very freaked out because it seems everyone waits until their child is near 6/already 6 going on 7 to start kindergarten...mine turns five a couple of weeks from now and is supposed to start full day this week. What is the point of a cutoff if no one goes by it?

EvenAngelsFall

Not starting kindergarten until 7....!?!?! That's def not the norm around here. I was 7 in second grade!

I think sending a 5 year old to K is more than appropriate and perfectly fine. GL!

ridesbuttons

I don't know anyone locally who doesn't go by the board guidelines (unless there are developmental delays).  Here, kids start junior kindergarten the calendar year they turn 4.  Some kids therefore get on the schoolbus (with the big kids and everything) when they are 3y9m old.

So for senior kindergarten, some kids are 4y9m old.

My kids have started/will start JK at 4y3m and 4y8m old. 

I'd be annoyed if people regularly held kids back and started them late. 

Angela814

I think it really depends on your child. Our cut off here for kindergarten is Sept 1, so most kindergarteners should be 5 before starting, with a few that are very young 6 year olds. I wouldn't send my child early or hold them back without a very good reason.

kcisthebombdotcom

Here kids go to kindergarten at 5ish. I've never heard of kids starting K going on 7 in the states. Our cutoff is also September 1. I would send a young 5. The way my kids birthdays fall they will start at 5y9m and 5y8m and I'm happy with that. K is equivalent to 1st grade for our generation so I'm happy for them to just be kids for an extra year.

gimmietimmies

ridesbuttons:

I don't know anyone locally who doesn't go by the board guidelines (unless there are developmental delays).  Here, kids start junior kindergarten the calendar year they turn 4.  Some kids therefore get on the schoolbus (with the big kids and everything) when they are 3y9m old.

So for senior kindergarten, some kids are 4y9m old.

My kids have started/will start JK at 4y3m and 4y8m old. 

I'd be annoyed if people regularly held kids back and started them late. 

Yep, same here, except the cut off is feb 28. You won't find many passed the cutoffs. Any one that is six in kindergarten usually has good reason. They are few and and far between. If they are seven, they wouldn't be placed, they would be put in grade one, but seven is usually second grade. Redshirting just doesn't happen often.

K starts kindergarten Thursday.  

MammaBear81

DS1 has a September birthday (so he was 4 when he started Kindergarten, but turned 5 a few weeks after school started).  DD1 is in preK now, but she will be attending kindergarten next fall and she will won't turn 5 until October 2013.  Every child is different and different states have different cut offs.

shouldbworkin

DS started KG 2.5 weeks after he turned 5 two years ago.  It is a really situation to be in and while I'm confident that he is where he is supposed to be and he has done just fine, I have my moments, especially when I feel like he's one of the youngest in the class (and our cut off is 12/1).  I do like having a later cut off, though, b/c I feel like it does allow for kids who are ready to go ahead without causing kids who are 5 well before the cut off to stay behind just b/c they'll be the youngest.  When it came down to it, I had a hard time holding back a child who had been in school FT since 3 y/o and daycare FT since birth and asking him to repeat KG after doing a year of private or putting him in a PT program.  It just didn't seem like a good fit for my DC and I think it was the right call, for him.  Just do what is right for your DC and stay strong.  ;-)

LoCarb

We're a few yrs away but I plan to send both DD's to K when they are 5. A neighbor has triplets and did not send her kids until they were 6 1/2-mostly b/c they were not PT and they do have late b-days. Then they got held back. They are now 8 1/2 in the 1st grade. This seems so old to me and way back when I was in school 8 1/2  you were in 3rd grade. I keep thinking they are going to be 20 yo graduating HS. This seems really odd to me.

 

semdkm

I think so, too, but I found out at orientation that many of the kids in my daughter's class are already five and closer to six.  She'll be five three weeks in (cutoff is Oct 1 so she made it by a week).  In her case, though, she's been in daycare since 1, plus preschool and pre-K already, whereas a majority of the kids in our district do, at most, 2 or 3 days of preschool part time starting at 3 or so.  I'm hoping it balances out; I can't imagine sending her to private k and then k again the year later, but naturally, as a mom, I start to drive myself crazy!

ras26

We're not there yet, but the cutoff for us is Sept. 15, and you can petition to Oct. 1.  DD has a late Oct. birthday, so unless things change, she'll turn 6 about 1.5 months after she starts K.  She'll be one of the older kids, but that's just how it works out. 

brewcitybride

That is the strangest thing I've ever heard. Children in Wisconsin start kindergarten at age 5. End of story, unless there is some very rare circumstance.

MKE6115

In my district the cut off is Sept 1st, DS was 5 on his first day of school but will turn 6 tomorrow. DD will be 5 and 2 months when she starts. I go by the cutoff, but if our district had a mid/late Sept cutoff I was still going to wait until this year to send DS. I just didn't feel like he would of been ready last year.