Pre-School and Daycare
To start Kindergarten now, or not to start?
Are any of you in this predicament of your child being born on the cusp of starting Kindergarten? My daughter is 4 days away from the cut off date, and we are grappling with whether to start her or not. She has been at an excellent Preschool/day care for years, so in some ways she seems ready...but on the other hand she would literally be the youngest in her class if she does. There are many studies that recommend holding children born so close to the cut off ("redshirting"). I am wondering if any of you has experience with this? I know ultimately each child is different, but would love to hear some feedback. I also have a two year old boy who will miss the cut off by one day, so he will have to wait another year to start school regardless.
Proud mom to DD Born Oct. 26, 2007, and DS Sept. 2, 2009
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Re: To start Kindergarten now, or not to start?
You can find many redshirting discussions on this board, so scroll around for more. Personally, I am generally against redshirting, unless there is a definite issue/concern, but many other people swear that redshirting summer bday kids is the way to go. It is definitely a tricky issue, and I never thought that I'd be thinking about it so much when DS is only 3! He will turn 5 about 3 weeks before the cutoff, but my plan is to send him unless something really comes up. Redshirting is not so big in my town, and my town's K is very supportive of taking "young" 5's and they claim to try to avoid being "the new 1st grade".
I think the most important thing is to look into the culture of your town/school for this issue. Some towns and areas are much more prone to redshirting, some are much less. Get into the kindergarten and talk to the teachers/principal to get their thoughts and to get a sense of whether K is very intense in your town or more old-fashioned and laid back. Good luck!!
My state is Dec 31st. There is no way I am sending my Dec 26th son to Kindergarten next fall. There will be kids turning 6 when he will still be 4. While I do not agree with holding summer kids back (depending on the situation). I will most likely also be holding my late September boy out too (for different reasons). I am glad the place he is going to preschool (town run) agrees with me (he also has speech issues, that are impacting his social activities).. but otherwise on paper academically he could be ready.
I wish my state would change the law, since we are one of three states with such a late cutoff. I am not really worried about K, but more as they get older and are a year or more agewise behind other students.
I was 2 days away from the cut off date and I'm glad my mother didn't make me wait an extra year. I was able to complete alot things "early".
However, every mom knows their own child the best, so do what you think is best.
Yes, we are in California..they are in the process of changing the cut off date...my daughter will turn 5 Oct. 26th with a Nov. 1 cut off date...two years later, my son will turn 5 Sept. 2 with a Sept first cut off date, so he will have to wait another year regardless. The private school cutoffs are already at Sept. 1, so if we were going that route, she could not go any way.
Luckily I have time to decide but need to start thinking and gathering information about this.
My son missed the cut off by a few days. I am glad he had to wait because while he is ready mentally he needed some extra time to settle down. Having said that I was a 4 year old kindergartner and I am so glad I didn't have to wait another year. I was bored enough in school. I worry a lot about that with my Aiden. He already meets requirements for kindergarten and I hope he doesn't get in too much trouble for having idle hands in school like me.
My opinion is if she if ready there isn't a reason to hold her back. If she has self control and listens very well. Then go for it.
I sent my DD who is 8 days prior to the cut off. She is a social butterfly! And her prek teachers and daycare were on board. They were like "yes, she is 100% ready!" She is in first grade and while I can see some difference between her and her 1 year older counterparts, (My DD is still into princess where as the older esp those with older sisters are into iCarly, Big Time Rush, etc) we haven't had any issues beyond that. She has gotten A's on both report cards send home. She never mentions problems at school nor does her teacher. DD's BFF (who is 9/2 with a 9/1 cut off- so one year older) tends to be a bit immature but they have a tight bond. I am sure that's helpful along with the fact that it does have a lot of military children. They tend to be very respectful and its not a school with a lot of bullying at all.
I would look at your location and see what most people do. We don't live in an area with a lot of redshirting. If we did, my opinion might have been different for DD.
I would also ask your DCs preschool/prek teachers for their opinion.
If you DC has any social issues (shyness, cries easily, etc), I would def consider it more.
I agonized over this issue for quite a while.
I enrolled him in K as well as a back up pre-K program in case we decided to red shirt. I didn't make the final decision until about 2 weeks before school started but ultimately I did decide to red shirt my now 5 yr old.
A lot of things went into making this decision. A lot of it boiled down to our spring time pre-Kindergarten meet the teacher/class session. She went around and asked every child how old they were and my child was the ONLY one who answered "4". I looked around the room and saw a bunch of kids who were missing teeth and were over all more confident and comfortable socially than mine was. He looked like a fish out of water.
If it had been the personality of my younger child I probably would have sent him but my older one is incredibly timid (as in afraid of slides on the play ground and freaks out at the conveyor belt scene in Toy Story 3). My gut told me to wait and I have no regrets.
I wasn't concerned about his ability to function at the Kindy level but I was concerned about his ability to function as school progressed. A large part of the decision making factor was considering him as an early teen trying to make hard decisions with a peer group older and more mature than he would be. I also spoke to several parents whose kids did fine in Kindy but had to hold them back in 1st or 2nd. While some say it's no big deal to hold them back at kindy, 1st or 2nd I disagree.... he's young enough now that he doesn't "get it". In another year he will feel like he's some how failed and that's not how I want him to feel about school if I can avoid it.
So my advice is to line up K as well as an alternative for next year and revisit the subject in the spring to see how you're feeling. See if you can visit the Kindy class to see the environment and the level of work they're doing, talk with the teacher, etc. You don't have to make this decision yet!
It's a tough one. GL!
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
i used to teach K and can say that there are very few cases where I would recommend holding a child back for K.... most kids do just fine - especially Girls who are more mature - I would not redshirt a girl just b/c she's close to the date - as long as there are no learning issues, etc.
my twins are June 15th babies with the cut off at Sep 1st and there's no way i'd keep them back - but some people would - just for sports, etc... which i find very wrong.
I was right on the cut off. My parents ended up putting me through to kindergarden. I made it through school very well. Socially I never felt too young and academically I was in advanced classes.
I think if you feel that your DD is socially and academically ready, you should put her through.
~after 34 cycles we finally got our 2nd little bundle of joy~
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I totally agree with this!