Most states in the US have the rule that you must be 5 by Aug 31 to start Kinder

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   mosaicmanposted 11 years ago

   Most states in the US have the rule that you must be 5 by Aug 31 to start Kindergarten,Do you agree?
   
   My daughter turned 5 in October, thus missing the cut off date for starting Kindergarten. The state was  trying to hold her in Pre-K for another year even though she was doing Kindergarten work in her Pre-K class. I was adamantly against them doing this so I took her out of the Public School System. What would you do?

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   SmartAndFunposted 11 years ago

   The trend where I live is to wait and let kids enter school older rather than younger. My own daughter turned 5 and made the cut-off by about 2 weeks. However, we held her back and allowed her to enter kindergarten as a just-turned-6-year-old rather than a just-turned-5-year-old. It was a decision we wrestled with, as we had a list of pros and cons for both choices.
   
   Every kid and every situation is different, but now that my daughter just turned 14 and will enter 8th grade in a few weeks, I can see that for her we made the right decision by holding her for a year. Although she is academically advanced and tested into the gifted & talented program as a 4 year old, she is socially immature. I can't imagine her going to high school in a few days, which is what she would be doing if we had not held her back.
   
   There are many, many boys in our school district who are held back for sports or maturity reasons, so had we not waited to put her in K, my daughter would be a very young, just-turned-14yo freshman girl mixing at school with 19yo senior boys. Also, in a few years we would be dropping a 17yo off at college. I'm glad our d will be a bit older rather than younger when it comes to college and all the older boys (technically men) at high school.
   
   Just my 2 cents. So far, so good.

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      mosaicmanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      In my oppinion I would like school systems give parents the option to either hold them back or push them forward. My daughter has been around kids (church, other activities, etc.) for all of her life. I wanna push for "choice."

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      SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, parents should have the choice. You know your child best. A district we used to live in had a tests they would give to 4yos if their parents asked to put the kids in early. If the kids did well enough on the tests, they could go to K.

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   Faceless39posted 11 years ago

   I was 4 when I started kindergarten, and I feel it really was a little too young.  Three other kids were in my predicament, and what my school ended up doing was, after our first year of kindergarten, they put us into what they called "K-1" for a year as a transition.  It was kindergarten for half the day, and 1st grade for half the day.  After that year we went to 1st grade.  So I guess I've got a year more school than some people.  Was it worth it?  I'm not sure, but I remember feeling unprepared for my first year of kindergarten compared to the other kids (not that I wasn't taught a ton by my parents, but I was a year younger than everyone and it really made a difference.) 
   
   That said, I think 6 is way too late to start kindergarten.  If a child is turning 5 in the first half of the school year, they should be allowed to start kindergarten, in my opinion!
   
   PS:  Your daughter will learn more outside of the public school system, anyway.

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