Starting School

[tiffany32]

My son is turning 5 in June. *Mommy cries* My question is, since I couldn't afford preschool (been home teaching him his numbers, letters, potty training, watching educational shows, eduxational computer games) should I wait until next fall or should we let him go this fall?:

[trini]

The answer to that question really, really, really depends on the child! One thing I recommend you do is visit the school you would send him to and sit in on a kindergarten class. Is it full day or half day? Is it play-based? Is there pre-screening? What are incoming students expected to know/do?

One important thing to remember is that if you choose to send him and then you realize he is not quite ready, there is no shame in either pulling him back or having him repeat the K year.

[4evermom]

It's more a matter of how well he separates from you and whether he can sit still for 15 minutes, rather than what he knows academically.

[wednesday]

I guess it depends on the cutoff dates where you live. In my town the cutoff is fifth birthday by October 15. So a parent who held back a child with a June birthday, would potentially end up sending their 6-yo to school with 4-yo's, kwim?

With my son's fall birthday I have read a lot of the research/opinion on this topic--most sources support sending a child as soon as they reach the district's minimum age UNLESS they are very clearly not ready.

Given that my son's b-day is 9/29, and I do plan on enrolling him in K the fall he is going on 5, I think I would rather that other parents not hold their own kids back for so long that my son has classmates who are nearly 2 years older than him. Not that I have a problem with the age spread--my son attends a 3-6 Montessori preschool now--but I think it could potentially be hard on the older child.

[Valian]

There are many, many threads on this exact topic in the Learning at School forum. Maybe one of those holds some good advice for you. Even so, you might want to repost down there to catch other mamas who btdt.