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Anyone have a child with a summer birthday wait until 6 to start Kindergarten?
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Just wondering. I had a discussion about this with someone and was curious what you all think about having a child with a June/July/August birthday wait another year to officially start kindergarten, or if you’ve done it or known anyone who has gone that route. Thanks!
I have a friend who did wait an extra year to register her son for kindergarten. He is only a month and a bit younger than my son who was born in in early July, but she felt he really wasn’t ready. She thought of registering him as being homeschooled that first year, then put him in first at ps the following year if he’d made satisfactory strides that first year, but she didn’t. In Nova Scotia children don’t have to be registered for school until age 6, but a lot of kids are still four starting now they have to be 5 by Dec 31st rather than Sept. 30. I started kindergarten in Ontario at age 4 (November birtday), but here my son (also a November brthday) was nearly six when he started. I think the extra year was a blessing for him. My younger son was more than ready acedemically at barely 5, but socially, not so much. I had wanted to homeschool from the beginning, but it wasn’t until he had so much difficulty in first grade at ps that dh agreed that home was the better situation for him.
My son’s birthday is June 25 and we decided to wait to start K until he was 6. At the time we weren’t homeschooling, but the year he would have started K we actually decided to homeschool. I’m happy I waited with him and have heard that especially with boys, it’s nice to wait to let them mature a bit more. Had we known we were homeschooling I might have started K the year he turned 5 to see how it would go, but I’m a big advocate of not pushing kids too early so I’m not unhappy at all with our decision. Childhood is so short I personally don’t see the reason to rush them to start official school. My son is now 8 and will be starting 2nd grade at the beginning of October.
Hope this helps you!
I think that it is worth the extra time for some emotional and mental maturity – I didn’t wait with my oldest and sent her to PS. It was so miserable for her and it was so hard on all of us that I ended up pulling her out in February. She finished K at home and then went back for 1st when my next child went to K. We then stuck out 3 years of PS in misery, until the Lord changed my heart through some pretty rough illnesses (my poor daughter) and other learning issues. We homeschool and will never look back.
I am waiting with my younger two. We are doing preschool activities with them, but not a formal Kindergarten or Year 1. They will start next year when the youngest is 5. My 3rd child is already struggling with retention – I think that she too has APD. So waiting and doing it together makes more sense while we help her with the basics. =)
we waited with our daughter last year who turned 6 in august. So she is now 7 and registered in first grade. I felt she was academically ready the year before and could have done fine, but I figured if she ever did enter the public school system in the future (you never know what will happen!) I wanted her to be one of the older ones rather than a younger one so she might have a bit more maturity socially. Also, I feel that things came much easier for her last year b/c she had a few months more development. Also, so great w/ homeschooling, even though she is registered as a first grader we can keep working at whatever level she is at.
Whatever you decide, make sure you follow the legal requirements for your state. Each state/province has a different age requirement for when to enroll them.
I “officially declare” the kids at whatever grade level their peers are at (kids at church, Scouts) PLUS whatever grade they would be based on their birthdates. They work, however, at whatever level they need to.
Waited with oldest son whose birthday is in September. Our state’s cut-off is October 1st, and so he barely made that. He was in PS until 4th grade. Didn’t wait with next son whose birthday is in July and regret it to this day. All of the boys in our area are held until age 6, so DS is a year younger than almost all boys in his grade even at church and even among other homeschoolers. Everyone here waits. Our state also doesn’t require they are registered until age 6 for K.
With little DS, who turned 7 this past June, he is in 1st grade and yes, was 6 when he started K last year. Same with DD, 6, who will be 7 in October and is in 1st. By the rules though, she just missed the cut-off. Still we could have started her since she is homeschooled, but we waited until last year for K, when she was almost 6. So this year, 1st and she is almost 7.
I say wait though if you are homeschooling, you can certainly go ahead with learning. But for church classes and such, I would wait if most others do.
I had a friend who had two boys and she recommended waiting if you can! I think that if your are home schooling from the beginning, it would be o.k. to start them, because you would know where they would need more help, and how much they could handle, etc. But if sending to PS then I would definetly wait. That’s my .02
I think the biggest issue for us with the one son we didn’t wait with is that almost all of the boys in his classes at church and even at homeschool groups are older by a year than him. He has a summer birthday and actually started PS right after turning 5 for K. He also attended PS in 1st grade and has been home ever since. I think you could easily homeschool at his ability level but just don’t officially start K until next year. Or you could start K now, but just know that if it is like our area 95% of boys start K at age 6 or nearly 6 and many girls do too.
Thanks for your replies. My son that I was speaking of turned 5 on June 19th. I will homeschool to his ability level, but I do think I will wait for the official K title for a year. It gives him another year to mature and be more ready for lessons, etc. He does do very short lessons with me, but I think I’m comfortable waiting for another year to be official. We can always change it later if we need to.
When my oldest son was at that age a friend of mine pointed out that the benefits of giving children (especially boys) an extra year before beginning formal school also benefitted them by giving them an extra year at the end, before going off to college or whatever they would do. Delaying a year will not hurt them. Allowing them to go ahead and be one of the youngest in their “grade” group is more likely to be detrimental, imo. It also gives you some wriggle room in the teen years to asses their maturity level and decide if they’re ready to be turned loose in the world. 🙂 Bumping ahead is pretty easy, pulling back is pretty hard.
I do not notify in my state until the last possible option for each child. However we just school as they are ready/able. So, for example, my children right now are 6th, 2nd, 1st (all where they would be age-wise but with some areas they do better or worse than grade level). Then we come to my 4 year old son. He’s keeping up with 1st grade work pretty easily and reads as well or better than the 2nd grader. We did not notify the state and will not notify them until he’s 6 (age required by law). We decided that he’s officially having his Kindergarten year this year, but we don’t hold him back OR push him ahead in areas, we just let him go at his pace. After this child comes a child who has little interest in letters and numbers (he’s 3.5) so he may follow in the oldest brother’s footsteps and actually start learning phonics when he’s 6. There is no rush. The younger two after him are just doing their own thing and will start picking up on academics when they’re ready and interested.
I guess to sum it up, we notify at the last possible moment and just follow the child’s lead for learning.
I am with Tristan on that. We did notify with our oldest right away (I think for the K year… or maybe 1st grade) – because then we got the homeschooler card which does give some discounts around here. For the rest, we will notify close to age 7 (lagal age here)…. so we just notified our 6.5yo daughter for this year. I don’t see the point in doing extra forms and paperwork with no benefit for us. (Now that said, I did notify her for Grade 2…. and I debate back and forth on which grade I should have notified her for as her birthday is right at the cutoff)
Now that said – she has been reading ok (not totally fluently) since she was 3… I think she is reading at a solid grade 3 level. She is doing RightStart Level C (“2nd grade”), and is still barely writing clearly.
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