Summer Birthdays and School

My daughter has a late August birthday, in fact she is starting kindergarten on her 6th birthday. Happy bday to her :) She could have started Kindergarten last year and we went back and forth speaking to her preschool teachers, other parents, etc. She is very bright, is well adjusted, at least we think so, and honestly probably would have been fine if we started her last year, but we looked at the advantages of having her in preschool one more year, more readiness, more maturity, the fact that she would be more mature going into high school, etc. and we decided for us that it would not do her any harm to keep her another year in pre-k, so why rush it. And I don't regret that decision for a minute. She has many years to go through school, why not let our daughter have another year of development and "play" before she has to start school.

My youngest started preschool last year at age 3 1/2 (she is a January baby) and she absolutely loves it! For me, it isn't so much about the learning (which is certainly a good thing!) as it is about the social interaction with other kids her age. I started my two older children in preschool at about the same age (one is also a January baby, the other is end of April). They, too, absolutely loved it (as a matter of fact, my now 12 year old, at the tender age of 3 1/2, insisted that she go to school full days since we had only signed her up for 1/2 days).

In a couple of years, when your daughter turns 4, is a good age to start if that is what you want to do. But don't feel pressured to do it if you don't feel she is ready. And, it will give you a good guage to decide if she'll be ready for Kindergarten after just turning 5. I worked with a woman whose son was an end of August baby, and he went to preschool and she was able to use that experience to decideehe wasn't ready for Kindergarten yet and waited another year.

The biggest challenge was finding the right kind of preschool for my littlest one (we were living in another state when my oldest 2 went to preschool so their school wasn't an option!). I find that most of the preschools are really glorified daycare -- their day is structured around the working parent and I had no intention of putting my child in school from 8am until 5 or 6pm. I finally found a school that is pure preschool -- hours are 8:45am to 2:15pm. It is absolutely perfect!

Good for you for already thinking about your daughter's education! I think its every parent's personal choice how they want to handle preschool & kindergarten, as you know your child better than anyone. I do think there is a lot of benefit to both your child (and to you!) to starting them early. They aren't going to learn tons early on, but they do learn. They learn how to behave in a classroom setting, socialization, introduction to their letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. Its makes kindergarten a bit less of a shock I think than for a child that starts directly into kindergarten. This is what I did with my daughter (she is 6 now and about to start kindergarten) - She has a January birthday - at 3 yr old we did a 3 yr old class 2 days a week, then at 4 yr old we did a 4 yr old class 3 days a week, adding one more day. Both years were at a Pre-school, not a mothers day out or daycare (you definately want to check different places out and you will see the difference.) It met from 9:30 to 2:30. I thought it was a good amount of time for that age. She loved it! She went those years to Little Saints located at All Saints Catholic Church. After that, even though she was 5 we decided she was not quite ready for kindergarten - she had a heart transplant when she was 2, which put her in the hospital about 6 months, so we felt she needed a bit more time. The school (All Saints) that most of her friends were going on to didn't have a PreK, so we did some searching, and we found St. Paul the Apostle School, where she went to Pre-K last year and will continue on to Kindergarten this year. Both have the same hours - every day from 7:50-3:20 - Pre-K is just prepping them a bit more for the big "K"!. I'm so glad we did it that way. It introduced her slowly, which is what she needed, and she just loves school - she starts next week and can't wait! I know I'm mentioning all Catholic schools, and I know some people aren't into that :) I would also mention that my sister already has her 2 year old going to a Montesorri school, which is a system in which they kind of learn at their own pace - she has her going 2 or 3 days a week and is absolutely thriving! I'd give you the name of it, but they live in New Zealand :) Mainly I would say just start with something just 2 or 3 days a week, try to make it something regular so she can make some regular friends, rather than something where there might be different kids each time. When checking out any school, there are certain things I always check for. 1. How safe is it? Do you need to be buzzed in or can anyone just walk in? Do you sign your child out? Do you show ID? Is there always someone at the door to greet you? 2. Don't call ahead and ask when the best time to come is -- they will always tell you to come during nap time! Instead pop by mid morning, too late for it to be drop off, but too early for lunch - then you can witness what they really do. 3. Notice the atmosphere of the room - are the kids playing and working nicely and calmly or is there complete craziness? Of course for some young ages, expect some noise, they are kids after all - I'm talking about for the most part does the teacher/teachers have it under control?4. Is the teacher to student ratio as it should be? 5. Do they have a structured day laid out? 6. This is a big one - How clean is this place?? Do they have hand sanitizer everywhere? Do you see/hear the teachers reminding the kids to wash their hands? Ask them what their sick child policy is. The correct answer should be: "We will call you to come pick up your child if she has a fever over 100.2, is vomiting, or having diahrrea. We have a very strict policy on this". If they say something like "Oh don't worry, we won't call you unless we absolutely have to" RUN!!! Believe me, I know what I'm talking about on this one - it was a virus caught at daycare that eventually gave may daughter heart failure, thus needing a heart transplant. So if the place gives you a kind of ick feeling, don't question your instincts!
And remember, putting your daughter in school a couple of days a week means a couple of days a week you can get more done! Or blissfully absolutely nothing done!!!
Good luck!

Friends who have faced this dilemma have handled it multiple ways. One friend has a dgtr with a late August bday and went ahead and enrolled her in kindergarten days before she turned 5 (sept 1st deadline). She has done great in school socially and academically and will be starting her senior year in 2 weeks. Another friend who has a son with the late august bday enrolled him in a private kindergarten one year then had him repeat kinder in the public school the next. He is now ranked #1 in his 10th grade class, probably will start on Varsity baseball next year and the football coaches are begging him not to quit the team (his choice to concentrate on baseball). Both children are well adjusted and have no regrets, moral of the story....don't put undue stress on yourself and your child over this decision..do what feels right for her at the time and she will bloom where she is planted.

My thoughts are - send her when she is 5. If she doesn't do well, you can always repeat Kindergarten. My son is extremely bright and did well in Kindergarten and 1st grade, but 1st grade was a LOT more work for him. So, I feel like if you have to repeat anything, you would rather it be Kindergarten - so don't hold her back by age!

You might also want to start her in some kind of pre-school program (be it just a couple of days or every day for a few hours). When my son was in 1st grade, there was another boy in his class that was significantly behind everyone else. I talked to the mom one day and her excuse was "He is so young." Well, it turns out that he was older than several of the children in the class (his bday was in March whereas my son and another child had a summer bday and a couple of children had April bday's). As I talked to her, I learned that he had stayed at home until he was 5 and then did a half day of Kindergarten. This is probably fine for a ton of children, but he was behind the 8 ball in this class where all of the rest of the kids had been in preschool full time.

Good luck!
L.

Starting "formal" education at 5 is early enough. She's learning all she needs to learn right now by being home with you. If you want more social interaction for her, find a play group to join. I found one through a local moms club and you can also check out MOPS. I know there are some in Dallas. Enjoy your 2 year old!

Hi mom! My only son is now 9. We started him in soccer at 4 to help with social and sharing skills. We also make sure that his playmates at church do activities together all year long. His birthday is in July so it did effect him a little. I now make sure that we get all his classmates phone numbers and invite them to his summer birthday party. It is a good way for them to connect again before school starts.

My son is in private school still. You might want to look at some pre-k privates schools in your area. We decided to keep him in private school because of the smaller classrooms, more individual attention and for pre-k, k and 1st grades the curriculmn was great! He started out with cursive writting and science fairs right away. Right now he's doing more that some of his public school friends.

Great job mom they are never too young for development in all areas.
May God bless you and guide you!

my August baby was a premie... should have been born after the cut off, but he wasn't, he is a sweet happy kid, we chose to start him because there was not reason not to. I'm and October baby, and our cut off was December 31 where I grew up... so I was 4 when my parents started me in school, there was no debate back them they just did followed the guidelines that were set at that time, I don't think it would have mattered either way, for the most part, I think the results will be the same either way, kids adapt, and they even out before they are out of primary school, as far as maturity level... my kids act like their peers the August baby acts like everyone else in his class and the early b-day baby acts like the kids in his class. It's a case by case decisions but overall statistics show that Texans hold back their children far more than the national average (the highest hold back rate actually) but I don't see a huge difference for them when they graduate... I just think it is done too often, and when it is not necessary, in many cases.

I would definitely consider a mothers day out program which consist of 2-3 days a week, generally from 9am-2pm. When my son was 2, that is exactly what I did and he did wonderful. The first 2 weeks was hard but then after that he was pretty much running into the building. This year I am working ful time so he will be at the same place but full time. He is now 3 but begging to go to school everyday. I think this would give you a break and give your daughter the social skills of being around children of her own age and it offers a great curriculum to get them prepared for school. Best of luck :)

Hmmmm. I don't recall it being an issue of if they were ready for kindergarten. They just were. It is so difficult to project how you will feel about all this 2 or 3 years from now.

I taught both of our children to read before they ever entered "formal" education/preschool. We had about 15 lessons left when our son (July birthday) began K4. We put him in a small private one, just for the socialization stuff, and to learn how to be away from ME (he'd never been in any sort of daycare or anything), and that rules are different, how to raise his hand, etc Our daughter (June birthday) was reading (finished all the lessons) before her 4th birthday, so I put her in K4 because she was asking why she couldn't go to school too. In retrospect, she might have been better served to have stayed home with me for one more year, as she might have learned more at home with me. She was in a different prek program than our son, and it was more structured and less free play/hands on stuff. Much more academically focused, which would have been great, except that she pretty much knew all that they were teaching already. :/ I probably could have skipped her directly into K5 when she was 4, and let her learn cursive writing.... oh well.

I don't think, when the time comes, that you will still be wondering if she is ready. It's still a long way off. You might, however, decide that homeschooling her for Kinder is something you are more willing to consider (and hubby might be too).

You send your child to kindergarten when they are a full 5 years old by the first day of school, unless your cut off date is after the first day of school. Otherwise you con't really have a say in it. It happens when it happens, when they are a full 5 years old.

We put my son in a 4 year old preschool class starting last September (he had just turned 4 on the 11th of August) two days a week to see how he did. We figured that if the preschool teacher thought he was ready for school at age 5, then he would at least have had some time in a classroom, but if he wasn't then he would do preschool for 2 years instead of 1.

He was the baby of the group, although there was another boy who had a July birthday. After speaking with his teacher during parent teacher conferences, she recommended that we wait until he had just turned 6 to send him off to kindergarten. She told us that academically, he would probably be able to handle the work, but that socially, it was obvious to her that he was one of the younger ones in the class.

With that in mind, my husband and I decided to wait until next year to send him off to kindergarten. He will do another year of preschool to help prepare him socially and academically, and then venture off. Part of our decision was based on her recommendation, but part of it was also our feelings about sending a child off who isn't ready and how that could affect their future (since we had to think about what it would be like to send our son off to college at the age of 17...not something we wanted to do).

I hope this helps, and good luck...it is not an easy decision!

My boys will be 4 on Monday. They have been enrolled at a local church's program on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When they were 2, it was Children's Day Out. Last year and this year, it will be preschool. The curriculum is pretty laid back but they get lots of individual attention doing things that drive me nuts (like teaching them to write!) My boys are also pretty smart, but lack a little physical maturity since they were extreme premies. There are lots of local churches and cooperative preschools you can look into for a daily or every-other-day program to introduce your girl to school.