[redbirds]

So, being that our babes are on the cusp of starting Kindergarten at age 5 or 6... when will you send them?

I don't know why, but I think about this a lot. I really wanted my kids to be 2 years apart in school, and that would mean Kellen starts at 4 (for 2 weeks) and turns 5 at the beginning of the year. Is that good or bad?

Then, a selfish part says, well if we wait til he's 5 turning 6, he'll be more physically mature in highschool (could be a BAD thing!) and if he's in sports like we all were, he'll have a slight advantage. I dunno I also don't want him to be the biggest/oldest kid in his class...

I won't make a decision, obviously, until I see how he's mentally and socially matured and if we have any other kids and how far apart they are and blah blah blah, but I'm just curious if anyone else has considered this at all.

Kids go to primary school starting at 5 generally here. I'm not sure where the cutoff is to be honest. Hmm.. I know the youngest in my class has his birthday in February. The eldest in March, So I guess it must be February.

Oh school.. the thought makes me weepy. My big boy

We're looking into homeschooling so I would say our start time is pretty flexible right now.

If we send him to school I want him to have turned five before the school year begins.

[RunningWithBoys]

See we have to think of this NOW for Evan. It is such a hard decision. Being in education for over a decade, I know what it means to be a boy and the youngest in the class. Evan starts PK in August. We have a PK, JK and then Kindergarten at my school. So the PK is 3/4 year old program. Most of the kids will turn 4 in the fall. Evan will be three the entire school year until the last 6 weeks when he turns 4. 4 for most of JK, 5 for most of SK. This actually puts him right on track for the public schools in our system. So if we transfer him to public school (which is a real possibility) he'll be right on track. But right now, I am just worried with him being the youngest and his maturity.
But, since I work there and am very close friends with the director of early childhood, we can negotiate him doing PK twice. It would be cheaper for me to send him to PK than send him to our fac/staff childcare, so I don't mind that either. They assure me academically he is really ahead where he needs to be. And socially, he's find. But he is still young in the maturity. He still has a tendency to pout when he doesn't get his way. He whines....just those things he needs grow into as he gets older.

So as far as Luke, he'll go to PK when he is 3 and turn 4 6 weeks after he starts. Complete opposite of Evan. hee hee.

[Justjessie]

I've thought about it a lot. We'll have to see when we get there. They say girls are more mature.

As a teacher, I can not TELL you the amount of 5 year olds who start the year...and end up quickly at the top of my class. I also have kids who start the year 7 years old and I can't believe they passed kindergarten. YOU JUST NEVER KNOW.

I work with someone who crabs and crabs and crabs that I am thinking of sending Jessica when she is 4, almost 5. It's three weeks! If she can handle it, she is going!

Last year I had a student whose mom must have lied about her age...she started first grade and she had just turned four. SHE WAS BRILLIANT. Top of my class to start...but she layed on the floor in the middle of class and ate garbage off the floor and still drank from a sippy cup. Development is HUGE, even if they are smart, too.

This will all come to a head when she is turning 3 and can I send her to 3 year old preschool? Is she potty trained? Before age 3? Both of my other kids were trained by 2 years 6 months, but that is not likely.

And Jessica is my "different" baby!

[~Kris~]

More than likely we will send Teresa when she is 4 and she'll turn 5 a month into the school year. Despite being one of the younger ones in his K class now (turn 6 at the end of June), Nathan is way ahead academically and even though Lukas has some speech issues, he's like a sponge too and knows quite a bit. So if she follows suit, she'll be ready. But if for some reason she is struggling, then we could wait.

[irish luck]

Logan starts JK in September and he doesn't turn 4 til the very end of November, so he will be one f the very youngest in the class (for us you have to be born before Jan 1st)

When I first had him I was not going to send him cus being so young and being a boy ... but now that I know him he is going..... he is smart enough for sure, I just hope he is mature enough... a girl that is a whole year older than him will be so much more mature than him and that scares me a little

I figure we will start the year and if it is horribly obvious that he isn;t ready we will pull him and try the next year but i think he will be ok, at least i hope

Gavin is the end of Aug so he atleast has 3 months on Logan, we will have to see when the time comes

[mrsdaiwa24]

It won't be an issue for Betsy -- she will turn 5 after the September 1st cut-off, so she'll always be one of the oldest in her class. When there was talk of her arriving in August, we figured we'd hold her back -- we figured it would be better for her to be one of the older kids in the class than to be the youngest and probably one of the smallest (which would put her at a disadvantage for all those sports teams DH thinks she's going to join).

I think it will be interesting that our SweetPeas could end up in different grades -- some of these kiddos will start kindergarten before the others.

[*~Jen~*]

They're moving the cutoff here to 8/1! So we have no choice. Leah will be 6 when she starts K. I think it's possible to get a waiver to let them start K a year early as long as they're 5 before 9/15 and have been in an accredited preschool program, which she will, but given that she'll REALLY be the youngest if we do that and K is full day here, I don't think I will. I'm actually kinda looking forward to it! I will have 3 years with just Leah while my older 2 are in school. She's my last baby and I'm looking forward (already!) to being able to do stuff like take her to story time at the library without having to worry about chasing a toddler while I'm there....lol.

My oldest just turned 5 last week. He will be starting K in the fall. While he's definitely ready academically, socially, he's still a bit behind. I know he's a boy and he has the entire summer to mature, but I can't even imagine him being in Kindergarten already RIGHT NOW.....but all kids are different.

[Mrs.Mikey]

Bryson will start when he is 5 turning 6- we actually talked about this way before I was pregnant, mostly for the sports aspect- my hubby has his own business doing baseball instruction so B has no choice but to love baseball! ( I sure hope so!)

[LifeToTheMax]

I have an October birthday, so my parents had the same issue, send me to Kindergarten at 4 and have me turn 5 right away or hold me back and have me start at 5 and turn 6 right away. They held me back (actually, they sent me to Young 5s and then Pre-First, to two years of "kindergarten", but it ended up being the same). I'm glad that they did because it was good graduating and starting college as an 18 year old and not a 17 year old.

That said, Max is so much closer to the start of the year, it will really depend on HIM as he gets old. Probably, though, I will wait and send him when he is 5 and have him turn 6 right away.

[a13xandra]

We're sending Eris to Montessori. In fact, we've already turned in her application because we're overacheivers! Our local Montessori starts at age 3 and goes through 8th grade. But we'll see if she's ready for preschool. My mom said I was READY when I was ready, so I think it should be obvious when I have to make the call!

[amonstersmomma]

I have no clue DH and I have talked about homeschooling K-5 but we're not set on anything obviously. If we put him in public school I think I'd rather him be 5 turning six but it all would depend on his overall development.

[ginnkneephur]

This will completely depend on her maturity level. To be honest, I will probably hold her back a year because I don't want her to feel like the smallest kid in class.

[The Heather]

The cut off here is September 1st, so Chase barely makes the cut off. We will be sending him when he is 4, turning 5. If he seems like he is behind the other kids after the year, we will just hold him back then.

[Meggie26]

I think it will all depend on how he is when we reach that point. I think I would definitely wait another year and let him be one of the oldest kids in the class.

[J9+J+C=Complete]

I definitely have some opinions about this being a first grade teacher I'll try to keep most of them to myself

For our situation personally:

We missed the cut off for Jacob since he is an October baby, but did not want him to go to preschool for the third year in a row with the same teacher and curriculum. We decided to try private K, knowing he would not go to first grade the following year (we could have sent him to first; you can do that if you go to private K even if you had missed the cut off in K) but would then go to another year in public K.

He is top of his class (brag brag brag, sorry) but only because it is technically his second year. He doesn't realize this because the two were in completely different places and different peers, but does know that he was not old enough to go to public K last year.

With Charlotte, I will probably push her ahead. She makes the cut off (BARELY) and is a girl. I know that is TOTALLY sexist, but my young first grade girls 9 times out of 10 are more mature than my young first grade boys. This is totally based on my personal experiences so it isn't necessarily other people's experiences (just have to add that disclaimer so I don't offend anyone )

Jacob is very petite so I wanted to give him another year to grow and catch up a little (he is still the shortest in his class, but not by as much). Also, he is very mature now and doesn't have any behavior issues. That was important to me as well. Now that was just our case. I do have some young boys in first grade that do extremely well. It was obvious that they could handle K. Really bottom line, you really can't plan for it until you get there.

It does stink to pay for a whole 'nother year of daycare though.......

[C&J's Mom]

The cutoff here was that they have to turn 5 on or before Sept 1 to start K. Carter's b-day is Sept 12th so he missed the cutoff by 12 days. But I was ok with that. He started K on Sept 7th and turned 6 five days later. He is the oldest in his class, but he is doing great. I'm glad it happened that way. Now I think they changed it to turning 5 on or before AUGUST 1st so Jack will also miss the cutoff. He will turn 6 about 2 weeks before he starts K. So I'm expecting he will probably be the oldes in his class as well. But again, I'm ok with that. Two of my nephews started K when they were 5 and they both took K again. I know every child is different, but I have heard that girls tend to be ready for K earlier than boys. Carter's ped told me that boys that start earlier may do fine for awhile and then when they get to middle school or adolescents may not be socially ready yet. I'm sure it varies so much, but I am ok with my boys being older when they start. I am still just thinking about how strange it seems to me right now that Carter will be in 6th grade when Jack starts Kindergarten! EEEKKK!

[sassysarah]

The cutoff for school here is 5 by August 1st so both of my kids will be going to school when they are 5 and then turn 6 shortly after they start.

[mt23hc]

I remember stressing over this with Cohen being due September 2nd, but I guess since he decided to come June 25th, he settled that. Hayden is July 4th so they'll both be the younger boys in their class.