We recently enrolled my eldest daughter in to Kindergarten, and she's due to start in August/September. She'll be 5 in November.
She's always been, in my opinion, very mature for her age. In terms of her milestones, she was ahead of the curve- walking at 10 months, fully toilet trained before she was 2. She knows her alphabet, can count to a hundred (with a little bit of help), and is starting to read.

We've had her in a pre-K class for the last 2 terms, and she really enjoys it.

My wife is now having second thoughts, and is thinking we should hold her back another year. The concern being that she'll be one of the youngest in the class, and whilst it might not matter much now, it will when she's a teenager. Both of us agree she's ready for kindergarten- emotionally and developmentally.

Was wondering what other peoples thoughts/experiences are on the issue.

Thanks!

Sooner they start K the sooner you can get them to work!

If you feel she is ready for the challenge then why not start her? She'll not get bored if you feel she is ready for it. There are always kids that are either the youngest or oldest. My daughter goes to school with a girl that is just over a year younger than her, but that was the year the girls are supposed to be in.

Thanks. It's not that we dont feel she's ready- she is. She's one of the most mature 4yr olds I know, and I constantly say she's 4 going on 15. It's just things like she'll be starting college at 17, she'll be the last one in her class to get her driving license etc. ie/ some of the more practical issues that it leads to down the line.
Dunno- will keep looking in to it....

Hi

Our eldest daughter is in kindergarten and was 5 in October. In the UK she was in school full time and was cerainly ready to go. She is one of the youngest going up to grade 1, everyone else seems to be having 6th birthdays and she's aware of it. It's better for her to be at school though and I'm hoping the age difference will become irrelevent. You will have the option to keep her in kindergarten for another year in September 2011 I think, I know some other mothers and held their children back for a further year.

I'm sorry I haven't called - yet David was in Vancouver last week and it's busy when he's away. I will call you both soon to meet up

Ness

Haha no worries, and thanks for the feedback.
Hope you're well!

That's 12 years away! You may move areas, she may need to repeat a year, maybe want to do one more year at school. Who knows. Isn't what she needs now what matters now?

Hi there. My son (my youngest) will be 5 in September and will be starting Kindergarten about a week before that. To be honest, he's not as advanced as how you describe your daughter and he suffers with delayed speech and is incredibly shy. However, for me personally, I see no advantage of holding him back. Had we still been in the UK, he would have been starting full-time in Reception in September regardless. Also, having already spent 2 years at pre-school, he is already repeating what he did last year. If I was to hold him back a further year, I think he would get bored. I think he needs the challenge and fresh opportunities that Kindergarten will offer him. He will be going to the same school where his sister currently is too. We have just had a Kindergarten Parent Orientation Evening and I was actually really excited to see all that Kindergarten involves (our daughter went straight into Grade 2 when we moved over). I think that once he gets over the initial settling in period he is going to have a blast!

My daughter has kids in her class of varying ages - some over a year older than she is. She will be 9 this year. Certainly at this age it doesn't seem to bother any of them about the varying ages. Let's hope that continues to be the case as they reach their teens!

I spoke to a lot of educators when faced with this dilemma. After listening to various opinions and discussion within the family, we made the decision to delay the entry so that the teenage years would be in the older age group.

This appears to have been very successful in our case, as this was with youngest child I was aware that maturity doesnt always depend on the number of years. I was still happy to be the person having the most input into my childrens early life, rather than teachers who may not have the same values as mine.

The intelligence or not isnt the issue, as for youngsters learning is a normal activity, just watching the adults and others around them and imitating their actions and learning how to do things can be as important as academic achievement.

I know this is a real and worrying time, we all want what is the absolute best for our child, I hope you make a decision based on the best research you can.

Good luck

Whatever direction you take, rest assured that it is the only right decision for your child, regardless the opinion of others; she's your daughter .

surely it depends to a great extent on what the local school board's policies are for age on entry into a particular year-group?

Hereabouts at least, parents would need to make a pretty strong case for enrolling a child outside his or her "normal" yeargroup - in Ontario, that's the calendar year in which the child reaches 4 for JK, 5 for SK, and 6 for Grade 1 entry in the September semester.

Our daughter, for example, is 3 (turns 4 in October) and will be entering Junior Kindergarten in September. She's in a pre-school nursery a couple of mornings a week this year, and JK runs a half-time program of five full days in a two-week cycle (e.g. Monday, Wednesday and every other Friday).

I know kindergarten provision varies a lot between provinces - and in some provinces, between school districts - but I think the general principle remains that out-of-year-group entries are rare.

Does she go to some sort of day nursery now? My daughter by necessity went to a private day nursery pre-school, which fortunately at the time for her was run by a ex primary school headteacher, so she got all the stimulation she needed during the day as well as play and nap/quiet time, so she really knew all her basics when she went to school. The only problem with that is she had to wait for the other kids in the class to catch up before she started learning new stuff but it doesn't seem to have bothered her too much. Just thinking maybe a morning nursery might be an alternative option.

There's a girl in my daughter's K class with a late birthday. She does seem less mature than the other kids. They call her the "little one". She's also tiny which doesn't help.

I really don't think there's a right answer, but from what I've read/heard it can become an issue in the older grades (i.e. teen years). If I was in your shoes I don't know what I'd do. I also had the very mature 4 year old - my daughter was ready for K at that age, not that she could have gone. Having said that, it's been a breeze for her this year -socially etc, she's right on target.

So I guess my answer is I don't know, but I understand why you're asking and why you're concerned. Personally I don't think having another year to mature hurts.

My daughter was 4 and a half when she started in Grade Primary and she is the youngest in her year but is far from being the least mature - intellectually or physically. She 100% needed to be starting school at that age was she was desperate to learn and to learn far more than I could offer her.

My youngest will be 5 and a half when she starts - I am gutted about this as she is the same as her Sister - more than ready to start at 4 and a half.

The final choice is down to you though - you have to do what you think is right for your little girl.

Good luck!

My daughter was 5 in Dec 2009 and started KG last Sept 2009.

She is one of the youngest and that always has bothered me, but as we were on a work permit with no guarentee of being able to stay after Nov 2010we felt it would be a disaster for her to go from 1 term at KG KG to 1 term into Year 1 in UK if we had to go back (which would be the case if we held her back). We felt she would never recover as she woudl have missed being formally taught to read etc if we had to go back.

So we enrolled her in KG.

Now we have PR! Ideally maybe I would have held her back!