The oldest kindergarteners in the country

This is crazy. And it goes both ways. I have a friend who fibbed about her daughter’s age to get her into some preschool or something. And then another friend of this friend ratted my friend’s fib out.

Can you believe it?

I have two children who were affected differently by this. When my oldest was elibible for kindergarten, she turned 6 a month into the school year because of the ridiculously early cut off period in Missouri. A year later, we lived in California and my other child started Kindergarten because their cutoff date is a couple of months later than Missouri’s. Essentially, I have two children who are two years apart in age but one year apart in school. Their birthdays are both in September, about 2 weeks apart. The oldest is bored because the school work is too easy for her and in california, all the kids in her peer group are in the grade abover her. My youngest should have probably been ‘redshirted’ because he struggles quite a bit and could have used the extra year. In one case the early cut-off didn’t work for my daughter, and in the other, the late cut-off didn’t help my son. Go figure. Bottom line, one year, plus or minus, should be the rule of thumb when enrolling kids in Kindergarten in my opinion. Every kid is different. But turning 7 in Kindergarten!? That’s insane and will back fire as the child gets older and wants to graduate with kids his own age but he’ll be stuck in school for a couple more years. Not worth it.

My thoughts exactly, how hard can it be to sit in kindergarten for a couple of hours and learn your alphabet… heck with this “not ready”. It will totally backfire when they are 20 year old seniors in high school.

Better to pay teachers more and give them more respect, then we would get more competent teachers who can handle their students.

Mostly, it chaps my hide because it seems so unfair to the other students and so very full of privilege (i.e. people who can afford to do it, and keep their kids in child care or at home rather than free public school). Keeping your kid out (so often it is boys, too) in order to give them an “advantage” as if kindergarten is some kind of competition! Or because of some idea of them doing better in sports, later on? How fair is that and what kind of message does that send to the child?

I think it’s obnoxious.

As a teacher of this age group, I can say that Kindergarten today is not what it used to be. The Kindergarten curriculum is actually equivalent to what I was taught in first grade 30 years ago. If they are not developmentally ready (and every child is different) it is more harmful to try and ram these concepts down their throats. It is especially difficult for children who are not yet ready to sit still for long periods of time and follow directions. Putting a child who is not developmentally ready into Kindergarten can cause them to feel like a failure and could start off their entire school experience with a negative overtone that can carry on throughout their next 12 years. Would you try to potty train a one year old? Would you try to teach your 4 month old to walk? No, because those are not developmentally appropriate things for those age groups. The same goes for Kindergarten and preschool and Kindergarten teachers are usually pretty good at guiding parents through these decisions (if the parents are willing to listen).

As a previous teacherof kindergarten, first grade and second grade, a mother of three boys and a child who was 4 in kindergarten herself, I agree with the notion of redshirting in some cases. In our family situation, the two younger boys have late birthdays and will therefore be the oldest in their classes. Our oldest had an early birthday and would have been one of the youngest in his class, so we chose to give them all an equal advantage (yes advantage), and hold our oldest back. I agree that kindergarten is what first grade used to be back 25 years ago. Not to mention, many kindergartens are full day now. We are in such a hurry to have our children grow up these days. Time to mature and time spent at home with family is a gift and can only benefit the child. It can be a difficult decision, but as a principal responded when I asked her opinion on holding my child back, she said ,”I have never heard a parent say they regret holding their child back. The regrets I have heard are by other parents who wished that they had held their child back.” Best wishes to anyone who is working on this decision.