I am still trying to think about waiting to enroll my daughter in K until next year (she makes the cut-off by 3 days), but I am wondering what the ranges are in your classes? Does it seem like a lot of parents hold their August and September children back? Thank you again!
The better question might be what do people generally do in the school your child attends? If many hold back, your child could be nearly 2 years younger than the oldest kid in class....it also depends on your child...is she 'school ready'? How does she handle herself socially? Only you know what is the best situation for your own child. Good luck in your decision.
http://www.livescience.com/8574-parents-redshirting-kindergartners.html That is a good article about holding kids back. Only you can tell, but generally, in my class I see more boys that are held back than girls. I have some boys in my class that started the year as 4 and some that turned 6 by November. There is a huge difference in those kids.
My classes vary from year to year. Sometimes I have up to 10 summer birthday kiddos (our cutoff is August 31st)-I had 2 with that birthday on the dot, sometimes less-it all depends.
Last year out of a class of 19, the majority of my class was 6 yrs old before January and 4 of them were 7 by then too. This year I have almost all Jun / July / Aug birthdays so they are mostly all young 5 year olds. Usually my school will give you a mix of both so I'm not sure how I got the groups I have. I prefer the younger 5s though.
I can't answer your question because I don't teach K, nor have I ever. But I can say that I can still tell a difference in 3rd grade. My younger kids do seem to struggle more. My youngest, who won't turn 9 until the summer, is a good student but she has to work SO hard. I imagine the difference when they're 5 would be so much greater.
It's hard. we have August birthdays who come in a 4 and turn 5 before September and we have children who turn 6 in September. That is a solid year difference and a year of growth (social, emotional, academic). We have a "meet the teacher" right before school starts and I can tell that day who has a summer birthday. It does make a difference, but each child is different.
I have mostly winter birthdays...a lot of January and February birthdays...2 of my youngest ones couldn't be different..one just turned 6 and has had no problem throughout the year..my youngest one in the class is very bright academically, but maturity wise, he hasn't been ready...
This year my YOUNGEST is a boy who didn't turn five until mid-October. He's fine socially and actually one of the higher academically. Each child is unique.
