How do I know if my kiddo is ready for kindergarten?
Ours turns five right near the age cutoff in our area. I have heard that lots of parents hold off until they're six for an advantage. She’s bright, confident, learns easily - though she doesn’t know all of her letters yet. She was attending preschool before the pandemic, but not since it started so we don’t have a teacher who knows her to advise us.
What besides age should we consider? She’s desperate to be back in school around friends, but how much weight should we give that in our decision? What about the fact that another year of preschool would be full-time, but kindergarten here is only half days? Is there any standardized way to gauge readiness?
Answers ( 1 )
Hi Jennifer, This is a great question and it really does depend on the child. The best way to look at it I think is to look at how old the child will be at the cut off. My daugher "made" the cut off for Georgia but she would be four years old starting school and turn 5 early on in the year. I chose to have her repeat pre-K instead of starting Kindergarten when she made the cut off after speaking to a couple teachers at the school and the school nurse. While my daughter was bright, making friends and excited about school she would have been the youngest in her class by several months.
The advantage to having her start the following year? There are almost too many to count! She did excellent in school. was right at the mid-point in the age range of her classmates, and was more than ready to start kindergarten. The advantages continued as she grew - she was mature, ready for varsity sports in high school, and was turning 19 early in her freshman year of college. She has commented to me that she is glad I made this choice.
I admit I worried when I made the decision, but once we started kindergarten we never looked back, it was the right choice for us. Good luck!