Is Your Child Ready For Kindergarten?

To many this isn’t even a question. They turn five they start Kindergarten, end of discussion. But the truth is, not all Kindergarteners are five (at least in California) when they are eligible to begin Kinder. In California, the cut off for Kindergarten is December 2nd of the same school year. That means that your child can be eligible to start Kinder when they are still four years old!

My daughter Emma, has her birthday in Mid October. This places her at only 6 weeks from the cut off date. So the question arose in my mind, should she start at 4? I thought of my niece McKenna who would start the same year but who had been five since the preceding January! I decided to do some research and talk to teachers. What I found out from the teachers really helped make up our mind I encourage you to talk to the teachers of your school if you have concerns! (Of course the fact that in Emma's regular preschool class she would tell the teacher that she didn't have to do the work because she was the baby, also helped solidify our decision lol!)

I talked to a couple of Kinder teachers. They said that there are more and more children that start kinder at 6 years old. Parents are finding out that some children just are not emotionally ready or mature at 5 years of age. (Did you know that Kinder is not mandatory in the state of California?) So if I had put Emma in school, she would begin in August as a four year old, while others were already 6. That is a huge disadvantage for any child! The teachers agreed. They said that children who wait do better, they are just more ready for the rigors of Kindergarten (it ain’t what it used to be… see below!)

I was thinking about this age gap, and Colin and I decided, to give her the benefit of the cut off even though she was 6 weeks shy of it. We enrolled her in a transitional kindergarten program(http://www.fbcshiningstars.org/) . It was so fantastic let me tell you! It allowed her to be completely ready for what kindergarten requires, and has allowed her to build confidence before the stress of grades. We feel that this route for children who lack maturity required for kindergarten is really worth the investment.

Is your child ready for Kindergarten? There are so many things that children need to know BEFORE Kinder, that I was shocked when I had put Elise in four years earlier. I had no idea how important preschool was! I was glad we had put her in the year preceding her Kindergarten year, but had wished we had done it sooner! They need to know so much, to get off to a successful start!

Check out this link. It is a checklist for Kindergarten readiness. Does your child qualify? If not, really think about whether or not starting Kindergarten this year is right for your child. The stigma of holding children back, is gone in Kindergarten. They have no idea, but if they have to be held back in later grades because they weren’t ready for the foundation of kinder, that will be harder. Check out the link and decide what works for your family!

http://school.familyeducation.com/kindergarten/school-readiness/38491.html