How old were your children when they started kindergarten?

[HawkeyeShawn]

We've been arguing about the age of the school shooter in another thread. This thread is just to get an idea of how many students start kindergarten at 6 rather than 5. Please share the age your child started school and their birth month (no need for SS numbers or their mother's maiden name ).

3 Boys. 2 of the 3 at age 5. Jan and Sept birthdays. Our first we held back until age 6. May birthday. Month of birth didn’t matter. Him having Down Syndrome was the reason.

 

[gohawks50]

3 Boys. 2 of the 3 at age 5. Jan and Sept birthdays. Our first we held back until age 6. May birthday. Month of birth didn’t matter. Him having Down Syndrome was the reason.

I assume the September birthday was after the 15th if he started at 5 years old.

 

[Chuck C]

My daughter was an August birthday, and started at 5. Looking back, I wish we would have waited a year. Mainly because we’d have another year of her in the house before she goes off to college.

 

[bojihawk44]

I guess it depends on your definition of rare. @bojihawk44 liked your post, but he is considering waiting until 6 to enroll his child with an April birthday. If he does so she will turn 7 during her kindergarten year.

Misread your post. I thought you said starting kindergarten at 7 is not rare. Apologies.

 

[artradley]

Daughter is currently 3 and an April birthday. Not sure how it's all going to shake out. She's smart enough and big enough to start K at 5, but I really don't want her to be 17 her whole senior year.

I can’t imagine holding any normal child back with an April birthday. I would discuss this with your school next year.

 

[gohawks50]

I can’t imagine holding any normal child back with an April birthday. I would discuss this with your school next year.

He's a teacher.

 

[Bulldogs1974]

as a teacher of close to 30 years.
You should almost always start kids when they are 6. People constantly discuss wishing they had sent their kids later.
Boy's 99% of the time
girls maybe 50% of the time.

 

[artradley]

He's a teacher.

Well, "I don't want my kid to be 17 their entire Senior Year" is a pretty vacuous argument for an educator.

 

[artradley]

as a teacher of close to 30 years.
You should almost always start kids when they are 6. People constantly discuss wishing they had sent their kids later.
Boy's 99% of the time
girls maybe 50% of the time.

Our son was a September birthday, and because the cutoff in NJ was October 1 he started when he was four. He was also small for his age and ended-up going through puberty a year or two after most boys; so he was absolutely tiny when he started high school and it kept him from playing football.

That said, the only reason we ever thought we should have held him back a year was because so many others parents did; starting mainly with June birthdays. If everyone simply started their children in school at the appropriate time we would have had no issues. So how much of people wishing they are started their children later is because they really weren't ready for school, and how much is because everybody else is holding their children back? Where does it end?

When we spoke to our school the summer before he started we asked if he was ready to start. We went through his academic abilities, and they said, "None of that matters. It's our job to teach them how to read and write. Our question to you is just whether or not he is able to leave you for the day." If they're okay to leave their parents for a few hours every day, they are read to start school.

 

[gohawks50]

Well, "I don't want my kid to be 17 their entire Senior Year" is a pretty vacuous argument for an educator.

Being one of the older students in your grade level can have many advantages. Maturity, social skills, coordination, etc.

Here's another teacher with similar thoughts:

as a teacher of close to 30 years.
You should almost always start kids when they are 6. People constantly discuss wishing they had sent their kids later.
Boy's 99% of the time
girls maybe 50% of the time.

Isn't either your son or wife or maybe both in education? Have you asked their opinion on waiting to start school until 6?

 

[bojihawk44]

I can’t imagine holding any normal child back with an April birthday. I would discuss this with your school next year.

We wouldn't be holding her back. She's currently in three year old preschool. Next year she will go to four year old preschool and then the following year we would send her to TK. Most kids in our district do this, other than those that have late birthdays and just miss the window for preschool eligibility. She would be 18 until like 3 weeks before her graduation - I'm sure she'll be fine.

 

[Bulldogs1974]

Our son was a September birthday, and because the cutoff in NJ was October 1 he started when he was four. He was also small for his age and ended-up going through puberty a year or two after most boys; so he was absolutely tiny when he started high school and it kept him from playing football.

That said, the only reason we ever thought we should have held him back a year was because so many others parents did; starting mainly with June birthdays. If everyone simply started their children in school at the appropriate time we would have had no issues. So how much of people wishing they are started their children later is because they really weren't ready for school, and how much is because everybody else is holding their children back? Where does it end?

When we spoke to our school the summer before he started we asked if he was ready to start. We went through his academic abilities, and they said, "None of that matters. It's our job to teach them how to read and write. Our question to you is just whether or not he is able to leave you for the day." If they're okay to leave their parents for a few hours every day, they are read to start school.

this is more dangerous to a boys development than most people would care to admit.

 

[gohawks50]

Our son was a September birthday, and because the cutoff in NJ was October 1 he started when he was four. He was also small for his age and ended-up going through puberty a year or two after most boys; so he was absolutely tiny when he started high school and it kept him from playing football.

That said, the only reason we ever thought we should have held him back a year was because so many others parents did; starting mainly with June birthdays. If everyone simply started their children in school at the appropriate time we would have had no issues. So how much of people wishing they are started their children later is because they really weren't ready for school, and how much is because everybody else is holding their children back? Where does it end?

When we spoke to our school the summer before he started we asked if he was ready to start. We went through his academic abilities, and they said, "None of that matters. It's our job to teach them how to read and write. Our question to you is just whether or not he is able to leave you for the day." If they're okay to leave their parents for a few hours every day, they are read to start school.

I don't know what year your child started school, but the demands of kindergarten are much greater now than they were before 2000. Expectations for reading and math have greatly increased. It use to be if they left kindergarten knowing their letters, letter sounds, a few sight words, colors, shapes, and recognize numbers 0-20 they were ready for 1st grade. Now many traditional 1st grade skills have moved to kindergarten.

 

[bojihawk44]

Well, "I don't want my kid to be 17 their entire Senior Year" is a pretty vacuous argument for an educator.

Please explain.

 

[ISUBryce]

I have to disagree with this one. That has to be awfully rare. You do see a handful of kids graduating at 19; but I believe that usually involves being held back a year at some point.

Two of my good friends have an April birthday and was 19 at graduation. I turned 19 June 9th right after.

 

[Herkster5]

6, late August birthday, so we did Pre-K after 4 year old pre-school so he wasn't the youngest in his class.

 

[IIowaFarmBoy]

3 boys and 3 girls. I am a certified teacher, but I work at a major U.

Me - I was 4 starting K. I was smallish until jr year. Had hellish time with older kids and kids in my class who were developmentally mature and not from great families.

Son 1 - Turned 6 in summer prior to K. Now a Judge and Major Jag
Son 2 - Turned 6 April of K. Struggled with maturity and shyness. Managing Engineer with Volvo. Career has struggled some
Son 3 - Turned 6 Oct of K. Graduated with high honors from top Mech Engineer and now using people skills in buying out a financial advising business after working around the world as an engineer.

All above were great athletes.

Daughter 1 - Dyslexia - Struggled with school and socially. Turned 6 January of K year. We held her back. Husband teaches at WP
Daughter 2 - Adopted. She was held back for 4th grade. Struggled with school and scored ACT 16 Delayed college. Graduated Magna Cum Laude and in graduate school
Daughter 3 - Adopted. Held back in grade 1. Really struggled socially and in school. Really struggled early college and now gets almost all straight A's.

You can't predict timing of development.

 

[artradley]

Please explain.

What explanation is needed? That's a pretty empty reason in itself.

 

[Aardvark86]

My son was one of those kids who was sort of on the age cutoff border, and at the time. We thought he was a little emotionally immature, so we put him in when he was like 5+ instead of 4+.

The funny story: So, while he's 4+, he goes to a montessori kindergarten, which of course is a relatively unstructured environment where teachers sort of look for teachable moments as the kids wander around. He does fine, enjoys it, etc.. So the next year, we enroll him in our parish school kindergarten, which is decidedly NOT unstructured and was something of a shock to his system. When he would come home each day, we would ask him how his day went, and he would routinely reply, "Bad for me, good for Mrs. Butler."

(This is the kid that several years later, when the parish school teachers were not going to let him outside for recess when he did not have a coat and was wearing a short sleeved shirt, countered that he had "the right to bare arms". They let him go.)

 

[beanerhawk]

Everyone in my family started at 5, from my sibilings to my kids to my grand kids. No one ever thought twice about it. Birthdays are 3 Mays, 2 Aprilsl, March, 2 Septembers.

 

[soonerinlOUisiana]

Generally start at age 5 if birthday is before October 1. I’ve heard of some “sports dads” starting their boys a year late so that they’d be one of the bigger kids in the grade level when they start playing in school sponsored sports. Never actually saw this in practice.

 

[Aardvark86]

Generally start at age 5 if birthday is before October 1. I’ve heard of some “sports dads” starting their boys a year late so that they’d be one of the bigger kids in the grade level when they start playing in school sponsored sports. Never actually saw this in practice.

I canada, it was relatively routine for parents to try to defer baby deliveries to a new year so that they'd be among the older boys in their junior hockey class. the correlation of birthdate to success was crazy.

 

[PoopandBoogers]

Aug birthday, started at 5 and graduated at 17. Totally normal for my school, I'd say 25% or so of us were 17 at graduation.

 

[gohawks50]

Aug birthday, started at 5 and graduated at 17. Totally normal for my school, I'd say 25% or so of us were 17 at graduation.

What year did you graduate?

 

[PoopandBoogers]

What year did you graduate?

90s.

 

[IIowaFarmBoy]

90s.

I see what your online name is. OK, carry on. Arrested development?

 

[DeangeloVickers]

66 posts, not a single response of someone whose kid turned 7 DURING OR BEFORE December of their Kindergarten year. It's not just rare, it's unheard of. I can't believe you're supposedly a Kindergarten teacher and still arguing this.

 

[bojihawk44]

What explanation is needed? That's a pretty empty reason in itself.

That I don't want my kid to be 17 their entire senior year? I'd say that's pretty normal from my years of experience in education.

But thanks for the advice. I'll let the wife know some random dude on the Internet said that's "vacuous", lol.

 

[mnole03]

5

 

[PoopandBoogers]

I see what your online name is. OK, carry on. Arrested development?

90s as in 1990s not age. In that post I stated I was 17 upon graduation and not uncommon. (Not disparaging those that do hold kids back a year, just a personal anecdote).

 

[Faithnolemore]

As a kindergarten teacher, were you grooming kids to be something they weren’t? Or did you refrain from pushing your agenda in real life.

 

[IIowaFarmBoy]

90s as in 1990s not age. In that post I stated I was 17 upon graduation and not uncommon. (Not disparaging those that do hold kids back a year, just a personal anecdote).

Just having fun with your online name.

 

[southlakehawk]

No kids, but I started when I was 6...October birthday. As an elementary school teacher(24 years), I saw so many immature boys all the way up to 6th grade. 6th grade, kinder, & first grade boys were where I saw so much stupid going on. I get it when your are 6 & 7 years old, but come on man, when you are 12 !!! A lot of girls in k-3 were more mature than some of the 6th grade boys I had to have a coming to Jesus meeting !!

If you're debating on when to start your kid in school, it's never a bad move to wait a year. Heck down here in Texas ( in my former school district that is one of the legendary TXHSFB programs) many athletes are "redshirted" in 7th grade !!

 

[artradley]

That I don't want my kid to be 17 their entire senior year? I'd say that's pretty normal from my years of experience in education.

But thanks for the advice. I'll let the wife know some random dude on the Internet said that's "vacuous", lol.

Any kid born after January is going to spend more than half their senior year at age 17. I was born in March and I'm pretty sure there were zero students nearly a year older than me in our class of 500.

Yeah, it seems pretty arbitrary to say you want your kid to turn 18 well before the end of their Senior year. Why would that matter?

 

[artradley]

I and both of my brothers started at 5. 1 July and 2 August birthdays. Myself and my younger brother are the August birthdays and we both graduated at/near the top of our class. Never discipline issues. My boys all started at 5 and are 2 October birthdays and 1 April birthday. Our youngest is the April birthday and our friends were flabbergasted that we didn't hold him back. Why would I hold him back? I can understand the late summer birthdays although I probably still would have sent them. They held back both of their boys and had no better outcomes in any way. And I was ready to ship them off when they turned 18, knew it all, and thought they were adults so they should be able to do what they wanted. Lord help me if I would have had to deal with that for a year and a half.

I have to tell you, I have never in my life heard of anyone contemplating holding their child who was born in the Spring. July and August? Sure. Maybe even June. But April?

 

[bojihawk44]

I have to tell you, I have never in my life heard of anyone contemplating holding their child who was born in the Spring. July and August? Sure. Maybe even June. But April?

What is the difference in 2-3 months, exactly? Seems like you're not that in tune with early childhood education, and that's okay.

 

[artradley]

What is the difference in 2-3 months, exactly? Seems like you're not that in tune with early childhood education, and that's okay.

It is a sliding scale. Your "logic" would never account for an end - if it's okay in April it must be okay in March. If it's okay in March it must be okay in February. Ad Infimum. But in truth, each month the decision to hold them back becomes a little less justifiable. By time you get to April it's kind of absurd.

And I'm relating my experience. I'm curious if anyone here was 7 before their K year was over.

 

[bojihawk44]

It is a sliding scale. Your "logic" would never account for an end - if it's okay in April it must be okay in March. If it's okay in March it must be okay in February. Ad Infimum. But in truth, each month the decision to hold them back becomes a little less justifiable. By time you get to April it's kind of absurd.

Not at all, but thanks for the input. I'll probably do what I feel is best for my kid. A few months is so arbitrary it's meaningless.

 

[gohawks50]

66 posts, not a single response of someone whose kid turned 7 DURING OR BEFORE December of their Kindergarten year. It's not just rare, it's unheard of. I can't believe you're supposedly a Kindergarten teacher and still arguing this.

Actually there are 2 check posts #38 and #73.

 

[Underscore2]

I only remember that I was told we could wait a year because of the way his birthday worked out with the school year and schedule. But I decided not to wait so that he wouldn’t feel behind later on and I think it worked out.