How Young is Too Young? Let's Talk Cut-Off Dates
In this article, a fellow K teacher is asking for advice on cut-off dates for her kindergarteners and advice on readiness assessments. In her district there is no cut-off date for incoming kindergarten students, it is left up to her. Our school still goes by the "5 by December 1st" for entering our kindergarten. Our school also uses Gesell Readiness Assessment for incoming students.
Not everyone will agree with me on this and that is okay but I feel very strongly about sending a child to school and having them turn 6 in kindergarten. Parents that struggle with the option to send their child to school or not, I tell them "when in doubt, keep out." You are never hurting that child by waiting a year, you are only helping them.
Two years ago I had a girl that was going to turn 5 the very first day of school. She was very shy and after her Gesell Assessment, I recommended a year of Developmental Kindergarten (Young 5's). Her parents were very torn because she was their oldest so they had no comparison and her pre-school teacher continued to tell them she was ready (although she clearly was not). Her 1st year with me she struggled all year; she lacked confidence in every area. It was finally decided that it would be best to give her another year of growth in my classroom. Her growth year was definitely her year, she just shined! She was confident in everything she did and went from "below average" to "above average" in all areas. To this day, her mom still says she doesn't regret giving her another year with me, she can't believe the change she saw in one year. In her classmates words, "her first year was her practice year." :)
What your thoughts about this subject?
Now see I sort of feel as though if your child is ready and they arent going to be five until later then at least let them try because the worst thing that is going to happen is that they would repeat kindergarten. I myself started kindergarten at the age of 4 and didnt turn 5 until mid November. And I ended up being the youngest person in my class. But when we went to kindergarten registration in those days I passed everything all the 5 year olds were doing and some even more so. So in my opinion it all depends on the child and what they are ready for.
ReplyDeleteI think it does depend on the child but also on the parents. If the parent is willing to help the child out a little bit more with practicing of skills at home than I do believe it is ok to send a younger child to school. However, if there isn't going to be support at home then I would definitely recommend the young fives program. Sometimes it isn't a matter of academic readiness as it is social readiness. Sometimes a child's social abilities require an extra year in young fives so he/she can interact appropriately with other students. Having taught in a kindergarten classroom I can see both sides of the argument depending on the student.
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