As a former teacher who is active in education, I’m asked this question, a lot. There are several factors to consider, as each child needs to be considered individually. In-other-words, I can’t give you an answer for your child, only for mine. And I opted to hold both of my August-birthday boys back a year by placing them in pre-Kindergarten, aka “red-shirting.”
Questions to ask yourself when considering Kindergarten vs. Pre-Kindergarten
- will my child be the youngest or the oldest? How do I expect my child will do in that position? You want to think long-term here, as well as short-term. Yes, you’ll compare your 5-year-old to his peers currently (does he keep up with his peers? does he interact well?) but you also want to think of him going through puberty before or after others and how he’ll be at 16 or 17 when he starts driving (before or after others.)
- how does my child compare, physically, to his peers? I don’t usually advocate comparing your child against others, but socially, you need to consider if your child will keep up on the playground or in gym class. Alternatively, will he be miles ahead physically and, therefore, bored.
- is he academically ready to go to Kindergarten? There are questions , below, that you can ask your child’s preschool teacher, but there are also great resources for you to use at home. Family Education has a valuable checklist. Of course, it’s now registration time and 6-7 months before Kindergarten, so do note that your child will grow, a lot, during the next 6 months.
- how does my child compare maturation-ally with his peers. Is your child Leo the Late Bloomer? He likely will catch up, but will pushing ahead or holding back change his self-outlook?
Questions to ask your child’s teacher when considering Kindergarten vs. Pre-Kindergarten
- Start out asking a very general question. Remember that, ultimately, it’s your decision, but your child’s teacher sees your child in a different situation than you do. She also knows what his peers are like, and how your child responds to his school surroundings.
- Refer to the Family Education checklist (above) and see how the teacher’s responses compare with yours.
- Ask your teacher if she’s sent children who are similar to your child to Kindergarten or Pre-Kindergarten and how they’ve responded.
- What Kindergarten or Pre-Kindergarten program do you recommend for my child? Why? (Why is key here. You’ll learn a lot about your child when you find out why she thinks a program is best for your child.)
Next steps
- Visit both Kindergarten and Pre-Kindergarten classrooms with your child to get a feel of the types of activities your child will do one year from now. Do you forsee your child growing in this room? Do you see him keeping up? Will he learn or will he be held back by his peers’ abilities?
- Talk to prospective teachers and ask them for what they expect to see in their students. Ask if there is a big difference whether a child is the oldest or youngest, as well as the age difference between the oldest and youngest student in Kindergarten.
- Watch your child grow and continue to assess him on the Family Education Checklist.
More reading
- I share my personal experience regarding why we opted to “red shirt” my son, based on previous students.
- I share how you can relax when making this stressful choice, based on my experience with my kids.
image source: PhotoXpress
© 2012 – 2013, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.
We had a long discussion about this last night at bookclub. Great information!
Twitter: juliempron
says:
thanks Randi! Love book club discussions.
Twitter: 1momof5
says:
Here’s my experience: My oldest daughter made the kindergarten cutoff with her DECEMBER 24th birthday. The year she started, the cut off date was December 31. (It’s now early September). I sent her to pre-school to gauge her readiness, and decided to send her on to kindergarten the next year. She is now in 10th grade in all AP or honors classes, totally mature for her age…she never once had a problem socially because she was younger than everyone. Just FYI – part of what swayed my decision to let her start young was the fact that I also started kindergarten at 4 (October birthday). And, now, like my mom complained about me 20-some years ago, my ONLY concern at this point is the fact that she will graduate and move away at 17. It didn’t seem like a big deal then, but it does now. However, I shudder to think of how bored she’d be if she was a year behind in school, considering how advanced she is already (she could graduate early if I let her…).
Twitter: juliempron
says:
It’s SUCH a big decision. You make it looking at your child now… but there’s also his/her FAR distant future to consider, right? I always knew I didn’t want my kids to be the last to drive, last to drink, all that. But that’s just me for my boys. I have no idea what I’ll do with Little. The good news is that she’s only 2. I have time.
But I really do wonder if, by the time they’re in HS, they’d be a different bored depending on the grade? I mean, if you’re 15 and you’re bored in school, you’re going to be board whether you’re in 9th or 10th grade, right? At least that’s my experience. I think a lot of that has to do with opportunities for extra curriculars, class selection, etc. I know I was lucky in HS because we had a lot of elective classes open to us, in all sorts of fields. But let’s be honest. I was bored in some of my college and graduate classes, too. I think by the time you reach a certain age, some things are going to bore you no matter what grade you’re in.
Twitter: juliempron
says:
and “you” isn’t you, Lolli. It’s a generic you.
Twitter: BarbHoyer
says:
My 3rd son is very close to our cut off. His birthday is 9/22 and the cut off is 9/30. However, he’s a very bright, socially savvy kid who has always been at the 50th percentile. I knew John could handle going into Kindergarten, but my biggest concern was his size. He’s the middle child at home and small compared to the rest of my kids. He would have been the smallest kid in the class if I had sent him last year for K. He did find preschool a bit boring last year, but I’m very happy for now to have held him back.
I also held my oldest back in 6th grade. I had homeschooled him through 6th and then put him into Catholic school and had him repeat 6th grade. He just wasn’t ready maturity-wise for the 7th graders, and he would have been on the younger side since his birthday is in June. He was in a class of 11 kids for a year, and then went to different Catholic school. Socially he was a bit awkward and is still a late bloomer. Academically, he’s been fine.
Twitter: juliempron
says:
I’ve talked to a lot of parents and there are a few common threads:
- if you push him ahead now, you can always hold back later if you need to;
- I’ve never met anyone who regretted holding back (though I’m sure someone will tell me I’m wrong)
The best thing anyone can do is breathe and realize that, while this decision IS a big deal, you’re doing what you HONESTLY believe is right for your child.
I think the *why* is so important. My now 6th grader is actually 5 days post-district cutoff (he’s in private school so they can use their own discretion). Yes, he’s young, and that doesn’t help socially. However, in PreK when he was bored was when he got into trouble, when he knew something already he got into trouble, when he ran out of work he got into trouble…you get the idea. The PK teacher said she had nothing left for him – it was mixed 3s and 4s, and he had done “that year’s” work, her “alternate year” work (she rotated between two years so the 3s weren’t “repeating”), AND her work-ahead kindergarten stuff.
He needed the academics. We figured he could always re-do K again if needed.
And while I wouldn’t advocate shoving a kid ahead out of where he “should be” another major consideration was PK was nearly twice the cost of K. If we had to repeat K, it was much more affordable at about $2500 (having two in K-8 gave us a reduced rate) instead of $3800 for PK (PK was a separate program from K-8 and there were no tuition breaks). That was a major consideration as well.