I have a question about holding a child back a year...

[Jumping In Puddles]

My dd will be 6 in June. She is currently in kindergarten and is doing well with phonics but she seems so immature to me, plus the way she speaks (she still says "them are over there" despite correction everyday for 3 years:glare:), and she is also physically much smaller than the other kids. Someone asked me yesterday if she was a premie at birth, like her dd! :001_huh:

 

I wonder if she would benefit from being held back for kindergarten one more year.

 

On her kindergarten report card today, she recieved all 1's! (needs assistance, doesn't understand, doesn't pay attention, doesn't follow directions for worksheets). Also remarks that she is very sweet, which I already knew. She is extremely sweet, nice, and easy going. She is absolutely a joy with no behavior problems whatsoever. :Angel_anim:

 

Although maybe her teacher is just wacky because she got a 1 for phonics and yet she can read the following sentences with ease and knows every letter sound (the teacher is pushing sight words and dd doesn't know them):

 

The bunny is on the mat with the chick.

 

A pig and a hog went on the grass for a snack.

 

Daddy fell on the back porch and Mommy is sick of shopping.

 

 

Anyone have any advice for me, or btdt?

[jujsky]

I don't think it would hurt her to repeat K, unless she has anxiety issues that would make losing the circle of friends she made this year emotionally traumatic. She's on the younger-side for her grade, so maybe another year would give her time to catch-up maturity-wise.

[Pamela H in Texas]

It sounds like she could use another year if she'll be in school. A consideration though is if she may be able to jump back up easily enough if she gains 3 years in 1 later on. My brother didn't do anything til mid 2nd grade (though held back due to health and a summer bday), but he was highly gifted and a jr high level in 3rd grade.

 

Anyway, as for sight words? you might download (free) the program SuperSpeed 100 at wholebrainteaching.com. It is a fun way to get the top 100 sight words down cold (btw, there is also a 1000 word one for older kids, a math facts one, etc).

[Jumping In Puddles]

I don't think it would hurt her to repeat K, unless she has anxiety issues that would make losing the circle of friends she made this year emotionally traumatic.

 

No she doesn't have any anxiety issues and she enjoys making new friends. Thanks for the input! :)

 

It would be fine, especially if you are going to work with her at home at her level. You will be homeschooling except for her 1/2 days at school right? IF this is the case then grade level is really irrelevant, she may catch up later, but for now it might be best if she can continue being a K'er.

 

Keep in mind that Fall is 7 months away though and she may make huge gains in that amount of time. Ultimately you will need to see what things are like next Aug.

 

I will be afterschooling her for the rest of the year (public K is only half days). Next year, I'm keeping her home, even if it's K at home for another year which is why I'm bringing this up now - I'm starting to plan for next year. :leaving:

 

It sounds like she could use another year if she'll be in school. A consideration though is if she may be able to jump back up easily enough if she gains 3 years in 1 later on. My brother didn't do anything til mid 2nd grade (though held back due to health and a summer bday), but he was highly gifted and a jr high level in 3rd grade.

 

 

I was wondering about jumping ahead later too. I do plan to homeschool after this year, so it will probably be easier to jump ahead then, than wait too long and leave her back. It would have been so much easier to not send her to K this year.

[Michelle My Bell]

Well my children aren't in school, but they both had summer birthdays and a few years ago I decided to "hold" all of them back if you will. Their age was really the main reason, not their academics. I wanted to give them more time to complete their education and mature. I didn't want young graduates who were not ready for the world yet.

 

Academically speaking, my 2nd daughter was a late bloomer and has really blossomed out the last 2 years or so. What used to be like pulling teeth academically, has changed into a self-motivated, eager to learn girl.

 

I decided to really lay off (after struggleing for K-2nd grades) in her younger years (Age 6-11) and started her on heavier academics a little bit last year and now that she is 12 (almost 13) I have really started pushing more. I now have a girl who is eager to be pushed and excited to learn. She just wasn't ready when she was younger. She didn't learn to read until she was 9 and now she is doing great. Concepts also connect in her brain easily where before it was a struggle.

 

Michelle

[jujsky]

I will be afterschooling her for the rest of the year (public K is only half days). Next year, I'm keeping her home, even if it's K at home for another year which is why I'm bringing this up now - I'm starting to plan for next year. :leaving:

 

 

Oh! I didn't realize you were keeping her home next year. Definitely don't worry about keeping her at K level then. It sounds like she's doing well with phonics, so you may want to move her to 1st in that subject and keep her in K for the rest. There is a good chance that she'll catch up down the road and be back to grade-level if you're concerned. :001_smile:

[LauraQ]

Well my children aren't in school, but they both had summer birthdays and a few years ago I decided to "hold" all of them back if you will. Their age was really the main reason, not their academics. I wanted to give them more time to complete their education and mature. I didn't want young graduates who were not ready for the world yet.

 

I did something very similar. I just drug 2 years out to take 3 years instead (about 1.5 yrs each) so the kids didn't notice. Now ds is 11-12 in 6th (Jan birthday) and dd is 14 in 8th (mid-August b-day). But this is more for the reasons you listed. We don't have testing requirements in our state and kids are homeschooled only, so this is just for me.

 

Now, when dd 14 started K (private school) she only made birthday cut-off by a couple of days, and after finishing K the teachers wanted to hold her back because of her size (totally didn't get that one) and to help her mature emotionally though she was doing well enough academically when she wasn't daydreaming, singing, etc. I did not hold her back at that time, and I still feel I made the right decision at that time for her as she did really well in 1st grade at the same school. The following year we brought her home, so I didn't have to worry about what grade I called her anymore ;-) I only assigned them a grade level recently (after stretching a couple of years out) so that family/friends can know when to expect them to be "finished" with school, and to help me plan out dd's last 4 years.

[Jean in Newcastle]

If you keep her home you can do what I ended up doing with my dd. I put her ahead in those things that she was ready for and kept her back in those things that she wasn't ready for. Now when people ask what grade she is, we just say that she's in a 2nd/3rd split class.

[Dobela]

If you are going to keep her at home, then by all means do Kindergarten again with her. If she is going back to school, I would do lots of research first. I am an early educator (MEd in Early childhood) and being held back is very traumatic for children according to studies done. One study showed that failing kindergarten was ranked with mommy dying and going blind. Scary, scary stuff for some kids.

 

But I also agree with other pps. Children can change so dramatically at this age. She may be completely on par with peers by August. You just don't know or have any idea. A lot of reading and math skills at this age come with brain development instead of teaching - that is why the change can be so dramatic from February to August.

 

My son has always been homeschooled but I also repeated a grade with him. He needed another year to grow and gain confidence before we moved into the heavier academic stuff, or so I thought. Turns out he has learning disabilities that needed to be addressed differently. Anyway, the year we repeated I chose a different curriculum than the year before so he would not know he was repeating much of the same material.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

If you are going to keep her at home, then call it whatever you like, kindergarten, first grade, or some other silly name. We told our kids that they were Bobby Graders (not their real name. Use Sally Grader or whatever your kid's name is).

 

The point is that you present material that works with wherever your child is. Sounds like you will want to be using some good controlled readers and building reading ability and stamina while introducing the sight words and words that follow various exceptions. Try googling Dolch words to get some nice printable lists.

 

The maturity level that you mentioned can be worked on without having to make a big deal about her grade designation unless you are in a state where you have to submit test results for first grade and you think that she won't test well.

 

FWIW, I wouldn't worry about jumping them ahead either. Grade designations aren't really much of a factor for homeschooling. I'm not going to make my kid do something that they aren't ready for (academically or emotionally) just because some other 5th grader is doing it. Nor was I willing to hold them back because they were doing work in some areas that other 1st graders weren't able to master. When they are older, just keep giving them academics that challenge and grow them, wherever they are at.

 

I'm not going to put my kids into clothes that don't fit them just because that's the size the neighbors wear. I'm not going to do that with school either.