Start K at age 5 or 6?

[Alaska Mom]

Is it better to start my dd in K at 5 or 6, her birthday is late August, so she'll be on the young side or the old side - which is better? People have told me in the younger years it doesn't matter so much, but in the high school years it is better to be older in your grade level - that the extra year of maturity will go a long way in dealing with peers (in public school probably more so). Alot of kids we know her age waited on K until this year.

 

I started my dd5 last year with K because she's very smart but she still really wanted to just play, so I really bailed on academics with her. I'm just re-thinking it now - repeat K or move on to 1st?

 

Thanks for your help!

[Renee in NC]

For my boys, I have waited until 6.

 

My 4yo dd will be just turned 5, but she is more mature academically.

 

I don't know about the youngest yet.

[Brindee]

A lot depends on the child: maturity level, learning style, interest. You might want to start with K and see how it goes. If things go well and she rushes through it, fine, just move on to 1st grade work. If she still is in more of a play mode, move through the K stuff slowly and make sure she gets it before moving on.

 

I think you'll know what will work best for her after awhile. best wishes!

[GraceinMD]

Brindee's right, but I would say WAIT WAIT WAIT.

 

Or at least I wish I had - ds was ready for K when he was 4/5 (late Sept bd) - but it's more apparent that he's the youngest in his cohort now (at church, sports, etc.) Most activities he's in are by "grade," and he doesn't want to now say he's in 6th instead of 7th (not that he gets to choose, but ... suffice it to say, I wish I'd waited - it's much easier to speed up than slow down, imo).

[Tracey in TX]

Is it better to start my dd in K at 5 or 6, her birthday is late August, so she'll be on the young side or the old side - which is better? People have told me in the younger years it doesn't matter so much, but in the high school years it is better to be older in your grade level - that the extra year of maturity will go a long way in dealing with peers (in public school probably more so). Alot of kids we know her age waited on K until this year.

 

I started my dd5 last year with K because she's very smart but she still really wanted to just play, so I really bailed on academics with her. I'm just re-thinking it now - repeat K or move on to 1st?

 

Thanks for your help!

It all depends on the child. I don't think it matters much for homeschooled child. If he's ready to move on academically, continue forward.

One of the reasons parents wait in ps is the sports advantage. Bigger the child, bigger the advantage. Silly, but true.

I put our triplets in kindergarten before their 5th birthday (they were youngest in the school). They were totally ready socially. Maturity level was acceptable, but academically they were a bit behind at the beginning of year. It's all about managing expectations--and knowing one's child.

My biggest concern will be the high school years. All their friends will be dating and driving while they watch from the sidelines.

[Brigitte]

A lot depends on the child: maturity level, learning style, interest. You might want to start with K and see how it goes. If things go well and she rushes through it, fine, just move on to 1st grade work. If she still is in more of a play mode, move through the K stuff slowly and make sure she gets it before moving on.

 

I think you'll know what will work best for her after awhile. best wishes!

 

:iagree: The beauty of home schooling is that you can choose the speed at which you go. It is not going to hurt her to sit down for half an hour to work on a reading lesson and a bit of math. If she is up for more, do it, if not don't.

Kindergarten is really all about learning to read and learning numbers, neither of which should take up much time during the day. You could sit down with reading lessons in the morning for 15 minutes or so and "math" in the afternoon for another 15 minutes. That really is all you need.

 

If that is more than she can handle, drop it for a while. You can always pick it back up again a couple of months. There is no rule that states school has to start in Aug/Sept. :D We're just conditioned to think that. :glare:

 

Have fun with it!

[TwinMominTX]

with my twin girls. I felt like this allowed us to have an "extra" year and still be ok. I figured the extra year could be a total repeat, a partial repeat, a travel year or heaven forbid a time to slow down due to illness or other life circumstance.

 

I felt like I had nothing to lose by starting at 5 as I knew I'd take it slow and do the basics in a fun way. For us "school" at this age was an hour of work max.

 

ETA: I re-read your post and now understand your question. In your case, I would probably do a combo of K and 1. Work at whatever level you feel your daughter is able to work. For some subjects it might be K and some it might be 1. Basically a hybrid of the two. I believe that she's likely to even out as you progress. Good luck to you both!!

[Melinda in VT]

It sounds to me like you tried K last year and she wasn't really ready for academics and now you're wondering if you should try K again or go to 1st. Did I understand correctly?

 

If that's the case, I would try K again, especially if her similarly-aged friends are just starting K this year.

[cin]

I started (will start) both my girls at age 5, and they have summer birthdays. But the older one had been reading since 3 1/2 adn was already doing simple addition and subtraction. She definitely knew shapes and letters and colors, so I actually started her in some 1st grade books, but we still called it K. My second one just turned 4 and is starting to read and add. She'll be starting K next year. Probably in some 1st grade books.

 

This is one of the reasons I homeshool. I want the girls to be challeneged accademically, no matter their age. If they were in public school, my oldest would be starting 1st grade. This child is starting to do simple multiplication and division. She is reading chapter books that are up to a 4th grade level. She would be bored to tears and probably in trouble. Alot. And she would start hating school. THAT is why I started k with mine at age 5.

[Karen in CO]

I started my dd in K at 5. She loved it. We went to the zoo, read lots of stories, went to the park, and spent lots of time playing outside. For academics, we started SOTW slowly and got through about 20 chapters for the year. We worked slowly on phonics and math. We did lots of art projects and messy science projects. We read about animals, did art projects and then visited them at the zoo. We read about trees and flowers, did art projects and went to the botanical gardens. We raised frogs, butterflies and started a vegetable garden. She learned to dance, sing, draw and cook.

 

K for us was very filled with experiences instead of academics. For first grade, I gradually added more formal work early into the day and made sure I scheduled plenty of time for free play.

[Ellie]

Grade level designations are artificial lables invented by school people to group dc of the same approximate age and abilities. They are thereful pretty much irrelevant for hsers.

 

So my *strong* recommendation is that when you are required to put one of those labels on your dc, you use the one that the local public school would use.

 

In your case, that would be kindergarten for a 5yo. That her birthday is in August is also irrelevant. You're going to teach her at her ability level, regardless of the label.

 

I have a July birthday. I know that some people consider that to be "late," but boy howdy, am I glad that neither my parents nor the school decided that I should start first grade a year later (we didn't do kindergarten). I would have been bored to tears.

[AuntieM]

It will eventually come up in conversations with other adults & children, as it is typical for people to ask, "What grade are you in?" when making a new acquaintance. Early on, my dh thought it would be more comfortable for the kids to be able to provide a concrete answer. Also, it made placement easier in Sunday school and other activities. However, you are on the "front end" and you might not really need to make that distinction just now. Instead, just "do the next thing" that your student is ready for.

 

As far as when to start K, well, what I typically did was to start fun learning whenever my kids were interested, usually around 3 1/2 years of age. We just progressed through the typical preschool-kindergarten type stuff, adding more "table time" as they were able (starting at 5-10 minutes up to appx 30 as the months/years passed). We just called it all "preschool" and that designation was also age-appropriate.

 

When the time neared that one would be expected to enter K (based on school district standards), I would do an informal assessment of their skills to date. At that time I pronounced them either kindergartners or first graders. If one of them had not been ready, I would not have mentioned kindergarten at all and just continued to call them preschoolers.

 

I do think it depends on the individual child, each will have different levels of maturity. If keeping a kid at home, I always felt that it was better to continue to advance them academically, even if they weren't socially ready, because they would be in a parent-supervised environment, where you would continue to provide guidance in social interactions. I would probably hold a socially immature child back a year from entering an institutional school setting.

[Pamela H in Texas]

It just SO depends....

 

I went on with my daughter. With my son I held him back but the virtual academy made us do age-based.

 

Kids are so different. Most probably, you'll just find her level, pace, etc. Just "go with the flow."

[TravelingChris]

Do whatever is right with your child. There is no advantage unless you are talking about playing some type of sport which size matters in. I have a daughter with an August birthday. She is almost 15 going into 10th grade. She is more mature than most of her cohort who are older than her in things like youth group. THere have been no problems with her being one of the youngest in a grade setting. She usually isn't the youngest acting.

[NevadaRabbit]

Is it better to start my dd in K at 5 or 6, her birthday is late August, so she'll be on the young side or the old side - which is better? People have told me in the younger years it doesn't matter so much, but in the high school years it is better to be older in your grade level - that the extra year of maturity will go a long way in dealing with peers (in public school probably more so). Alot of kids we know her age waited on K until this year.

 

I started my dd5 last year with K because she's very smart but she still really wanted to just play, so I really bailed on academics with her. I'm just re-thinking it now - repeat K or move on to 1st?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

For home schooling I don't think it is as big a deal, but we were faced with a decision to start/hold when dd was heading into public school K. We were moving from a state with a December cutoff to a state with a Sept cutoff date, and her bday is Sept. She would have been the absolute youngest in her class. We went to a center where they had a testing procedure for kindergarten readiness. While dd met or exceeded the standards in every category but one, that one category trumped the rest. The one category was emotional readiness. She was already reading simple words, gross and fine motor were normal, she could count and skip and all that stuff. But the one thing that led the testers to recommend we wait the extra year was that emotional readiness category.

 

We waited, and I will never regret it. She had more time to grow more comfortable in her own skin, and it shows.

 

Then again, with homeschool, you don't have to call it "K" or "1st" - just do what she is academically ready to do and let her abilities dictate the speed.

[Saille]

So far, I have always told the district the lowest grade level possible, then worked with my kids at their skill and interest level. I *do* document, but I don't send it in until they're an age at which it's required. If I ever bump them up a grade I've got some proof of my basis for doing so, just in case I'm challenged by the district.

 

That said, I think every kid is different. My ds is an August birthday, and holding back on formal, sit-down academics has turned out to be the right thing. However, my dd is a September birthday, and she's made it very clear to me that she's learning to read and "doing Kindergarten" this year (she's turning five). You do what your instincts tell you. You know your kids.

[SnowWhite]

I would *not* repeat anything she already knows for the sake of continuing to call her a K student. Neither would I buy something that will stretch her to a breaking point to call her a first grader. Like Ellie said, forget about grade labels and figure out where she is academically, then start from there. Does she need to learn her letters? Buy a program which teaches letters (many of these are K level). Is she reading CVC words, but not yet fluent? Start an "emergent reading" program. This might be a K program OR a first grade program, depending on the company. Rod and Staff, Pathway Readers and CLE all start first grade with "learning how to read". WinterPromise starts first grade with fluent reading. You just really need to research your materials and buy something that suits your student.

[iquilt]

My dd4 will be 5 in November; locally that would put her in pre-k this year and K next year with a Sept. cutoff. If we lived in NY with my in-laws she would be starting K this year with a Dec. cutoff. As a homeschooler she is doing K level work in most areas already (motivated by her older sister, no doubt) but I will follow the state guidelines for reporting purposes, it only gives her extra time. If she takes a bit longer to do K level work, she's already ahead of the game anyway. HTH

[SkateLeft]

I think it depends on the kid.

 

My older three have summer birthdays (June, late July, August), and they all started K at 5. My now-2nd grader is the one with the August birthday (he'll be 7 next week), and I rather wish that I'd waited with him. He was ready in a lot of ways, particularly in *wanting* to do school, but he's needed a little more time to pick up reading skills. He's still a beginning reader, and things would be easier if he was a 1st grader this year.

 

My girls were definitely ready, and the timing was perfect for them. In fact, my oldest was grade-skipped legally that first year, so she was more than ready. :)

 

#4 has a January birthday, and misses the cutoff here in CA by a month. I plan on waiting as long as possible with him, just because he has developmental delays and that will give him more time.

[Pamela H in Texas]

BTW, I personally agree with Saille, especially with on the cuff kids, that using the lowest grade level possible as the official grade makes the most sense. You can always "grade skip" a kid later if you need to. But holding them back can be problematic (though I wouldn't hesitate if necessary).

 

So if it were me, based on your description, I'd call her Kindergarten, do whatever work is best for her, and then if she's doing advanced work in middle school, consider a grade skip in 5-8th grades when her level is more solidly whereever it's gonna be.

[autumndivona]

This is all about personal preference, and whether or not you feel your child is ready. My son's birthday is in early December. So is mine, so I ended up going to school at age 5 and kind of getting shafted... If I could have begun K at age 4 1/2, I could have graduated from highschool at the age of 16. As it was, they had to make up for my boredom by taking me out of regular classes in elementary school and giving me nifty fun things to do (I'm not sure if they called it TAG or Alpha in the 80's, or what).

 

So I started my son's kindergarten at 4 1/2, last year. He has met all expectations, and exceeded some.

 

If you think your child will enjoy the work and truly benefit from it, and you are eager to begin, go for it!

[sdWTMer]

I think that girls can handle starting @ 5 but with my boys I waited until they were 6