WWYD, kindergarten for July baby?

@jellofishxo So I was a mid august baby and I went at 5. I was always in accelerated / gifted programs and progressed normally. If I had started at six I would’ve have really struggled with being bored in call. Some kids repeated kindergarten if they weren’t ready for first grade. It was easier to hold kids back a bit than to have them skip grades.

We have a July first baby. I think I will send her at 5.

Do what you think is best for your family though.
 
@jellofishxo It depends if your child is ready or not.. academically, socially, emotionally… I’m a July baby and my mom actually sent me to kindergarten twice when she realized I wasn’t ready to move into 1st grade. My daughter is a September baby and she’ll be starting kinder at 5, but will turn 6 shortly after.
 
@jellofishxo Adding another perspective here that seems to go against the grain. I have a July baby that I plan to send to K at 6. I’ve taught first grade for several years and while the social maturity may not seem to be a big deal in kindergarten (everyone is “new to school”), I can always tell who has a summer birthday in first grade. In my experience, those young first graders struggle socially and behaviorally compared to their older peers.

I’m also team “send them and repeat K if needed” because I don’t think it hurts anyone.
 
@jellofishxo In my city the cut off is December 31 and you’re not allowed to red shirt without special permission from the superintendent. And overall most kids do fine.

But if you’re able to decide and your child doesn’t seem ready, do what you think is best.
 
@jellofishxo I would absolutely start at 5 but that’s normal in our district. We have a December 31st cut off so many start at 4.

Our district doesn’t allow redshirting anyways.
 
@jellofishxo I believe there are several posts about this in r/sciencebasedparenting. I believe the studies generally say waiting is better. Just anecdotally I think being older is better than younger.
 
@jellofishxo It’s wild to me that people can choose this! I’m in Canada and it’s done by birth year, you can choose to not send your kid but they’ll go into the next grade with the others their age the next year if you keep them home the first year.

My child will go into full-day play based junior kindergarten this fall at four years old. Any child born in 2019 starts this September, so they’re 3-4 years old when they start. My kiddo is about to turn four and totally ready, I’d trust the educators saying your son is ready.
 
@jellofishxo It 100% depends on your kid.

I have been thinking about this since my son was born mid July 2021. For context, I'm an elementary school teacher - so, I've heard all the pros and cons. So as an example, my almost 2 year old son right NOW is behind his peers in achieving expected milestones. If this were the case at almost 5, I'd probably hold him back. However, if he was on par, I'd send him - there's no point to holding him back when he's ready... He'll just get bored and with children; that's usually what causes them to find ways to get into trouble.

Good luck!
 
@jellofishxo fwiw: I started kindergarten at 4. Had no issues, progressed as expected for a kindergartener. Started college at 17, graduated college at 21. Was making a FT RN salary at 21.

Your child will be fine with whatever you choose, but I wouldn’t stress too much about them being emotionally ready for kindergarten at 5.

Edit: for spelling
 
@jellofishxo I sent my July baby and she is not suffering academically or socially for it. Sports May have been impacted as she is smaller/less developed than her peers, but she is at the top of her class and there’s no reason to believe she would have been an athletic stud has we held her.

I think it is child dependent, and there’s no one answer fits all. There are pros and cons either way. We considered doing two years of kindergarten for our oldest (a Dec birthday). Academically he’s fine but he has always struggled socially.
 
@jellofishxo My school district it’s December. September 1 seems very early. It’s a personal decision, but I would just follow the cut off and send. I’ll be sending my July baby when he’s older.
 
@jellofishxo I’m not sure when everyone decided it was better for their children who are on the cusp of 6 to wait it out a full year. I was born right at the kindergarten cutoff and I did very well
in school despite always being the youngest in my class, but I think this is child dependent. Even before stating school, I had met all my milestones and knew letters, numbers, etc. I was emotionally mature or where I should have been for my age. My toddler has a summer birthday and if she continues progressing as she has so far, I’ll start her at 5.
 
@jellofishxo Every child is different, but also different states have different laws, I have heard of some families holding their kid back a year and then being required to have them skip kindergarten and start 1st grade due to age....so definitely check with your district!

My July baby will start kindergarten when she's 5. She has shown no signs of not being ready and I figure if it turns out she's not meeting developmental milestones, she can always repeat kindergarten!
 
@jellofishxo Here is a study that shows increased performance at a 3rd grade level for kids that start kindergarten later: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2140009/. However, that's at 3rd grade.

I'm trying to find a link to a more comprehensive study which covered longer time spans, showing that the results evened out. They did mention an exception, that early learning programs that were truly top-ranked (like the kind with the $100,000 deposit and 6-year waiting list) did show an improvement.

The link was posted in the r/sciencebasedparenting sub. That sub used to be a great resource, but now overrun with anecdotal comments rather than actual studies.

Trying to do a Google search for this is like hashing thru 100s of Mommy blog results, which is never a good sign for getting to the science behind it.

I think qualitatively, you have to ask if you feel your child is ready. Mostly from an emotional standpoint. If you feel he needs more time before you set him into the wild, then by all means. If you feel that they are good to go and can handle the environment, then they should be given that chance.

There were some comments about older kids being bored. I was ahead a year (skipped kindergarten), and was still bored out of my mind. I wouldn't let that be a deciding factor.

Just keep getting feedback from their daycare, and just see how you feel. Stay away from the Mommy blogs on this one. Find some good peer-reviewed data and please update with anything that you find.
 
@jellofishxo We have a November baby. In our country, he has to begin school (grade 1) at the same time as everyone else in his birth year. So all of the 2020s will start grade 1 in 2026. He’ll be one of the youngest, but his daycare/preschool groups are all one birth year too, and it hasn’t affected him negatively yet. I think he’d be bored if he was still in the baby group instead of the 3 or almost 3yo group.
 
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