Looking for experiences of parents who sent their 4 year old to kinder/prep and regretted it but also those who waited until they were 5.
My daughter turns 4 in June so can start kinder in 2018, my gut tells me to keep her at preschool for another year as being so young, her maturity isn't quite where we'd like it to be with the structure and routine of school.
I will do what is best for my daughter but would love to hear from other parents who have faced this decision. Especially those who have moved from Qld to NSW with differences in schooling.
Thank you.
4 Replies
Even though I was 5 when I started school, I didn't turn 5 until late November. My coping mechanisms just were not there. I just want equipped, didn't have the confidence and social maturity to cope. I always felt I was chasing my peers and struggling to cope. Every year my mum had a chat to the school about wether I should be held back or not. I probably should have been held back.
My sister was held back, she repeated year 1 after she spent the entire year pretending she had some kind of developmental disability! She basically just kept handing up a squiggle on a piece of paper, despite being able to draw and write at home. She just didn't have the emotional maturity to want to please the teacher. She repeated year 1 with a teacher who knew her from outside of school and suddenly no developmental disability ?????
My other sisters kid is naturally clever academically. Taught herself to read and write when she was three. She was setting herself spelling tests when she was 4. Academically she would have coped very well at school at 4 but socially and emotionally she was not ready. She was still throwing too many tantrums, for it not to happen at school. She has started school this year (turned 5, in September of last year) she has settled in really well, and although she is obviously ahead in literacy it has done her no harm at all.
I work with kids who often could benefit from repeating a year because they have been started too early. Trying to hold a child back in this era is near impossible. You have to seek permission from school boards and have to go through a lot of hoops to prove the child would benefit and it could still be knocked back.
Personally all you can do is look at where your child is, but delaying starting until 5 will do less harm than starting too early then trying to back peddle. There is a psychological hit that can come with repeating a year or struggling to cope.
My daughter is also a June babe. She started at age 4 and i wish i had kept her until she was 5. She is soooo much smaller than other kids her age and sometimes struggles to keep up. She also at times struggles with her school work. I wanted to keep her back at prep but the prep teacher said she would be ok. I wish i had listened to my gut.
I was thinking about keeping my child back a year...I'm so glad I didn't. She really surprised me. She got mostly high's and very high's on her report card. She was put in a prep/year 1 class in year 1 and they moved her to a year 1/year 2 class because the prep/year 1 class was too easy for her. You never know, she may just surprise you like mine did.
I didn't really face a decision like this since I'm in VIC and have a June kiddo but if it was me I would always err on the side of waiting.