S/O Anyone else holding off on K this year?

[LarsMal]

L will be 5 on the 27th, so he could go to K this year, but we have decided not to send him. He would do fine academically, but he is small, and immature, so I am very happy with our decision. His preschool teacher last year tried to put a little pressure on me to send him, but I explained our reasons for waiting. By the end of the year she was agreeing with me (mama knows best!).

[maestramommy]

Well, if we had stayed in SoCal, where the cut off day is in December, I think I would've held Dora back. She's small, I don't know about immature exactly, but she certainly doesn't seem like the kids who are going off to K this year. Our district in SoCal had a PreppyK option following a K roundup. So if your kid seemed emotionally not so ready they would recommend PreppyK and try to get them in. The classes are so crowded this year I don't know if some of my friends' kids with late bdays got in.

[HIU8]

DS is going to pre-K for a second year at a new school. He has a Nov bday and we have a sept 1 cutoff, so it's not about age for us. DS has some spd issues which spill over into social issues and he can be very shy and not participate at all--he turns off basically. Plus he has fine and gross motor delays (not as far behind now as he was last september). Add to that, DS is very immature for his age (he gets along best with kids who are a full yr younger than him--he is still very much in play mode and just not ready for a more structured day etc...). At first I was really hesitant about the decision b/c DS will be at least 1 to 1.5 yrs older than most kids (although at his new school all kids in his pre-K turned 5 between jan and august of 10). I was worried than when we switched to public school it would be an issue. I'm also looking ahead to having a 19.5 yr old graduating high school. We are also going to have to make other rules such as DS has to wait until he is 17 to get his drivers license (can't have a 16 yr old in 9th grade driving around 14 yr olds--EEK).

Even with all this, I'm still glad we are making the decision. I'de much rather a child like DS be able to be at the middle to the top of his game rather than at the bottom always playing catch-up.

[g-mama]

Not this year, but two years ago we opted not to send our middle ds to K, who turned 5 on 8/21 - here our cutoff is 5 by 9/30.

He was very shy, very small (well, he still is) and young for his age. He did 5-day-a-week pre-K and did fantastic.

So when we did send him to K, he had just turned 6 and had a really rough time. I was so optimistic that he'd grown in social confidence and become less shy, but it was completely starting over for him in a HUGE school for 7 hours a day and he cried many nights that first month. All I could think of was how much worse it would've been had we sent him the prior year. I reached out to another mother and got the boys together and that helped him tremendously. He did come out of his shell by January and now loves it.

Best decision we could ever have made for him.

[MissyAg94]

We aren't sending my DD who turns 5 next week. The cutoff is Sept 1. We are moving next year and decided to do PreK this year and let her go to K-2 at the same school after we move.

[Indianamom2]

Not this year, but we held DD#1 back last year. Although she technically missed the cutoff (by 15 days), I would have held her back even if she was the right age.

DD has always been slightly behind with major developmental milestones, as well as quite behind with speech (we're finally almost all caught up with that one!). I know that it is in her best interest to have her be a bit older, more mature and more academically ready than to always have to struggle just to keep up. Seeing all the progress that she made with her letters/numbers/writing last year in pre-K absolutely validated that decision in my mind.

The only downside for us is that DD is already WAY bigger than most kids her age, so holding her back only amplifies the issue now....but she always was going to be the tallest...so it's not a huge issue.

Unfortunately I am almost positive that we'll have a similar experience to G-mama in that all day K is going to be a very rough transition. We're already experiencing sleep issues with DD being anxious about K.

All that to say....go with your gut.

[hillview]

DS2 turned 5 last month and will be going to 3rd year of Montessori this fall and likely 1st grade next fall.

Might not count but we are not doing K this year
/hillary

[oneontheway]

We are holding DS back. He turned 5 in late June and cut off is September. I was planning to send him but both his preschool teachers thought it would only benefit him to hold him back to give him additional time to mature. I've really struggled with the issue but think we are making the right decision.

[crl]

We held off two years ago. DS just started first grade and school has been going well for him. I think it was the right decision.

Catherine