Very Young in Class advicable?. My daughter born on Sept 13th and now she is 2 yrs old.?

Question

I heard in NewJersery the cut of date is Sept 31st. I was hearing that parents would let their children loose one year instead of being very young and immature than others in the class? Is this true? Please advice.

Answer 1

You need to wait and see how she his when she gets older. My daughter is a Nov B-day and I plan to let her start late and do pre K instead.

Answer 2

I do not know about the cut off dates for NJ. Here in Texas, it is Aug. 31 for kindergarten.

A lot of parents choose to hold their children back for the very reason you said. I think it all depends on the individual child. If they are very immature for their age, placing them in a situation where they would be one of the youngest could lead to them not doing well academically and being held back by the teacher the following year. However, I have had several students who were the youngest as well as small for their age and were at the top of the class. I would caution about making this decision  too early. See where your child is when it is time for the decision to be made and go from there. Good luck!

Answer 3

In some states the cut off date maybe sooner, in mine I believe it's at the end of August. As someone who was born in Dec. I was able to attend the same grade as kids born the same year and I did not have any problems.

Imo,  It depends on the child, if by the time she's at kindergarten age and she's on track , I wouldn't keep her out. I really don't see the sense in keeping a child out a year just because they were born a couple of month later than the rest of the class, especially if the know the material and dont have any issues.

Answer 4

Talk to the school about it. There are pros and cons to it. I was the youngest in my class, but there weren't any issues until late middle school/high school. Those were mostly social. Mentally, I was able to keep up, but socially, I was a little behind. I still had friends, so it's not like I was ostracized or anything. I've been told that I was starting to become a behavior issue in pre-school because I was bored. So the choice for my parents was easy.

My stepdaughter's bday is just before the cutoff here as well and she started on time. However, her kindergarten teacher suggested she be held back. Personally, I think my partner should have listened, but she went ahead. It's taken until this past year (6th grade) for her to catch up completely. That was a bit detrimental to her self-esteem.

There are no easy answers. It might be best to start your daughter on time, but be prepared to hold her back if she shows signs of struggling.  If you have a choice of teachers, opt for older more experienced teachers over young enthusiastic teachers. They are better able to spot trouble signs and "holes" in a student's grasp of the subject if there are any.

Answer 5

September only has 30 days.  It is very hard to decide this with your daughter only being 2 years old.  Every child is different.  Some children are very ready to begin kindergarten despite having a birthday close to the cut off date.  Other children really could use the extra year to mature a bit.  It is true that some parents do choose to keep their children back one year, but sometimes it is for personal reasons such as they want their boys to be bigger so they will have the chance to excel in sports or want their children to not be the youngest in their class.  We live in Michigan where the cut off for kindergarten is one of the latest in the country at December 1.  My 3rd born child has a November 12 birthday so we were in much the same predicament you are.  A kindergarten assessment was available through our school district so we took our daughter.  They pronounced her ready for school and combined with the fact she regularly measured in the 90th and above percentile for height and weight, we decided that if we held her back a year she'd be this monstrous child towering over her classmates.  In her case, it was the right decision.  She easily kept up with her classmates, a couple of whom were actually more than a whole year older than she.  She looked like the rest of the class and in some cases acted better than students who were older.  If preschool is an option and a choice you want to make, it may help you decide if going to kindergarten just before she turns 5 is the best choice for her.  Her preschool teachers can help asses her progress and her potential for success.  Whether you choose to send her or keep her home one more year can be a confusing decision, not easy to make, but I wouldn't worry too much about it right now since you have a couple more years before that decision needs to be made.