All three of our kids have summer birthdays. Which means my wife and I are faced with the parenting decision of when to send our son to Kindergarten. Technically we could send him next school year. His birthday falls before the cutoff date (by a few weeks) but we don’t HAVE TO do it.
We have been through this before. Our oldest daughter we did send to Kindergarten as early as she could possibly go, in fact she turned five on her FIRST day of school. It made sense for her. She’s a pretty stereotypical first child: Eager, go getter, people pleaser, over achiever.
On the flip side, our son is more of a typical middle child. He is waaaaay more laid back than his big sister.
My wife and I have discussed this and neither one of us can come up with any advantages to him going as soon as he turns five. As an alternative, he will be home with me for another year, and will also be in a preschool that meets a few mornings a week.
That seems like a good enough plan for me.
One reason I want to keep him out of school until he’s a bit older has to do with my experience as a classroom teacher. When I taught seventh grade you could definitely tell the young kids from the older kids. Many kids (boys) that were the youngest in their grades would also get misdiagnosed as ADHD when they were really just immature. I would like to avoid a similar situation all together.
If we don’t have to do it, are there any upsides to a kid being the youngest in the class?
Thoughts? Personal experiences? I would love to heard some of your opinions on this topic.
Thanks.
-Pete