Summer b-days and kindergarten

[SaraElise]

Originally Posted by stevensmom exactly! people are always like, oh my kid is a genius so I sent them early. But they are so not ready socially and it is so hard on them and the rest of the students

This is exactly why we kept my son in preschool one more year. He is *right* at the cut off (September 7th birthday, September 30th cutoff). Academically he would have been totally fine, he is starting to read now and doing everything pretty much right on track with what K curriculum would have been for him...but he was not even close to ready for school emotionally.

I'm so glad we waited, he's grown up a lot in the last few months and I feel confident that he will be 100% ready in the fall without crying when someone looked at him weird, or because he didn't want to come in from recess.

Things like that make it impossible for them to focus on their learning, or at least in a positive way.

Some kids end up totally fine, my BIL (17 years younger than me) was very young when he started K and cried every single day over little things. Even when I talked to him (K teacher in the room next door) he would get upset and cry. He struggled for about 2 years but now going into middle school I think is finally caught up to his peers. It won't hurt him in the long run, but I would rather my kids not have to "catch up" while they are still working on those emotional and social skills!