As a follow-up to my Kindergarten Readiness workshop today, I wanted to post a few notes:
- Kindergarten teachers are not often as stressed as parents about an individual child’s readiness for Kindergarten. From the teacher’s standpoint, there are two main categories, academic readiness and social readiness. Across studies, social readiness ranks higher on teachers’ scales of importance. Social readiness includes things like being able to listen and follow directions, being able to sit still, being able to participate in a group activity and play skills like sharing and turn taking.
- It may be important to consider the tendency to wait a year of other families in your school district. With some children starting who turn five the day of requirement, and others who bypass that by more than a year, there is a wide age range for children entering the classroom. This increases what was already a wide range of skills.
- If you are planning to delay the start of Kindergarten for a specific reason, the next step is to start thinking about the best use of that year. If there is a specific concern, see the right people, get the right homework, read the right books. Make a plan to use the time wisely.
This is a topic that could stand further discussion. Please post your related questions in the comment section below.
Parenting by Dr. Rene 
We kept our son back from starting school this year. He is born in late June so is right on the cut off here in Australia where it is mandatory to start Prep in the year that they turn 5. We feel that it is far better to keep him back now and commence his schooling when he is really ready and actually wants to go rather than have him struggle through the years and probably repeating a year somewhere down the line anyway.
We are also conscious however of giving him a great head start and working on his reading, letter recognition and social skills rather than just having another year at home with Mummy!