Contents
Your child is probably ready to start kindergarten if they:
And new research suggesting that older kindergartners have an edge over their younger classmates has the potential to add more fuel to an already complex debate. In most states, children must be 5 years old by late summer or fall in order to enroll in kindergarten.
Should my child start kindergarten at 5 or 6? Individual states have different laws in terms of age cut-offs for starting school, but generally, children can start kindergarten when they are 5 years old. They do not have to, but schooling of some sort is compulsory when the child turns 6 years old.
Missing early milestones in reading and math skills, some worry, may set students up to fail as the workload increases. All children may face some challenges getting up to speed in the fall but early childhood experts suggest that low-income children who missed kindergarten might confront the steepest hurdle.
A good goal, according to child literacy expert Timothy Shanahan, is that children should master 20 sight words by the end of Kindergarten and 100 sight words by the end of First Grade.
In addition to math and language arts, which are a major focus of kindergarten, children also learn science, social science, and usually art, music, health and safety, and physical education.
Most kids learn to read between the ages of 4-7 and some not until 8. If kids don’t learn to read in Kindergarten, they’re not behind. They don’t have a learning disability, although some may. They just may not be ready to or interested in reading yet.
Math in kindergarten is all about the basics. They will learn how to count, recognize numbers up to 10 and sort objects. Using concrete props, they will learn the concepts of more and less, ordinal numbers, basic addition and subtraction, creating patterns.
Sight words are common words that schools expect kids to recognize instantly. Words like the, it, and and appear so often that beginning readers reach the point where they no longer need to try to sound out these words. They recognize them by sight. … Because these words “pop up” so frequently in reading and writing.
Many children have the social, physical, and rudimentary academic skills necessary to start kindergarten by 5 or 6, but for kids who are born just before the cut-off date or who are experiencing a slight delay, it may be better to wait a year.
Many parents understand implicitly that forcing academics prematurely on kids who are not developmentally ready can have terrible consequences: decreased self-esteem, lower grades, anxiety. They understand that young kids learn best through play-based, hands-on, experiential learning, not worksheets and spelling lists.
Repeating Kindergarten: The Research
There is a vast amount of scientific research showing that children do not benefit by being held back in grade school. But there is very little out there about holding a child back in kindergarten to wait another year before starting first grade.
When consulting with parents, Romandia recommends academic redshirting when she feels an extra year of pre-K can help a child gain a stronger sense of self, greater understanding of who they are as a student, and increase their social emotional development.
Generally, the word “kindergarten” is not capitalized because it is a common noun in the English language. … If we are talking about the name of a specific kindergarten, such as “Emily’s Kindergarten,” then we should capitalize the word.
In most states, if a child turns five by September 1st, they’re in kindergarten that year. Some states have the cut-off as December 1st. In states and cities where it’s legal, parents who fall close to that cut-off date may decide to hold their child back for another year before they enter kindergarten.
For that reason, most elementary schools recommend that children are fully toilet trained before starting kindergarten wherever possible. Remember that all young children have accidents here and there, and most kindergarten and elementary staff are ready and willing to help with basic cleanup and changing.