Starting school at 4 or 5?

ciara95

I started when i was 5 which was 10 years ago. Im so glad my parents didnt send me till i was 5. Especially in primary schools the younger ones wouldnt do as well, were more likely to be in trouble and couldnt concentrate. Also i have the choice of doing transition year, whereas many have to due to age reasons. Sometimes if kids are younger they wont be allowed go to the cinema/town etc on their own. Teachers have said to my mam they see a real difference in me and people in my class who are younger in terms of concentration, maturity and performance in school. And really its all abiut the leaving cert and the points race and im glad my parents gave me the advantage because i am definetly more focused and feel ready for everything the next few years are going to bring!

coffee_cake

pickarooney wrote: »

In fairness neither I nor the guy in question was talking about your child specifically or children with reading difficulties in general and I did clearly say I personally wouldn't try to teach a child to read if he/she didn't want to so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

Otherwise I'm at a loss as to how delaying learning something can be an advantage. As long as a child wants to learn something I feel it's important to accommodate him/her.

I have to agree here. Children's minds are super absorbent at the earliest ages and reading is a gift, not a "pressure" or a "chore" they have to do. Give them a love of reading yourself and it'll be a lifelong reward.

I know I post about this a lot but I do it because I want people to know it can work - I did start at 4, and I skipped 2 years of primary and 2 of secondary. Yeah I was younger, but there were a number of other students only 1-2 years older than I am, we didn't have any trouble. People never realised my age until I told them.
Obviously this depends on the individual child though.

If you feel they are too young for college after the LC, well a year out is beneficial for general life experience and deciding what to do. I took a year out myself before my LC though I was still young.

If your child is bright please remember that intellectual stimulation can be just as important as social stimulation. If you decide not to start them til later, make sure to sit down with them and teach them some reading and maybe music lessons later on when they are around 7 or so, or other things to keep their little minds engaged.

Monkey61

I would always err on the side of Start Them Young, purely because I started young myself. Academically I was well able for it. I was bored at home and couldn't wait to be doing schoolwork. I spent the whole of primary school miles ahead of my classmates even though I was a full year younger.

I was happily reading and writing at 3 and because of that am stunned when I hear of cultures that don't start children reading until 7. Sure they might catch up, but to deprive a child of the magic of reading books until then just seems cruel to me!

Younger kids have such a great capacity for learning that only diminishes as they get older, so I'd want to take advantage of that. But it all depends on the child. Only you know your child and how they will get on.

cynder

MY young lady started school at 3, she turned 4 two weeks later, she was a bright spark. SHe did great for the first 2 years but struggled in first class, she was kept back a year and she is now in 5th class and she scores high average and the teacher thinks she has it in her to do better.

My 2nd was 5 in July and started school in the spetember and his doing great, came back with 2 best listener awards and a student of the month award. Fits in well with his class (it helped that he went to preschool with half of them). I have his parent teacher meeting on Monday. But the preschool also said he was a bright spark and have high hopes for him.

My 3rd is due to start this September aged 4 and 3/4, he will be 5 in December. We are working on getting him a SNA and resource hours as he has a few issues. I think starting at 5 and 3/4 is a bit old. He goes to preschool and is bright but has many difficulties.

Tordelback

Monkey61 wrote: »

I was happily reading and writing at 3 and because of that am stunned when I hear of cultures that don't start children reading until 7. Sure they might catch up, but to deprive a child of the magic of reading books until then just seems cruel to me!

Perhaps unfortunately school has far more to it than learning to read, which as you suggest can quite comfortably be managed at home - there's the far more overwhelming business of learning to relate to your peers and to non-family authority. This is where the younger-than-average kid may be exposed to negative experiences. Always being corrected for inattention, always being the smallest and least co-ordinated - it can leave a lasting negative impression of education and of socialising. But as you say, it is down to the individual kid. I just wouldn't base a judgement of 'readiness' on apparent 'academic' ability.

fiona stephanie

I have 2 girls, the first was 5 in the september she started and has always done really well in school.
The second has delayed speech and was attending speech therapy from the age of 3, and they encouraged me to start her in school as early as possible as they thought it would bring her on in leaps and bounds, so she turned 4 in July and I started her in the september! She didnt so so well, she remained behind her class mates and struggles with reading and writing! Last september she was to start 1st class and I knew she wouldnt be able at all, as the amount of work and whats expected of them increases hugely in 1st class, so I made the decision to keep her back in senior infants, where she is doing great this year!
I greatly regret starting her so early and if I could start again I would definitely have waited till she was 5.
I will be staring my son when he is 5.

littlebug

I waited til my eldest was 5 and haven't regretted it. Though I know she would have been able for the work she wouldn't have been able for it socially. She's 8 now and I'm really glad I waited. I would also agree that the work really ramps up in first class and a child that may have been fine for the first two years can start to struggle then.
Although each child is different and only the parent can really make that judgement call I can say that I've met lots of people who have regretted sending their child to school at just gone four and I've met none who have regretted waiting til they were just gone 5. That alone speaks volumes for me.

Geranium40

Hi
we faced the same dilemma 7 years ago, my daughter is very bright but would not be 4 til August. I thought she would be well ready for school, as she had attended a great playschool. But I spoke to the principal of the school who very wisely advised me to think ahead. She would be 11 heading into secondary school and 17 heading to college (hopefully).
Well she a very bright, happy, well adjusted 12 year old, in 6th class. And there was no way she was mature enough to have gone to secondary school last September (she would have been bright enough but this is not the only part to think of).
I am very glad I kept her til she was 5, and would strongly advise you think about the future and not just another year in playschool now.

meg3178

pinkyponk2 wrote: »

Did your children start school at 4 or 5 years old?

My daughter will be 4 in the August and I am wondering should I start her that September or wait until the following year.

She is very clever for her age so I think she would be fine starting at 4 and might in fact be a bit bored in school if she was 5 when she started.

What are the pro's & con's in your opions ... thanks

I have huge regrets starting my son at school when he was four. He was 4 and 3 mths and although very clever, as they progress through the years it does show that emotionally they are younger than some who may be up to 18mths older than them.
My son is now 14 and has to do transition year because at 17 they are far too young for college. I wish I hadn't listened to others and had waited until he was 5 before he went to school.
It wouldbe wrong of me to tell you what to do, I just wanted to share my experience with you. Good luck in your decision.

cynder

grindelwald wrote: »

My 2nd was 5 in July and started school in the spetember and his doing great, came back with 2 best listener awards and a student of the month award. Fits in well with his class (it helped that he went to preschool with half of them). I have his parent teacher meeting on Monday. But the preschool also said he was a bright spark and have high hopes for him.

.

Well just back from his parent teacher meeting and it went great. He is a well adjusted, well behaved child, who is above expectations regarding his school work and he gets on great with all the other kids, he is a lot calmer than most of the boys in his class, but does enjoy rough play.

His teacher also said he deserved those awards and he works very hard. Must say im delighted, if i sent him back in 2009 (age 4) i doubt very much i would have the same results.

LashingLady

My birthday is in Oct so I went when I was 4 nearly 5 (26 years ago). I did transition year so turned 18 early in 6th Year. There were loads of 18 year olds in 6th Year at my school. But they were mostly all focussing on studying for their leaving and there wasn't any "I'm not doing as the teachers say, I'm an adult" at all, I think 18 year olds are a bit more mature than that. In college (DCU) there were mostly kids who had either started at 5 or had started at 4 and did transition year, so most were 18 going into college. To me, the ones who were 17 seemed really young. There was one who wasn't going to be 18 til the following May and she was up from the country living in digs and she just seemed so young!!

My son was born in June and he'll be going when he's 5. If he had been born in March I'd have a decision to make, but there's no way I'd send him at 4 and 2 months. The arguments I've seen for waiting til 5 are all advice from teachers who have observed lots of kids in their classes. The arguments I have seen for starting at 4 all involve: Well I started at 4 and I was so bright and I was fine, or my little boy/girl started at 4 and they were flying etc etc etc, always isolated cases.

If someone went to school at 4 and it worked for them because they were so bright or could read already etc then that's great. But these people were always going to do well whether they went at 4 or 5. I could already read when I went and was about 4 years ahead in reading ability all along school, but the teacher just gave me extra reading to do. I was in playschool with my twin brother for 2 years before we started school, and my mam says although I was really looking forward to going to school, I wasn't bored, I was just playing all the time! That's what kids do!

pinkyponk2

I would really like to thank everyone for their advice, there were more replies than i ever expected and they were very helpful.

She is starting playschool in September aged 3 years and 1 month and she will stay there for two years and go into Junior Infants aged 5 years and 1 month.

Starting school at 5 definitely has more pro's

analucija

I went to school in a different system where school was normally started at six but my generation was too big and children born after January were kept back a year longer. Mum took me to psychologist worried that I'll be to old and too tall in comparison to other kids. She was told not to be silly and to give me a childhood as long as possible. I learned to read as 7 years old, was among top students and finished high school at 19 with decent results, despite being extremely lazy. I love reading and I love doing my own stuff but I never loved school work so being a bit older it helped me achieve better results. A lot of kids are smart but a lot of kids are also lazy and especially boys shouldn't be rushed to school.

Shelli2

I started at 4, just 2 days gone four, and never had any problems (bar being forced to do TY, but it's not an option in most schools these days so that issue doesn't worry me).

My son is starting in September this year, he'll be 4 in August and I have no worries about it. I think alot of it comes down to the child and the school. My son has been in full time creche since 9mths old, so no problem with long days etc. He's already been in the monti class for a year, so 1.5 years by the time he starts school, his current teacher actually told me to push to get him in this year, as already he's starting to get bored. He's very big for his age too, and can do things beyond his years, like tying shoes, zips and buttons etc. The school he will be attending has a very small class size, 9 children starting in Junior infants. We also plan on moving abroad for my partners career for a year or possibly two, so having that year of wiggle room should he need to repeat or be "kept back" a year is a big advantage to us.

All in all, there are many different factors to be taken into consideration. It's not just a case of start at 4 or start at 5.