Beginning School at just four?

olddognotricks

Just throwing in my opinion here....it does depend on each individual child but... I would recommend holding off til next year....the biggest thing for any junior infant is getting used to the structure of school, listening to teacher following simple instructions so its all social skills/interaction with others. Again it depends on where the child is at, my eldest was 4.5 when he started and he could have benefitted from waiting I think now whereas his sibling turned 5 just before school started and is just ok now but def not earlier. and they are always wrecked for the first term..

Also not as easy anymore to keep them back from what I have been told as in I think its not just the schools decision has to go to the dept?

anyway just another opinion to throw in the mix:)

pwurple

pone2012, if you could leave out the personal insults, and provide something even vaguely legible, rather than a poorly formatted cut and paste job, which seems to be from several mismashed sources, most of which refer to the UK early school curriculum, I might read it. Otherwise it's a complete waste of my time.

pwurple

pwurple wrote: »

pone2012, if you could leave out the personal insults, and provide something even vaguely legible, rather than a poorly formatted cut and paste job, which seems to be from several mismashed sources, most of which refer to the UK early school curriculum, I might read it. Otherwise it's a complete waste of my time.

With the best will in the world I don't think you read the studies linked from that page yourself. Freakonomics is not a source (obviously) but this is from the second study linked to:

"Overall, we find that the youngest students score substantially lower than the oldest students at both the fourth and eighth grade levels. In grade four, the youngest students score 1.2-3.5 points lower on nationally standardized tests with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. To put this in perspective, this translates into a 4-12 percentile disadvantage for eleven months of relative age. While the age premium enjoyed by the oldest students declines between grades four and eight, there remains a 0.8-2.6 point difference, or 2-9 percentiles, between the oldest and the youngest students at the eighth grade level. These results clearly show the persistence of relative age into adolescence, and are therefore suggestive of a longer run impact"

And this article (also linked from your link) explicitly states that there is an issue with children in the UK starting in the September after they turned 4, even if they turned 4 in the summer:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246359/August-born-children-likely-to-university.html#ixzz1cSejAnbb

I think your link directly contradicts your opinion

jigglypuffstuff

pwurple wrote: »

pone2012, if you could leave out the personal insults, and provide something even vaguely legible, rather than a poorly formatted cut and paste job, which seems to be from several mismashed sources, most of which refer to the UK early school curriculum, I might read it. Otherwise it's a complete waste of my time.

Theres no personal insults there


The second is based upon Irish education..and it would do you well to read it...as it concludes by comparing Aistear to the current 1999 curriculum with regards to childrens learning...theres plenty of sources within those articles to support what im saying....out of curiousty...what sources have you?? aside from an opinion...which isnt very credible as a legitimate source

Moonbeam

*Mod Note*
Can we be a bit less condescending and keep posts on topic please?

cbyrd

My eldest girls birthday is feb 13th.. I sent her to school when she was 4 as like many here I felt she was ready. She had 1.5 years of Montessori done and was very bright.. she still is, she's a potential A student sitting her junior cert this year.. BUT.. it didn't come without a price.. from learning about santa almost 1.5 years before most of her class age to starting secondary at 12.

We then met the secondary bully.. harmless probably but it had such a profound effect on her she started self harming.. some will say this is not because she was 4 starting school but i think it was because she didn't have the maturity to realise that it was just 'bitchin' talk'.. anyway its a moot point because we can't compare her 4/5 year old self.. she doesn't want to do transition year, she doesnt want it to interrupt her study. However, like me she will be 17 finishing school.. I was very unsure what i wanted to do and have ended up in the family business and left me very resentful..

So my 3rd boy has just turned 4 on January 6th.. I'm starting him in playschool in september and school in september 2015.. he'll be 5 and a half. He will be 18/19 leaving school and even thought he is very bright also i thinnk he needs the time at home to mature.. I do believe there are children ready for school at 4 but its when they come up against the pressure of teenagedom and all that brings with it that its then their immaturity comes to the fore.. my youngest son is october an will start at 4 but turn 5 a month later.. my second eldest is july and was 5 starting..

Books reign in our house.. stories and explanations galore ..education is not exclusive to school.. learning is everything from text books to cooking to looking after yourself and on in years how to mind everything from belongings to banking to themselves.. school is such a minor part of education..

Every child is individual and recognizing that is key to when they are ready.. just cos u are doesn't mean they are

Outkast_IRE

Just from a personal view, I was 4 when I started school, and was 17 doing my leaving cert.

Honestly if I could of had an input, I would of preferred to be a year older.

It does all depend on the child etc, but I was 4 years and 1 month when I started school. And I was the youngest in my secondry school year out of over 100 others.

Socially it made no difference until 5th year onwards when people started to turn 18 and I couldn't attend birthdays and night outs etc because they were to be held in pubs.

I also think I would of been slightly more mature in secondry school if I was given the extra year.

ariana`

cbyrd wrote: »

My eldest girls birthday is feb 13th.. I sent her to school when she was 4 as like many here I felt she was ready. She had 1.5 years of Montessori done and was very bright.. she still is, she's a potential A student sitting her junior cert this year.. BUT.. it didn't come without a price.. from learning about santa almost 1.5 years before most of her class age to starting secondary at 12.

We then met the secondary bully.. harmless probably but it had such a profound effect on her she started self harming.. some will say this is not because she was 4 starting school but i think it was because she didn't have the maturity to realise that it was just 'bitchin' talk'.. anyway its a moot point because we can't compare her 4/5 year old self.. she doesn't want to do transition year, she doesnt want it to interrupt her study. However, like me she will be 17 finishing school.. I was very unsure what i wanted to do and have ended up in the family business and left me very resentful..

So my 3rd boy has just turned 4 on January 6th.. I'm starting him in playschool in september and school in september 2015.. he'll be 5 and a half. He will be 18/19 leaving school and even thought he is very bright also i thinnk he needs the time at home to mature.. I do believe there are children ready for school at 4 but its when they come up against the pressure of teenagedom and all that brings with it that its then their immaturity comes to the fore.. my youngest son is october an will start at 4 but turn 5 a month later.. my second eldest is july and was 5 starting..

Books reign in our house.. stories and explanations galore ..education is not exclusive to school.. learning is everything from text books to cooking to looking after yourself and on in years how to mind everything from belongings to banking to themselves.. school is such a minor part of education..

Every child is individual and recognizing that is key to when they are ready.. just cos u are doesn't mean they are

Thanks cbyrd, this is a really helpful post to a mother trying to decide when to start her February born 4 year old in school.