JUNE 2004 - READY FOR KINDERGARTEN...OR NOT

How do you know when your child is ready to begin kindergarten? This is a tough question to answer these days, and is one that has come up frequently among friends of mine who have young children.

My son will be five in early June and according to Washington state law, he will be old enough to attend kindergarten in September. (Children must be five by August 31st to enroll.) But, I have decided to delay his entry into the public school system and place him in kindergarten when he is six. Why? Because kindergarten is no longer as you may remember it. The play dough, paints, blocks and dress-up box have been left behind in the preschools and been virtually replaced with hardcore academics.

I have taught kindergartners for the last four years, and each year the parents of my students are shocked at the requirements, otherwise known as EALRs (essential academic learning requirements) that the state of Washington has deemed five and six year olds should meet. For some children these expectations are attainable, but for a lot, they are not. It is my belief that many kindergartners are being asked to perform at a level that is developmentally inappropriate for five-year-olds. They are being asked to read, write and compute on a level that many are simply not ready to do yet.

Children come to school from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. Some have been read to since the day they were born, attended preschool and have never experienced fear or hunger. Others have had none of these advantages. Obviously these things significantly impact a child's readiness to learn a lot more than the following things I am going to mention. But, odds are, if you are reading this, your child is not suffering from an unstable environment. So, perhaps these observations I have made will help you as you make your decision about when to enroll your child in kindergarten.

I have noticed that the children who tend to have greater difficulties are those whose birthdays are in the spring or summer. In every classroom there will be children who are as many as ten months or more apart in age. This is very significant at this early level. Think about the difference between a newborn and a ten-month old. Over time, the significance of these months will diminish, but they are still very relevant in the early years of school.

I have also noticed, at the risk of sounding stereotypical, that girls are often more ready for kindergarten than boys who are of the same age. I think this has more to do with the way schools are designed than anything else. In general, school and the associated behaviors needed for success are more compatible with instinctive female behaviors. Girls tend to be more willing to sit and attend for longer periods of time than their male peers, are more willing to compromise (share, take turns) and have more developed fine-motor skills needed for drawing, writing, cutting, etc. Of course there are always exceptions to this, but the typical five-year-old boy, my son included, would rather be doing something louder, more physically demanding and interactive. A good kindergarten teacher will have a variety of activities throughout the day to engage and enthuse every child in his or her classroom. But, I do believe that in general, school and the way it is structured in America does favor the way girls learn rather than boys.

So, is your child ready for kindergarten, or is s/he just old enough? It is a tough call to make. Just add it to the list of the many other difficult decisions you have already had to make about your child so far.

My best advice to those of you out there who are in a quandary is to ask your self, what is the worst thing that could happen if I placed my child in kindergarten in the fall and what would be the worst thing that could happen if I didn't? Then, decide which of those two things you could live with.

I have taught for many years at several different grade levels, and have yet to talk to a parent who regretted placing their child in kindergarten at six. But, I have talked to many who wished they had kept their five-year-old home another year.