Today was my youngest dd's parent/teacher conference for preschool. Last week was the sign ups for Kindergarten for my dd's school and today was the conference (she goes to a preschool in a different school district). So today at the conference the teacher told me that even though my dd is "intelligent" enough to go to school- she questions her age (dd's birthday is Augsut 28th- the cut off date is September 1st) and thinks I should hold her back from Kindergarten this year.

What would you do if the preschool teacher said this to you?

What was her reasoning for holding her back? Is she emotionally ready for school do you think? What about Pre-K...is that an option for you?

I would ask her if there is another reason other than her age. If she is otherwise ready for Kindergarten than she might be VERY bored with another year of preschool.

Well, it would depend on her reasoning behind what she said. Hopefully she put out some examples to back up her statement or else I'd be upset that she threw that out there without explaining it. If she didn't tell you why the age thing was such a big deal for your DD, call her and ask her to explain. Does she think your daughter doesn't have the maturity to go on to kindergarten? I'd want to know why she thought she shouldn't go.

I think the age thing is that since kids today have to know so much more, they want them to have the advantage of being 1 of the older students rather than 1 of the youngest.
Of course they have to have a "cut off" date and they will always have those that will just make it.

You need to look at your child and see if you feel that they are ready to go- will see be able to be reading sight words by December and will she be able to add/sub numbers, etc. They have to know what we learned in first grade in Kindergarten now. We held my ds back and he tunred 5 in June and the cut off in my state is Dec. so he made it my 6 months though he was not ready to go. We sent my older ds and he turned 5 in Sept. and they thought we should hold him back and again he made it by 3 months and for him it was the right thing to do he is excelling in school. So you need to look at your situation and know that educators want the kids to be older and I see lots of kids being held back and starting at an older age.

I would have her tested by the school she would attend before making my final decision. You know your daughter best...I would really take it with a grain of salt. Both my kids have spring birthdays, so they were both 5 1/2 when they entered kindergarten. Both times, the preschool teacher told us that they'd benefit from a pre-k program. Dh and I didn't agree and felt they were ready for kindergarten. There seems to be this whole movement to hold kids back. Every school and teacher is different...obviously, but I didn't really give much credit to her advice. LOL! I knew my kids were ready, they were tested at the school they were going to attend and I got great feedback from the kindergarten teacher. They both did great and continue to do great. I have no regrets.

If you trust and respect this teacher, I would listen to her. I was a kindergarten teacher before kids and I am a big advocate of holding them back when they are right on the line. I know there are TONS of people on this board that don't agree with me, though, and a lot has to do with what people do in your area. Where I live, if your kid has a summer birthday, you hold him or her back. That is just the way it is.

My boys birthdays as August & September and we held the first back a year and will do the same with the other as I just can't see sending my barely five year old to school. Both my girls have January & February birthdays so they'll be 5 1/2 when they start school and won't be held back a year.

I have an August 20th DD and an August 30 DS. I'm holding both back. My niece is in first grade, and there are no July or August birthdays in her grade. It's worth looking into what other people are doing because you might run into the situation where your child is significantly younger than many of the other kids in his or her class.

There must be some kind of test they can give her to find out if she is truly ready or not. Do you think she is ready?