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We don't have a choice--due September 25, and RI cutoff is 5 by Sept 1. I'm actually quite irritated by it. I had friends in school that were older than everyone else, but they were born in the beginning of Dec. Sept seems to drastic to me..in our child's grade, s/he will be turning 6 right at the start of the school year, when some other kids might have turned 5 only a few weeks prior. That feels like a huge range, and to be honest, I'm afraid of the child being left behind if they're bored, as teachers usually have to give much attention to children who are struggling (understandable). I feel like if my child IS ready to start kindergarten "early" (ugh, the 3 weeks kills me), I wish there was an option to test in or something.

@looch: Thank you. That's all I'm saying too.

Where I live has some really terrible schools and some really wonderful ones that are private. Because of family notoriety, my husband and In Laws don't want them going to a public school. I can understand their point totally. They even had all of their kids go by a different last name as children so that they weren't judged by their family success and also for fear of people trying to get rich off of them.

The school we wanted had such a waiting list that we had to get on it when Liam was just turning 3! We just found out he'll be accepted when he turns 5 and that will make it much easier to get Grayson in. I'm not sure if registering them when they are older for the sole purpose of giving them an academic advantage would even work. Some children just get very bored when they aren't being stimulated in school and then they act out.

@looch: How do you know if I ever been faced with the situation or not? You don't know me.

@Crisark: I am neither trying to change your mind nor have us agree on anything. But, keep in mind, you do not know anything about me or my background. You don't know what descisions I've been faced with.

Obviously it might change depending on the child but we've talked about it and if that were the case for us we would not hold them back.

Just because something is right for one child doesn't mean it's right for the next. Every child is different and has different needs. For some there might be ways to catch up while staying in the same grade, but for others you might have to just hold them back a year. I don't think there can be a flat out right or wrong.

I feel like people come to Hellobee because parenting is hard. We have to make very difficult decisions every day, and it's nice to have a supportive community of women (and Mr.Bee!) to talk to. This is a place people come to for advice and support. Not to be judged. Parenting is hard enough without having to deal with people's judgement.

@artbee: Agreed.

I'm not arguing with anyone. I won't because I know as a parent that my choice was right no matter how hard it was.

@Crisark: As another person in the Early Childhood Education field, I agree. The decision to keep children back a year is not one made lightly. Obviously, you made the best decision for your child and it seems she's doing great now

My due date is October 6th, and our cut off date for Kindergarten is October 15th in Nebraska. I think instead of making my child one of the youngest, I will hold them back a year so they are one of the older kids.

Looking at my classmates in school, I think it was more common to do this, as we had several kids be a whole year older than others. My best friend was a year ahead of me in school, birthday October 15th, but there were several people in my class that were older than her. Just a perference I guess.