rwbeagles-So I made a decision on Elias and school

I would have made the same decision as you Gina. The "worst" that could happen is he is ahead when he does start k. My SiL had the same decision to make and they went ahead and started him in k as a young 5, one of the reasons they started him was he is a big boy and they didn't want him being biggest in the class...he had difficulties with his maturity level though and ended up being held back later on, which was hard on him.

rwbeagles

Thanks Steve, things were indeed different then. Nowadays they have tests and if you don't pass them you get held back, period.

Gina,

I went to catholic school and trust me if you weren't learning you didn't advance.  This was way before the days of the kids feelings about being held back being more important than learning the required information.

Kudos to you for doing what you felt was best for your child.

I can imagine it was definitely a tricky decision... but since you know your child, you are the best judge.  My bday is late december and I started school early.... so I was closer to 4 1/2 and my folks literally couldn't start me in public schools without a psychological evaluation so I went to a Catholic school.  But again, they knew me and knew I would do well, and I have (graduated 4th in my class in HS, went to a well-known college, blah blah blah).  But that's all it comes down to -- knowing your family and what is right for Elias.

 We are going to have the same decisions to make when our Balach starts.  His birthday is August 1.  We may have a decision to make with the Poppet, as well, as she was born at the beginning of March, and at this point (age 3) she does seem a little young maturity wise, but waaay ahead physically.  With the crazy things that may be going on here in the near future, we may have even more decisions to make. 

Hey Gina - you know, we were just having this conversation last week on a Mom's group board I belong to.  Many Moms there are "redshirting" their kids that have even June birthdays because they just know in their hearts that they are not ready yet.  The cutoff here is August 31st.  When I was a kid, the cutoff was Nov 1 - and I was an Aug 20 birthday.  I personally don't think I was ready - I didn't know what the heck was going on in school til probably middle of 3rd grade.  I was a good student but in retrospect I really had some social stuff that needed time to develop...and I also had a lot of trouble with math - an issue that haunts me TO THIS DAY. 

Shannon is a Sept. birthday so that decision is made for us LOL...but DH and I are happy she will be one of the oldest in her class.  Look at it this way Gina - Elias will be REALLY popular when he turns sixteen and is the only kid with a car! 

Preliminary contact with the speech pathologist was made today.  By end of this week early next week we'll likely hear back as to whether we'll be doing a prelim. eval or the full out one.

She told me to log things I notice in his speech, specific words, stuttering, etc so I can have my concerns in front of me when we speak next...good idea! they'll be doing a hearing screening too to rule out those issues.

I'm happy he'll be getting listened to by some objective folks who have experience...be interested to hear what they think!

 The cutoff here is December 31st.  But I'm not sure how much of a choice we have.  I'll have to look into it.  Kali was born December 9th so she'll likely be the youngest too.  I don't know if being a girl will have that much impact.  I guess we'll see. 

I think its great that you have put so much thought into it Gina.  Nowadays too many parents are just counting the days to when they can ship their kids off and not worry about them for the day.

 I had the exact opposite problem with my daughter.  The cut-off was Dec 31, and her birthday is Jan 12, but she was so-o-o ready for school and they refused to make any exceptions. 

So we really pulled on the purse strings and sent her to a church run preschool program 3 mornings a week.  That was a Godsend for her!  You might consider that for Eli to prepare him for the school experience. 

My boys are January and March so they for sure missed the Dec. 31 deadline and were older when they started, and  that was definitely to their advantage.  In both of their classes, the ones that seemed to have the most problems were August thru December boys. The boys do mature much more slowly than the girls do.

Joyce

sl2crmeg

My sister was the same way - a 'young' 5 - and my mom, not knowing any better, let her start kindergarden. She ended up having to do 1st grade twice because *developmentally* she just wasn't up to snuff.

i was a september birthday (17th) and i wound up being 4 when i started K. i actually did a year in a special ed type class in between not because i couldn't do the "work" but becuase i was not mature enough. kudos to you for listening to your gut and starting him later!!! its very cool to be the oldest kid in your class imo!