Hi,

My daughter just turned 6 in Jan and has just started Prep last week. It is an individual thing, but I am so glad I waited. Academically she was ready last year, but emotionally she wasn't.

I talked to a lot of parents about this subject and I found that I never came across a parent (with older kids) that thought 'I wish I had started my child in school earlier' but I came across many that said 'I wish I had waited another year'. Personally I think it could be socially damaging to hold a child back in prep, so once you start your daughter in prep it would be hard if she then doesn't cope as well as you had wished.

I lot of parents talk about their children being ready for prep because they can write their name or they know the sounds of the alphabet, but there is also social and emotional readiness. How would they cope if their friend told them they didn't want to play with them? How will they cope with the long school day and following instructions?

I did find last year a bit of a challenge with my daughter - She was 5.5 mid way through the year, and she started to need further stimulation than what she was getting at kinder. She also does other activities (swimming, gym) so this helped a bit.

On her first day of school last Thursday I really thought 'thank god' that I didn't send her last year.

With my daughter, however, she never thought she might go to school - we didn't buy her a uniform and she just always knew that she was going to kinder. We didn't repeat kinder because I had held her back from starting (she started 3 yr old kinder at 4, 4 yr old kinder at 5, etc.). I'm wondering if it may be harder in your case because your daughter thinks she might be going. She may now find it hard to repeat kinder because all her friends are moving on.

Sorry, probably have given you some conflicting advice here, but good luck with your decision.

Cheers, Mary