I'm not quite up to making this decision yet but I have already thought that I will be keeping my March DS back. For similar reasons that 3littlemonkeys and Kim have said re:the later school years. My mum has also done work in the lower primary classes and has seen first hand the affects on a classroom where children (more so boys) have been sent to school because they are the right age not necessarily because they were actually ready. I think especially boys need that extra bit of maturity. That is not to say that a younger boys are not smart or won't cope, some will, I just think that once they get to school with other boys they can be more easily 'dragged down' into less than desirable behaviour than if they have that extra maturity. Good luck making your decision, please be happy with whatever you decide to do (my mum still beats herself up about some aspects of our schooling and I think while she may have been able to make some different/better decisions that we got through anyway and it makes us who we are). Hope this makes sense. xo
Funny you mention that about your mum Catherine. When I was deciding last year my dad rang out of the blue one day and told me he knew I was struggling with the decision. He told me he had always wished they'd held me back a year, for all the reasons I was giving....shame it was 30years too late lol. But I'm perfectly OK, so who knows
I thought of something else LM, in terms of her getting bored, I figured it was up to me. I enrolled her in a couple of activities (swimming and gymnastics) which she loves. I wasn't a fan of too much organised stuff before they were a bit older, but she loves to go and I'm glad I did. I made an effort with playgroup (until the only one here moved to an unsuitable time), we have more play dates, DH and I make an effort to do stuff (we live in a touristy place in the dessert so there is always somewhere to go and visit) when he's here, and i have started to set up lots of stuff at night for her to be engaged with. Just different little activities she might not think of herself like little invitations to play. I follow lots of early learning/play blogs and get ideas.
FWIW, my plans are similar to what Kim did, for my DD. At the moment we dont 'do' alot. Not planned stuff anyhow, but next year, I will be enrolling her into pre-school for 2 days, dancing for one day, playgroup one day, a play date one day and library one day. We also live remotely, so things to do here are a bit limited, but my kids love a good play date! I will also be investing in the learning eggs and there's a maths program for young ones too, which i will do with her (cant think of the name of it tho).
Thanks so much everyone for your replies. We have decided to keep him home for another year. I will get some activities organised to keep his mind active
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks