Being ready for school does not only involve the child's age, but it also involves the child's maturity level. I see many children that are ready to attend Kindergarten when they are 5 years old. After Kindergarten, those same children have to be ready to go on to grade one, but many of them are just not at the level they need to be.

Having 2 children of my own, I had to struggle to decide on sending my son on to grade one or not. We had sent him to kindergarten when he was 4 turning 5 within a month of school due to a speech delay. By the end of kindergarten, he was ready to go on academically, but size and age did not play into the picture very well. He was very small. With the advice of his teacher and speech aid, we decided to hold him back one more year in kindergarten. It was a hard choice for me because I wanted him to go on with his friends, but I had to go with my gut feeling and the teachers advice. She would not recommend it if he was not ready to go on. Now he is 14 years old and in grade 8. Now being one of the tallest in his class and able to keep all of his grades at or above the class average makes me very glad to see that our choice of two years in kindergarten was well worth it.

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