When should a child go to school?
Yesterday I posted off an application for Blondie Boy for a local dual language nursery school. I know he's only 21 months but I thought as he will be starting primary school young because of his birthday the same would be true for pre-school and he'd start at 2 1/2. Not so much.
The woman phoned to say she got our application (that was quick!) but that he wouldn't start until the day after his 3rd birthday so 2013. She was absolutely lovely and said she'd keep his application and give us a phone closer to when he'd be due to enroll.
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| Pre-School aged Blondie |
I have no idea when children start pre-school in America so I'm not basing this on a US vs. UK standard or anything. Sure I was a summer camp counsellor, taught secondary sexual health courses and was a TA and Graduate Assistant but known of that tells me how to structure learning for a toddler.
When do you think children should start attending pre-school? Am I completely crazy to want to try and find him a place somewhere at age 2 1/2? Are there resources out there for teaching toddlers at home? Should I just keep letting him do his own thing and learn without structured teaching?
26 comments:
I am surprised you don't have the option of starting before 3, but I think the age at which kids start completely depends on the child. We started at 2.5, but could have started at 1. And this is a preschool that is 9-12 2, 3 or 5 days a week. He started doing 2 for a year, and is now, at 3.5, 3 days a week. Next year he will go 5 for his pre-k year.
I don't think 2.5 is too young! In my part of west London (where you apply at birth for a place in nursery school!) that would be a normal starting age. T just started last month, at 2 yrs 7 months. The oldest child in his class of 16 kids turns 3 next week. The youngest child in his class will not turn 3 until next May or June. It's a proper school, not a daycare.
Did I not bore you about this on Friday??! I can talk about this for hours... because it's not just different in the UK from teh US, it's different in Scotland from England. The system in England (and I presume Wales and NI) is that you go the September before you turn five. So if your birthday is 1 September you'll be very nearly five and if your birthday is 31 July you'll be only just four. In Scotland the cut off is the beginning of March so you go (and I find this very hard to explain so bear with me) in August, but if your birthday is before March you go when you're four, and if it's after March you go when you're five (confused yet? I am). So L, who is an April birthday (and was four last April) is in the position where all of her English friends are in school already, but she doesnt' go for another year.
I found this really hard to take when I realised, and not just because I'd been counting on having at least one child in school when the new baby arrived, but thinking about it now, I think it's probably a good thing. Remember that actually they're not doing any "learning" in the sense you imagine it until they're in primary 1 and that's the same as it is down south (where they go to "school" earlier but the first year "reception" is still "learning through play").
And if you're still worried, remember the scandinavians don't start school until they're 7 and everyone knows how uneducated they are....
In Scotland children start school in the August of the year they turn 5.
If they are born after the 21st-ish of December you can delay for a year and start them in the August of the year they turn 6 (they will be 5 at the time).
If they are born before the 23rd-ish of February you can them start early, in the August of the year they turn 4 (they will be at least 4 and a half at the time).
Pre-school is the year before.
Ante-pre-school is the year before that but they can't start that until after their 3rd birthday so intakes are usually at the start of every term if you are using a pre-school in a state school and dependent on places which are allocated to pre-school aged children first.
FWIW (I don't know when your son's birthday is), the later the better. I don't believe there's anything to be gained institutionalising a child at the age of 2, and plenty to lose. My son (December 10th birthday), started at 4 and a half because I totally did not think it through. There's not enough space here to go fully into why it was the wrong wrong wrong decision. Not nearly :/
There is evidence that children who start early don't do as well at age 16+ than their more mature peers.... nevermind that he will leave school at the end of S6 and still only be 17 which is too young for some universities!
He's doing really well academically so defies the stats, but there's so much more to it than exams and results and given the choice again I would definitely delay entry to formal education for as long as possible.
I don't think it advertises itself as such, but I am not sure. It is a private school, not state-funded. The kids don't sit at desks or anything - they play together and do different activities (singing, art projects, etc.) and so learn through play. It's just a few hours a day and I like the idea that T is interacting with other children and learning social skills.
My sister went to nursery school in Glasgow at about 4 months old, I think. My mum had to go back to work after her maternity leave. The nursery was split into the 'baby' section (up to 1 year) and the older kids, who ranged from 1 to 4 and a half. As some kids start school at 4 and a half, and some at 5, there wasn't so much a structure to the nursery school either. They did teach them certain things, like how to write their own name and they did group activities together suited to their age group, but it wasn't like a 'class' of any kind. There's a big difference between what we perceive as a nursery and what could be called a 'pre-school', I think. The one you're referring to, for example, has a definite structured pre-school.
So, I think he'll be okay. The schools don't expect very much of their primary ones, because some kids just run wild until they're legally required to attend school. It's up to you how much you teach him - obviously he'd be ahead if you chose to teach him to read and write before he goes to school, and it'll stand him in good stead for the rest of his school career. I went to nursery until I was four (though had a childminder pick me up from there) and my parents taught me to read independently before I was four. All in all, whatever you do over the next 3 years will make all the difference, but they don't expect you to have taught primary ones to read, write, count beyond 20 etc.
As a language learner, of course, I'd encourage you to find some way of making sure he gets a basic grounding of it from somewhere beforehand. The earlier the better!
2.5 is pretty young for preschool, at that age we still did all parent-child classes. A few here will take them at 2.9 at the youngest and those children (like my son) end up doing 3 years of preschool becuase the public school age cutoffs are different. For that reason a lot of parents whose kids would fall into that category choose to hold them back a year and only send them for two years. We are sending Bruce for 3 becuase he was ready at 2.9 but a lot of kids aren't, its really young compared to some of the almost-4 year olds he might be in class with. I think it depends a lot on both the child and the program.
Love the photo! My youngest went to pre-school from the age of 2. Her elder sister was there at the time and they accepted siblings from 2, other children at 2 1/2. She went for 2 mornings for about a year and then we increased it to 3, and then 5 sessions. Some of those sessions were back to back with a lunch club in between too. I am all for sending them out there and getting on with it! She has just started school and I strongly believe she is coping ok because she was so used to be out there and socialising/learning through play from a young age.
Just my opinion though!
I think that there needs to be more flexibility re: age at which children start nursery/preschool. I grew up in the US, and I think my mother would have murdered me if I hadn't gone pretty early. I am also a Speech and Language Therapist, and I can safely say that probably half of the referrals I got/children teachers asked me about were simply too (emotionally/developmentally) young for full, or even half-day, formal education. Kids don't suddenly at 3 years and 1 day post-gestation morph into perfect little language users ready to tackle multiplication. We need to look at developmental ranges, and for most of the skills kids would need for what is called their preschool year (e.g. the last one before they go to school)...things like using scissors, recognising letters, going to the toilet by themselves or w v little assistance from adults...we are looking at a span of about 18 months. Some kids are early, some kinda late, to acquire these things, and nearly all of them are utterly, totally normal, with no special support needs of any kind.
Over here in the American Midwest, kiddos are generally around three before they start preschool. Most kids that age are able to handle the demands of painting, playing with blocks, holding hands on the way out to the playground--you know, the really important stuff! There's increasing debate on how long to KEEP the kid in preschool, though, as it becomes clear that many five-year-olds aren't as ready for elementary school as was once assumed. I know my own boy might have been better off socially and emotionally if I'd kept him back.
I've just had a quick scan thru the comments so forgive me if I am picking this up wrong - the consensus seems to be start them as young as you can but don't worry cos they don't learn much at that age? Which begs the question of why anyone would enrol a child in education if they didn't expect them to learn much? Schools are not free childcare providers - but that parental ethos does permeate the whole of primary education and even extends into secondary - especially on snow days - but funnily enough not on the week before holidays when the flights are cheaper days.
You know what I'm like! He's got books in Spanish, Yiddish and German and he does baby signs. I so strongly believe in the introduction of languages other than English early on so I just want him to get the most of a bilingual education.
Yea going to the bathroom himself we don't have mastered, lol.
Thank you for giving the American perspective! I don't like to compare here and there but it does make me exhale a bit knowing he's not missing out by being in the UK.
See I graduated high school at the age of 17 so I guess it's maybe not a big deal for me? At 17 I was going to Uni while still in HS so that aspect doesn't bug me so much.
See socialising is important to me because he doesn't really see other kids :(
I think the question for me is since he can't go to school here (that I can tell) at that age what can I do at home to help him? He so loves to learn you know?
I don't expect for him to go full time at 2.5, I thought it would be like two half days a week or something. I don't 100% understand the school systems here if I'm honest. I assumed if he started primary young he would start nursery young.
Yea I was thinking he'd go 2 half days a week at that age. Maybe I will look into the Montessori schools but they are expensive I think :(
I know they aren't "learning" but I do sometimes worry that he doesn't really see other kids you know?
Is it Montessori?
I started pre-school when I was 2 1/2. I also worked at a pre-school and they would bend the rules a bit for 'late' birthdays. In general though they are more likely to bend the rules for girls (the general consensus seems to be that boys are not mature enough at 2 1/2 but girls are on a case-by-case basis).
Personally, I think it's great to get kids in early! I graduated high school when I was 17 and I'll be graduating undergrad when I'm 20.
I graduated HS as well at 17 and I never felt at a disadvantage although someone did have to give me a fake at my college orientation since I couldn't get into clubs since I wasn't 18!
I would say you are a little crazy, yes. I am a Glaswegian who moved to Finland; one of the main reasons was so that my daughter wouldn't have to start school so early (in Finland they start school when they are 7 whith optional pre-school for 6 year olds)
SInce schools have a structured programme and year plan ect. there is only one point in the the year when they "start" therefor the need to adapt with regards to starting age however with nursey it doesn't matter if you come in in the middle of the year when it comes to the programme so they can be more specific with the starting age.
Thomas has gone into preschool over here (MD) and he'll be three at Christmas. He's thriving! He went to nursery in the UK but they aren't as geared up for education as they seem to be here. At least that is my opinion of it, having had him in both places. I think it really depends on the child, and the nursery and some kids are ready to learn younger than others. You will get 15 hours of nursery education for free in the UK when he turns three though and they go to proper school a year earlier than they do here (I think, although I'm still getting my head around the US system!). Look into the local daycare centres as they all have to follow these education guidelines and show how they are teaching through learning...
I don't know if that helps, or if I've just babbled! I say YES to school at 2.5, but only if you can find a good one! x
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