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North Dakota, USA | We held our daughter back in preschool. When she started the first year, we had not officially decided to hold her back but were already considering it. Her birthday is in the end of June so she was one of the youngest in class. Her teacher showed us a graph of what levels the kids need to be at to go on and our daughter was above that level in all areas, but just barely. We were already leaning towards holding her back and that just finalized the dicision. IT WAS THE BEST THING WE COULD HAVE DONE FOR HER.
Another reason for us was just the dynamic of the class she was in. As a whole they struggled to get through the material that the teachers had planned for the year (I think the first 2 months were spent learning to sit down). She has always been kind of quiet and does her work and doesn't cause problems. I think she would have been forgotten about in that class because the teachers would have their hands full with everyone else. There were 12 boys and 5 girls in that class and as it turned out, 3 of the girls stayed back. That did make it easier for her.
Edit: Our older daughter went through the same class a couple years before and her class was just the opposite. That class challenged and pushed each other to do their best (They still do). So I know it was not an issue with the teacher. In fact our older daughters teacher this year told us that she had a hard time slowing that class down at the beginning of the year. They all want to be done first and the they all want the best grade which was leading to careless mistakes like skipping problems or not following ALL of the directions. She took care of that.
We found out afterwards that most of the kids in her new class had fall birthdays, so she is within 6 months of age of most of them. In January the teacher told us they only had 3 birthdays left to celebrate that year.
My wife and I both have fall birthdays so we were the "older" kids in our classes. I missed the cut off by 1 week and all through school I wished I had been able to be in the class ahead of me and been done a year sooner. Now when I think about it, I think I would have struggled both socially and academically.
Eric in ND
Edited by Eric in ND 3/27/2013 12:02
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