When Starting School Too Early Catches Up With Kids

At no time is it more apparent of when kids started kindergarten as when they enter middle school- 6th grade.  I can observe a student one time to know if they entered kindergarten early. There is just a natural progression of age that I can tell how old a student is by looking at him/her. I am right 9/10 times I meet a kid and guess what grade they are in.

So when I see a very tiny 6th grader entering middle school, I can almost always tell that they JUST turned 11. This year we started school on August 2nd, so there were several kids who were still 10 when school started! There is much about middle school that is a lot for a small child to take in. The stress on some of the kids' nerves is quite apparent. We have about 3 students right now who can hardly get through each day.  It poses the question, why do parents send their kids so early to kindergarten? Some of them are ready academically, but there isn't much in the readiness tests that measures their emotional stability in a brief overview. School Psychologists can guess all they want, but sometimes it isn't apparent until middle school.

So how do I help these students adjust? Constant communication with parents is definitely a key component. At this point, most parents are not going to come in and try to move their child back to the elementary building. It just isn't going to happen. Think of the embarrassment it would cause an already stressed out student.  I also meet with these students a little more regularly than the other students. I do "check-ins" just to see how it's going. They sort of need a "parent" at school to reassure them that they will get through the adjustment period.

Finally, I rely on the teachers a lot to help the kids along, and in my building we have absolutely wonderful sixth grade teachers who know exactly what the kids are going through, because if they are a seasoned teacher, they see it every year.

It is a passing phase in most of these kids' lives, but is it necessary to send them a year early for convenience when it may be more difficult down the road?  There is no easy answer, of course, but if there's not a reason to send them early, then maybe it would be wise to nurture them at home for one more year.