Kindergarten Readiness and the Average Person

When I ask the question, "What do you think about kindergarten readiness?" the response I get most is, "What does that mean?"  Until your child is getting close to entering kindergarten or you hear it in a preschool setting, your average person is not even aware of this topic.  Parents are the ones asking all of the questions and teachers, administrators and even some pediatricians are providing what they believe to be the best answers. 

For parents, the biggest question about kindergarten readiness did not seem to involve academic readiness at all.  Most of the paretns question the age of their child when entering kindergarten.  Evidentally there are many parents out there who feel that it is best to hold their child back (from entering kindergaten) if they have what is determined to be a "late" birthday.  That is,  the child is turning five years old in the months of July, August or September.  In Ohio there are schools, such as the schools in Brown County Ohio, that have a kindergarten cut off date of September 30.  This means that some children are entering kindergarten prior to their 5th birthday.  In the Brown County Press there was an article about teachers of one school district wanting to change this due to high retention rates of those who started kindergarten at age four.  With all of this said, alot of the websites I looked at said age should not be a determining factor in kindergarten readiness.  The facts still remain, most children are ready to enter kindergarten at the age of five years old.  Some may be ready at age four, and some may fair better if they wait a year and enter closer to or after their 6th birthday. 

The bottom line on kindergarten readiness and the average person is that many do not know what to think.  Even parents are all over the board on whether to send their children to school early or later.  Every one is looking for the best advantage for their child.  This is not a bad thing, but parents do need to be sure they are looking at the right reasons.

There are many, many websites that parents can go to for information on what kindergarten readiness is and tips on how to tell if your child is ready for school.  A few of my favorites are:  onetoughjob.org, kindergartenreadiness.net, and babycenter.com.  All of these sites give some great information on how to tell if your child is ready for kindergarten or how to help prepare your child, as well as connecting you to blogs or other ways to communicate with other parents.  Babycenter.com has one of the most active blogs I have found on kindergarten readiness and guides you to a few different articles on the subject.