Is My Child Ready For Kindergarten?

How old should a child be when entering Kindergarten?  What is the best education environment for them?  There is growing debate in both public and private schools about both how to recognize “kindergarten readiness” and what constitutes an ideal learning environment for 4-5 year olds.   A recent New York Times article indicates a growing trend among parents, educators and policy makers that having children start kindergarten at a later age may be more advantageous—especially for boys.  On the east coast, delaying a boy’s entrance to kindergarten is commonly referred to as “redshirting.” Redshirting is the practice of postponing an age-eligible child's kindergarten entry by a year, typically one whose birthday is very close to the cut-off date. Academic redshirting is often done in order to provide some extra time for social, intellectual or physical maturation.  On the Peninsula, with the recent change in the California education code on the cut-off date for incoming kindergarteners, these questions have become more of an issue in our local elementary schools. 

The decision on whether or not to delay your child’s kindergarten experience by one year is really an individual decision.  There are many criteria to consider including, but not limited to:  the child’s age, the child’s gender, the child’s level of social and emotional maturity, and the child’s prior experiences (did they attend preschool, etc.).  My own personal opinion, based on my experiences as both a parent and as an educator is that delaying a child’s entrance to kindergarten by one year, for many children, tends to have more benefits than drawbacks.  Of greater concern to me, however, is how far many kindergarten classroom environments have moved away from the traditional kindergarten model where the opportunity to play and work cooperatively are the norm and worksheets and homework just are not part of a young child’s learning experience.  The kindergarten learning experience should be a combination of rich, child centered play with multiple opportunities for group work and project making in order to integrate the important academic learning experiences that will prepare kids to progress and move on.  Within such a textured learning environment, children are also learning how to recognize letters, letter sounds, numbers, etc. 

Some parents fear that if their child enters kindergarten and they still cannot read, that somehow their child is “behind.”  The concern that some adults feel is that kids must learn how to “do school” as early as possible so that they are prepared for the “real learning” that takes place in a more traditional school setting.   Yet, research has demonstrated that young children actually learn best through play.   The opportunities to dress up, play imagination games, explore at a sand or water table, and build with blocks, can be critical to social, emotional and intellectual development.  Kindergarten classrooms should have lots of space set aside for this kind of unstructured “free” play.

The origin of Kindergarten can be traced back to the 1860’s from both Germany and Switzerland.  The German word, “Kindergarten,” translates to “children’s garden.”  Its founder, Friedrich Fröbel, was a German educator who opened the world's first kindergarten more than 150 years ago.  The original concept behind Kindergarten was as a multi-age children’s community where learning happened during play.  Often, children from ages 3-5 would play together under the guidance of an educator.  It was only after Kindergarten was brought to the United States, and the emphasis became more about rote academic learning, that there was a drive to limit the age of learners to just five year olds. 

And, what are our expectations about Kindergarten?  Researchers have described what is known as the "kindergarten continuum" of the four types of classrooms:  1)  Laissez-faire, loosely structured classrooms;  2)  classrooms rich in child-initiated and child-directed play;  3)  playful classrooms with focused learning; 4) didactic, highly structured classrooms.  There is no definitive research that indicates which model works best.  At San Carlos Charter Learning Center, our kindergarten classrooms, as well as our 1st / 2nd grade multi-age classrooms, are learning environments that are “rich in child-initiated and child directed play.”  We believe strongly that developing a child’s imagination and allowing a child’s natural development to dictate progress and growth is the best approach for preparing a young child for the higher expectations of learning in the older grades. 

In the San Francisco Bay area, we benefit from a range of options for our youngest learners.  There are Montessori based learning environments, parent participation preschools and elementary schools, traditional classroom environments, international school options, language immersion options just to name a few.  Parents often ask if a few months can make a difference for a young child. For a child, the school experience is far more than just academic preparedness.  It is the intense socialization that occurs over the next twelve years.  It is the stages of emotional growth and development that happens between when a child enters at the age of five and when he or she completes the experience as a young adult of 18 years.  It is about integrating values of the home with the values of the community all while trying to make sense of the world as they experience it.  It is so much more than just helping kids to become book smart.  It is about encouraging them to develop into a good person;  an honest and ethical human being, one who is compassionate, empathetic, and who thinks about the world and their place in this world beyond their immediate community.   And, it all starts with Kindergarten.