Anyone's little ones not starting school until nearly 5?

[special_kala]

River is a October babe so will nearly be 5.

We do a lot of stuff at home so I'm not too worried

 

[karlilay]

Madi will start this year, and be 5 on Dec 1st. She knows lots, but iv refrained from teaching her too much, as im terrified she will be moved up and i dont want her to be.

Im not at all worried about the learning, im worried about how long shes there. I dont think she will cope with 6 hours of school 5 days a week

 

[hattiehippo]

Tom will start at 4yrs 8 months so not the older but nowhere near the youngest. I think he'll be more than ready having been at nursery since 8 months old.

I don't do any specific teaching with him and won't despite being a qualified primary school teacher. I would much rather feed his interests and enjoy my time with him before he starts school and learning becomes more formal. I would like him to be able to read basic books but so he can begin to enjoy books himself rather than so he's ahead at school.

 

[Lu28]

Aisling will be going at 5 years 4 months and I don't plan on doing anything specific before then really. I've heard alot of teachers saying children get bored if they know too much before starting and I know I was that child and was quite bored until my mum stopped letting me read my older sister's school books Aisling will be going to an Irish language montessori and primary school anyway so I'm not sure if it would be confusing or beneficial to do things like teaching her to read in English, she won't be starting reading in English until midway through her second year in primary school.

 

[Siyren]

lyssa will be 4 years 11 months when she starts. i will just be following her lead until then- i was ahead in school and was really disruptive because i was so bored x

 

[Kte]

Chloe is also an October baby so she will go just before she is 5. She already goes to pre-school now as part of her nursery set up. I will do additional fun learning activities at home with her before she goes as she is moving pre-schools in a few weeks to be closer to home and will only be going 2.5 days compared to 5.

 

[LaughOutLoud]

My DD will be going when she is very nearly 5 too. She will turn 5 end of Oct next yr. Her nursery have started phonics but its just the songs really which she already knows. She loves counting and doing simple maths whilst playing but I have not taught her anything. At the moment she is learning to write her name and just catching up with good old playing. She was interested in letters when she turned 2 but I didnt have any energy to focus or give her that attention and at that time she started nursery couple of mornings but they said they wouldnt be focusing on this just yet - although she was interested. We have missed out on general playing as baby/toddler really because we were going through a really tough time with our living conditions...until now. We have our space now and enjoying being able to just lounge around and play. Hmmmmm...this thread has got me thinking now

 

[special_kala]

I'm also only sending River to nursery 3 days a week rather then the 5 because she's at pre school a year longer then a lot of other kids I don't want her to get bored.

We don't do phonics or anything. Most of the stuff we do at home is educational but she doesn't know it she just thinks we're playing. I've mentioned to her key worker that I don't want her to do any structured learning until much much closer to school.

 

[pinklightbulb]

Eamon will be 4 years 11.5 months when he starts school The cutoff here is Dec 31st and school starts Feb 10-14 here. Ridiculous. If I could send him the year before I would.

 

[Raven24]

I'm kind of in the opposite position as Alice's birthday is the 22nd August, so would go this September at only just 4. Personally, I feel that is far too early, and she'll be home educated, I am hoping until she's at least 7.

Our approach to home ed is to follow her interests. We do 'strewing' which is just a posh way of saying we leave things round that she might be interested in. For example, at the moment, she's passionate about vehicles. DH bought a little lego set to make a racing car with, I gave her a roll of till paper that she's been making bus tickets with, I've put a load of bus timetables in her room etc. We go out a lot, and she's getting lots of hands on experience. I think there is nothing more valuable than that. I don't sit down and teach, I just facilitate her interests.

how do you go about home education? do you have to inform anyone that this is what you are doing??

 

[sun]

Eamon will be 4 years 11.5 months when he starts school The cutoff here is Dec 31st and school starts Feb 10-14 here. Ridiculous. If I could send him the year before I would.

Wow I'm in the other boat - I WISH I could send my LO later. Our cutoff is the same, but my LO will be the youngest, so 3yrs 9mo when he starts. The first year used to be half-day, but over the past 5yrs they have changed it to full-day. So my 3yo will be at school from 9-3:30 every day - way too much IMO! So many people I know whose kiddos are the youngest say they struggle in one or more areas. I would much rather him be the oldest and supplement his learning if he is advanced, than trying to catch up and need extra help and support.

 

[Tacey]

how do you go about home education? do you have to inform anyone that this is what you are doing??

Nope. If they aren't enrolled in school, you can just get on with it. If they have been enrolled in school, you need to write a letter to the head, and the LA will probably get in touch. It's a parent's responsibility to ensure their child is educated. It's just that most people use schools to fulfil that responsibility.

 

[louandivy]

Eamon will be 4 years 11.5 months when he starts school The cutoff here is Dec 31st and school starts Feb 10-14 here. Ridiculous. If I could send him the year before I would.

Wow I'm in the other boat - I WISH I could send my LO later. Our cutoff is the same, but my LO will be the youngest, so 3yrs 9mo when he starts. The first year used to be half-day, but over the past 5yrs they have changed it to full-day. So my 3yo will be at school from 9-3:30 every day - way too much IMO! So many people I know whose kiddos are the youngest say they struggle in one or more areas. I would much rather him be the oldest and supplement his learning if he is advanced, than trying to catch up and need extra help and support.

Totally agree with you, ivy is a July birthday and I really worry about how young she will be when she starts school! If we end up moving abroad in the next two years I will definitely postpone school.

 

[RachA]

Eamon will be 4 years 11.5 months when he starts school The cutoff here is Dec 31st and school starts Feb 10-14 here. Ridiculous. If I could send him the year before I would.

Wow I'm in the other boat - I WISH I could send my LO later. Our cutoff is the same, but my LO will be the youngest, so 3yrs 9mo when he starts. The first year used to be half-day, but over the past 5yrs they have changed it to full-day. So my 3yo will be at school from 9-3:30 every day - way too much IMO! So many people I know whose kiddos are the youngest say they struggle in one or more areas. I would much rather him be the oldest and supplement his learning if he is advanced, than trying to catch up and need extra help and support.

Totally agree with you, ivy is a July birthday and I really worry about how young she will be when she starts school! If we end up moving abroad in the next two years I will definitely postpone school.

I was in this boat too. My son was 4 on 10th Aug and started school on about 9th or 12th Sept. He struggled as he was so young and my advise to anyone who has a young starter is to keep them part time for as long as you can. By law they don't have to be at school until they are 5 for they can stay part time for the whole of their first year if you want them do. My son would of really benefitted from that but we didn't realise we could do it until it was too late.

 

[special_kala]

Legally children don't have to start school until.they are 5 so those worried about Lo being too young can wait a year.

 

[Tacey]

Just to be pedantic, legally children in the UK don't have to start school at all

 

[Jchihuahua]

Legally children don't have to start school until.they are 5 so those worried about Lo being too young can wait a year.

Even though this is true very few people do actually delay starting. After 14 years of teaching 4 and 5 year olds I have never actually come across anyone who has delayed their child starting school at the 2 schools I've worked in.

 

[Jchihuahua]

Just to be pedantic, legally children in the UK don't have to start school at all

Would you get ofsteded Tacey doing home schooling? I know child minders do but I don't know about people who home school.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I don't think it's as simple as waiting a year. I personally wouldn't like ruby to start school in year 1 with the other children in established friendship groups, used to the school system etc. If she struggles starting at 4 yrs 4 months then I will definitely have her do half days. I'm personally not cut out to home educate and have no choice but to work when Scarlett turns 5 anyway...

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I'm pretty sure you don't get Ofsted inspected home schooling...