January kids

Glaspera

Parents of January kids. What age are your kids starting primary school?

browne_rob5

We started ours at 4 and he started Senior Infants today and it's worked out. The Montessori he was in were sure he was ready so made it an easy decision.

Big Bag of Chips

Any January children I know started at 4.

afkasurfjunkie

mum of 3 boys and teacher for many years. My youngest will be 5 when he starts. He’s 4 since Jan and just started his second ecce year. For context my other two boys are Oct and Nov birthdays and they started at 4 turning 5.

pooch90

Parent of January boy too, and teacher.

We kept him until 5 to start and I'm glad we did. That's a very personal choice though. He would have floundered massively if we started him at 4. He missed out on a lot of ECCE from lockdowns and struggles socially anyway. He is the oldest in his class now but we don't regret keeping him out until 5. If it was his younger brother, he would have been grand to start at 4. Jan baby just started 2nd class and there's no way he's secure enough in himself to be in 3rd class. You know your child best. The creche told us he would be fine to start at 4 but I knew he wouldn't and I stand by the decision.

finnyob

Jan son, started at 4, now in 3rd class and he's doing grand. Wife still has regrets not leaving him longer, and maybe she has some justification. Every boy is different, but you likely would not regret holding on till he's 5 really.

Glaspera

Thanks everybody for your advice/input.

We are thinking to wait...here's hoping the decision is right

Moonbeam

It really depends on the child, I am a January child with 3 of my own and we spoke to their pre schools and evaluated it for each kid individually.

It depends more on their social skills then academic and usually you can not see it for a few years but in some casesyou can see it in JI immediately.

pooch90

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122580403#Comment_122580403

The way I always look at it is, very few will regret waiting but many will regret sending them too early. It's so hard to repeat a class nowadays.

byhookorbycrook

Primary teacher here with decades of experience. Most children are that bit older starting primary. It's not so much about academics, but social skills that take precedence at this stage.