Parents are basically balancing the more academic nature of K compared to a few years ago, by delaying entry into K.
This was my problem.
What do you do with a child that is gifted and ahead academically, BUT who still desperately needs that creative side that Kindergarten USED to have. Now, it is just a focus on academics.
My daughter has a September birthday,and technically misses the cut-off, has an articulation delay, and is very creative... the sort asking questions about death/God at a young age, but no interest in letters until 4.
I put her in a play-based pre-k program instead, and she started K when she was almost six. She is in a gifted program this year.
There has never been a question in my mind as to whether she is gifted or not... I didn't delay her so she could 'seem' to be gifted. We waited because being she needed a bit more maturity to sit through any classroom with more of an academic focus.
On the flip, my other daughter, I wish she could have gone to K this year.
Yes, sometimes parents that are waiting are trying to give their child some sort of age, but many parents are balancing that academic nature of K. For some, it is to give them that academic age, while for some like me, it is because their is no passion/interest in what "schools choose to call academics".
Tammy
