Is Your Child Ready for School?

Product Description

Educators and parents are often puzzled by students who are obviously very bright yet do not work up to their full potential. The difference between loving school or hating school can be as simple as making sure each child is in the right grade. Determining when a child should start school is one of the most important decisions parents will ever make about their child. Sometimes a child needs to wait a year before going to kindergarten or possibly have a second chance at kindergarten before going on to first grade. Parents often fear that if they let their child wait a year, the child will be bored during the second year in that particular grade or in subsequent grades. In my forty-one years of experience as a teacher and a school administrator, this has not been the case. I have never heard a parent say, "I'm sorry I gave my child some extra time," but I have heard many parents say, "If I had known then what I know now, I would have given my child some extra time." Giving a child a "gift of time" can help that child gain self-confidence, reach his or her full potential, and make the difference in being a leader or a follower. Making this decision before a child goes to kindergarten or first grade is ideal. If overplacement (being a grade ahead of where one ought to be) is discovered when a child is in the middle grades, it is difficult to fix the problem--possible, but not easy. The stories I tell in this book really happened. Working on this project has given me the opportunity to reconnect with some of my former kindergarten students who are now in their thirties and early forties.