Should I wait a year to start kindergarten?

My child will be in the same situation and I have also thought about it. Maturity of your child is important in making that decision and again as everyone has said you know your child best.

I am in the same boat as you, but only a year further into the process. I started my daughter this past Fall [ 2008] in pre school, and she was 3, just turning 4. I did not know she was going to be to old for preschool this coming Fall {2009} again and now am not sure if I want her to attend Kindergarten or not. I am really on the fence. I have had people just say "if she is ready, go ahead and send her", but others [ which I lean towards] say that she will always be one of the youngest and while it may not effect her right away, eventially 2-3 years down the line, she may start falling behind because the pressure we put on kids to succeed may be more then she can handle for her age. Academically she is more then ready and I have no doubt she will do well in kindergarten, I just worry about the following year when she is to go on to 1st grade. It it 100 times harder and more demanding [ or is in our school system] and I worry she will feel like a failure if she is not ready because I pushed for her to start school to soon. I think if you have a Young 5 program in your district I would send him to preschool for 2 years and then do Young 5's. I only wish it was offered in my school district.

i have a daughter who is 3 turning 4 in nov. but she cant start till august.and i will have to send her 3 years to pre school because she wont be five till nov and you have to be 5 by setember so she will be like my middle child and be almost 6 when she starts kindergarden.

My son just started kindergarten after having turned 6 at the end of July. That was the right decision for us. Two things that really convinced me were: Realizing it's not really about kindergarten, think about him in middle school or high school. Personally I would rather have an older and hopefully more mature son dealing with things like peer pressure. The second thing that convinced me was that of all the people I've talked to and all the hundreds of articles I've read, I could find plenty of people that regretted putting their early 5 in, but not really anyone who gave "the gift of a year" regretting it. That's not to say that it's worked for plenty of people, I'm just saying for us it seemed like a no brainer.