7/31/2019 When to Start Year 1 (and What is Year 0)

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I have always taken Year 0 to be a general label for the years before Year 1. For me, theseare preschool years and the kindergarten year. I have two children in Yr. 0 this year. Myds is 5.5 and he is in kindergarten this year. We are playing around with reading right nowand working on handwriting. We are going through our math program very slowly.We aregoing through the Yr.0 reading list and other reading lists that I have found.

My dd is 3.5. Even though I consider my dd to be in Yr. 0, it doesn't meanthat I am

doing anything formal with her. I am working on habit training (right nowwe are

working on self--control) with her right now and we are reading picture books. I also

started reading chapter books to her this year. She does nature study withus. I have

asked her if she would like to join us for picture study but she has declined. Yr. 0

is the training ground for when they actually start Yr. 1.

As far as when to start Yr. 1, that totally depends on the child. Some children can

handle it when they are 6, others cannot. My oldest dd who is now 7 started Yr. 1 whenshe was 6. She was able to give me excellent narrations, her level of under

standing wasquite high and she was able to interact with what she was reading. If there

was a wordshe didn't understand, she would ask. I knew that she was ready, and I was

right.

I am not sure when I will start my ds. in Yr. 1. I am thinking that I might do half of

Yr. 1 next year and do the other half for Grade 2. I don't think he is ready to give

narrations. If we use the easier books from Yr. 1, that will give us a good start for

learning how to give narrations. He is just now able to listen and concentrate to

chapter books. I think he may need a little more time before we start the'harder'

books.

This has gotten to be very long. All of this is to say, you know your child, so you

will know if she is able to start Yr. 1 at 6. If not, it is okay to wait ayear (or

two.)

Blessings,Julia