Should 5-Year-Olds Start School This Year? [View all]

'Faced with remote learning or socially distanced classroom options, some parents of rising kindergartners are considering holding their kids back.


Alka Tripathy-Lang’s 5-year-old son is supposed to start kindergarten this fall, but her district in suburban Phoenix has already delayed its start and announced that classes, when they do start, will be online for at least the first couple of weeks.

What those lessons will look like is unclear, as are details about how much parental involvement will be required, and how or when the school is going to implement the dual immersion Mandarin program her son is supposed to begin. Tripathy-Lang’s current plan is to start him in an online-only option, but if it’s not working, she’ll pull him out to be home with her 3-year-old, who she and her husband have already decided not to send to preschool this year.

“I have this low-level anxiety about everything in the background all the time, and a substantial chunk of it is about how I am going to make sure that my kids are getting the experiences they need at this age,” said Tripathy-Lang, a geologist and science writer.">>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/parenting/school-opening-kindergarten-coronavirus.html?

My daughter is relieved that NJ school systems have been enabled to do 'remote,' so her rising 1st grader will be schooled at home; his 4 year old sister, who turns 5 in October and was 'ready' for kindergarten, will stay at home with him and his mother (and will likely learn 1st grade along with him!) Social activities with contemporaries will pick up again, when safe.