Let's go to school: it's early at six, but it's already boring at seven? When is it not early for school? Is it worth sending your child to school early?

Many parents sooner or later are puzzled by a difficult question: at what age should they send their beloved child to school - at seven or six years old? And if caring mothers prefer to focus on children, then ambitious ones want to make their baby a real prodigy, rejoicing in the fact that he does everything before others.

Of course, there are gifted children who grasp the curriculum even at the age of five. Meanwhile, the vast majority of six-year-olds are psychologically and physically completely unprepared for the new daily routine and school loads.

Today we will talk about whether a six-year-old child should be sent to school and what significant pros and cons can be found in early schooling.

According to Russian law, in first grade secondary schools accept children from 6.5 to 8 years old. Of course, the administration educational institution can accept children under the established age, but for this, teachers will have to comply with the hygiene requirements applicable to preschoolers. This is why teachers are not particularly optimistic about six-year-olds entering school.

How are things going in Europe? Six years is the usual age of entry into first grade for most European children. But there are exceptions here too. Thus, little Irish children begin to go to school at four years old, and the British, Cypriots and Maltese - at five years old. In the Baltic countries, Poland, Finland, Sweden and Bulgaria, children become first graders at age seven.

In fact, what in European countries considered a primary school, we call a regular kindergarten. Therefore, classes in preparatory groups of the domestic preschool practically coincide with what kids study in the 2nd and 3rd grades of standard Western schools.

Why are parents in a hurry to enroll?

Child psychologists confirm that six- and even five-year-old preschoolers are increasingly being brought to them for diagnostics with a request to issue a qualified conclusion that the children are ready for school. What are the reasons for such a rush?

The most common is the ambitions of parents. Mom, passionate about the idea early development, strives to ensure that her child grows up unique. She is in a hurry to teach him reading, writing and arithmetic as early as possible, and then makes a hasty conclusion: the baby is literate, which means he does not need to waste time in kindergarten.
Some parents are guided by material considerations, believing that paying for kindergarten too high. They think that it is cheaper to send their child to school than to pay the new fees for attending a kindergarten group.
Parents of boys try to force things, fearing that the child will not have time to go to college, and immediately after graduating from school will go into the army.
In rare cases, six-year-olds are truly ready for school. Not only do they have developed study skills, but they are also motivated to learn. Mothers rightly fear that such a child, if he waits out one more year in kindergarten, will then be uninterested in studying in primary school.
It is in this academic year that the first class is recruited by an excellent teacher, a teacher “from God”, who previously taught the older child. And all the mothers I know recommend going to this teacher.

Read also: Features of adaptation of first-graders to school

Going to school from 6 years old: all the pros and cons

The specific age for starting school is carefully thought out and verified by child psychologists and teachers. They give the following arguments against early education:

the vast majority of six-year-old children have a low level of physical, motivational, psychological, and emotional readiness for learning;
the schools themselves are not ready to accept six-year-olds, since the institutions have practically no conditions for daytime sleep;
the behavior of six-year-old children is not always arbitrary, they are guided by momentary desires, preferring to play rather than listen to the teacher, and it is also difficult for them to sit in one place for the standard 40 minutes;
the child will have to “strain his back” for at least four hours (4-5 lessons a day), which leads to incorrect posture and even scoliosis, do not forget about a briefcase with textbooks and notebooks.

Still, some parents argue in favor of early school entry. They are confident that:

an extra year in a kindergarten group can slow down the psychological development of a gifted child, especially if he is prepared in all respects for schooling;
on the contrary, in the elementary grades, six-year-olds follow older classmates, trying to learn as much new information as possible, which is difficult in a kindergarten group.

As we can see, there are no special benefits of studying from the age of six. However, in our society there is an opinion that early education brings exceptional benefits to all children; they grow up talented and purposeful.

4 main skills of future first-graders

Children's psychological readiness for school includes many components. For example, physiologist and psychologist Maryana Bezrukikh describes the following four important indicators that your child is ready to enter first grade.

The most important factor in school readiness, the absence of which causes numerous problems in school, is the ability of children to accept instructions, hear them and understand what adults want from them. Instructions in in this case– these are any tasks, requests for children. If you ask your six-year-old to do something, and he does not accept the request, it means that he is not yet ready to learn.
The child’s ability to plan his work is another important indicator. You can check its presence by asking your child to put together a mosaic or puzzle based on the picture. How does he complete the task: does he randomly take elements or put a drawing in front of him, purposefully selecting the necessary figures? If there is no basic planning, then learning will be very difficult for children.
The third factor is the child's ability to correct what he does incorrectly. If your child carries out your instructions somehow, with numerous mistakes, and is not particularly interested in the result, it means that this component is not yet sufficiently developed.
You also need to pay attention to whether the child knows how to accept help from adults and peers. Can he ask for help, say “I don’t understand”, “I don’t know”? If children do not know how to ask for support, they will find it extremely difficult to learn.

Read also: What to do if your child is lying and how to stop him from lying

How to prepare a child for school?

If your child does go to first grade at the age of six, you need to seriously prepare for this in order to avoid possible problems with maladjustment. It is not enough to simply teach reading and writing; you need to instill in a child the desire and ability to learn, and an interest in learning. How to do this?

To strengthen the muscle corset, it is worth accustoming children to morning exercises, physical exercise, and walking. Doing any kind of sport is also suitable - cycling, dancing, etc. And so that the child does not get sick during the period of adaptation to school, hardening is suitable.
Teach your baby to self-service - he should dress himself, tidy up toys in the room, heat food (be careful with this). Entrust him with feasible duties - caring for a pet or plant. Agree, it will be very difficult for a child who is not independent to collect his briefcase and prepare for lessons.
An important element emotional preparation are communication skills with teachers and classmates. It is necessary that the future first-grader be able to clearly express his thoughts, treat the people around him with respect, and be able to emerge from life with dignity. conflict situations. This can be taught, but it is much more effective to show it by example.
Don’t forget about the development of mental processes such as attention, memory and thinking. Children should memorize up to eight objects and 4-5 words - show or name them in random order, and then ask them to list them. Such exercises significantly increase memory capacity, and tasks for classifying pictures and retelling favorite fairy tales and cartoons will help develop associative thinking.
Whether it is worth purposefully teaching your child to write is up to you to decide. However, it is necessary to prepare your hand for working in notebooks. Therefore, purchase a variety of puzzles, small construction sets, cubes, and coloring books. Be sure to devote time to modeling and drawing, which will develop children's fingers.
Much attention should be paid to motivational preparation for learning. So play role-playing games, in which the child consistently acts as a student and a teacher, constantly tell the children about what the teacher can teach, what new things can be learned in the lessons. Ideally, a child should understand why he needs to go to school.

“My six-year-old has been going to developmental classes for a long time, she can read, and more or less write too. What else can we do in the garden this year?” - some parents argue. “A six-year-old child is not at all ready for our disciplinary type of school!” - others are sure. So who is right - the first or the second?

“OUR PROGRAM IS DESIGNED FOR SEVEN-YEAR-OLD PEOPLE”

Program primary school is aimed more at seven-year-olds, so I am in favor of sending children to school from the age of 7,” says Victoria Shashkova, primary school teacher at gymnasium No. 4 in the city of Mogilev. - Of course, there are also trained six-year-olds, but this is a very small percentage of children. Most of those who started at age 6 later experience learning difficulties. Children are simply not ready for school: they haven’t played enough yet, so instead of studying in class, they continue to play. The reasons for their unpreparedness are not only psychological, but also physiological: it is more difficult for six-year-olds to concentrate, their hand is not yet ready for writing, they get tired faster and get sick more often, many cry in class, homework it's hard for them to do. But it’s much easier for seven-year-olds to study under this program: their brains already work differently, and it’s easier to invest something in them. In addition, their performance is higher, they get tired less and learn more in class. My experience shows that, as a rule, parents regret sending their child to school too early.

Many parents whose children have already completed first grade agree with this opinion:

We sent Timoshka to school from the age of 6. The teacher we found was simply wonderful, but, alas, this did not help us: the child was simply not ready. Studying is difficult for him; he does not understand why he needs it. I quickly adapted to school, but I carry airplanes and pistols with me in my backpack every day. Now I see that if I had waited a year, he would have enjoyed his studies, but he hasn’t really learned to read, he writes crookedly and dirty, but whatever - prime numbers puts it together with difficulty,” shares the mother of now seven-year-old Timofey.

But there is a completely different opinion.

My Nastya, at the age of 6, was the smallest in the class, but she grasped everything on the fly. She is still an excellent student! - Nastya’s mother is happy.

We sent Milana to first grade at the age of 7, and made incredible efforts to leave her in the kindergarten for another year: it cost us a tidy sum, transferred to the kindergarten’s voluntary account. So what's the result? She is not interested in school: she does all the assignments too quickly, and then gets bored while the teacher is busy with the others - the same six-year-olds she was last year. Now we are thinking about transferring her to a gymnasium, we hope that the workload there will be greater, and she will become interested,” Milana’s parents say.

CALENDAR AGE IS NOT AN INDICATOR?

Educational psychologist, teacher at the Kubik weekend school Olga Bitno believes that even a six-year-old can cope with the school curriculum, the main thing is to approach this issue correctly:

From my point of view, any child who does not have cognitive impairment can cope with the school curriculum tolerably. And if the parents were engaged preschool education your child, questions with assimilation school curriculum There will be no primary school. The only exception can be a letter, and even then based more on the requirement of “pretty in a notebook” than on the need to convey information legibly. And then the only question is how mature your child is physically and psychologically to integrate into the school system.

- And yet, at what age is it better to send a child to school - from 6 or from 7 years old?

Having worked with preschoolers for 9 years, I can say that calendar age is not at all an indicator of psychological readiness for school. And the ability to read and write is not the main factor in readiness. Often children with high intellectual potential easily grasp new material, very active and physically mobile, require an individual approach at a pace and more attention. And in the school system this turns out to be an additional stress factor. And here, another year without school, from my point of view, is good.

- What is the best way to set up a six-year-old to study?

To make adaptation easier, you can do the following:

Send it to a class with a patient, kind teacher. At first, the psychological climate in the classroom will be the most important thing for your child;

Agree with your teacher about the possibility of sometimes missing school without a good reason. When you see that the child's tension is very high, do not wait for illness, but simply leave the child at home;

Avoid doing extra tasks at home. Ambitious parents often sit their children on weekends to do extra tasks suggested by the teacher. Let the child rest.

STAY IN TOUCH!

What should I do to keep my child in kindergarten for another year?

What should I do to keep my child in kindergarten for another year?

According to the current Belarusian legislation, those who, on September 1 of the corresponding school year turns six or more years old. At the request of one of the child’s legal representatives, anyone who turns 6 between September 1 and September 30 of the corresponding school year can be enrolled in first grade. That is, if your child is 6 years old on September 1 and has no medical contraindications, the school cannot refuse to enroll him in 1st grade. But what should those parents do who, on the contrary, decided to wait another year?

In the department of education, sports and tourism of the Oktyabrsky district administration of Mogilev, we were told that in order to leave a child in kindergarten until the age of seven, parents must bring a conclusion from a medical and psychological commission confirming that the child is not ready for school. However, the Education Code, which the district specialists referred to, says nothing about a doctor’s certificate. We called several kindergartens: in some they say that a certificate is needed, in others - that a simple application addressed to the head is enough, in which you say that you want to keep the child in the kindergarten for another year. One way or another, the manager cannot expel your child from the kindergarten until the age of 7, even if the kindergarten is overcrowded.

By the way, if parents decide to postpone their child’s enrollment in first grade for a year, in June they need to approach the head teacher of junior classes at the school to which they are assigned (you can find out the school number in district department education), and write a statement where they indicate that they are not ready to send their child to school.

WHAT ABOUT THEM?

In Germany, most children start school at age 6. German parents make sure that he is psychologically ready for school, is diligent, listens and understands what the teacher says, but it is not at all necessary to be able to read, write and count to enter the first grade - the child will be taught this at school.

In France, children go to school at the age of 3: the fact is that in this country there is no such thing as kindergarten. At the same time, until the age of 7, at school they do the same things that our children do in kindergartens: play, draw, dance, study the world. In Canada, people start school at the age of 4. The children have lessons, but they do not study at their desks, but mostly on the floor and for only a short time, most of the time they play, draw or do crafts.

Some US schools accept children as early as 3 years old! Lessons for three-year-olds are short, but with real grades, like those of adults.

Little Dutch children become first-graders at the age of 4, but they begin reading and writing only at the age of 7.

The holidays are over. Registration of children for school is in full swing, and many parents are thinking about whether to send their child to school early. Most often, this question arises before those whose children on September 1st will be over six and a half, but under seven years old, that is, before the parents of preschoolers born in the fall, winter, or in early spring. And poor mothers and fathers are racking their brains: should they give it away now, or should they give it away at seven and a half, or even almost eight years old?

Battle of the arguments

Supporters of each option have their own arguments. Those who believe that a child should be sent to first grade earlier cite the following:

It takes eleven years to study, and if you go to school at eight (or almost) you will finish at nineteen! Nightmare!
The child is already ready for school, but he is not interested in kindergarten.
If he goes later, everyone will laugh at him.
It is better to follow the elders than to study among the younger ones.

Supporters of the opinion that school is not a wolf and will not run away into the forest, and therefore it is better to send the child to school later, counter-argument in response:

May your carefree childhood last longer.
Being able to read and write does not mean being ready for school.
The little one will be teased.
A six-year-old will simply be trampled underfoot at school.

These are the main statements of representatives of each side, but there are a great many arguments both for and against. What do teachers, psychologists and other specialists think about all this? Let's try to find out.

The agony of choice

Let's not lie, dear parents, and honestly admit to ourselves that often in children we realize our dreams and ambitions. After all, it is much more pleasant to inform all relatives, friends and colleagues that a six-year-old has gone to school than to explain to them why the child is already seven and still goes to kindergarten. However, experts are extremely unanimous in their conclusions. According to most of them, there is no need to rush and send children to school too early.

Parents must remember that no two children are alike. Even if all your child’s peers are already preparing for first grade, this does not mean at all that you should definitely strive for this. Preparatory group kindergarten where your preschooler goes, and already turning six years old does not at all guarantee that the child is ready for school. By the way, fluent reading and the ability to add two-digit numbers in your head also do not guarantee anything like that. Because psychological readiness and physiological maturity are also necessary.

Ready or not ready?

How can you tell if your child is ready for school?

If we have already started speaking frankly and doing soul-searching, then let’s continue in the same spirit. Most modern parents are fairly educated people who have read several (a couple, many - underline as necessary) books on child psychology, and therefore they themselves can quite clearly understand what their child is like. Unless, of course, blind parental love blinds one's eyes. Therefore, first, honestly answer yourself whether this particular child, in your opinion, is ready for school. If you have even the slightest doubt, if there was a second’s hesitation before the life-affirming “yes!”, then do not rely only on your opinion, consult with specialists.

First, talk to the teachers, they see our children often and for a long time, have the opportunity to observe them in different situations, and if we add to this impartiality (blind love does not blind them) and experience, then their point of view will be very important .

Do you doubt objectivity or want to hear the opinions of other experts? Then you have a direct path to psychologists, neurologists and neuropsychologists. Ask them to run a diagnostic. Perhaps its results will be unexpected or even unpleasant for you. But in this case it’s worth listening.

We took one of our sons to see a neuropsychologist. They were visited by a girl who was six years old at that time; in September her mother was going to send her to school. Watching the girl and her mother, I came to two conclusions. First: the baby is not ready for school. Second: the mother understands this, but is afraid that sending her daughter to first grade at almost eight years old (the girl’s birthday is in October) will be too late.

During the conversation, we somehow touched on this topic, and in response to the interlocutor’s request, I gently expressed my position. And to my surprise I saw in the woman’s eyes not resentment, but relief. It turned out that she also thought so, but she did not find support either from her husband or among her family and friends. Everyone insisted that the girl urgently needed to go to school. After all, she is not sick, there is no developmental delay, she can read and count. And no one understood that, despite these indisputable facts, the girl was not ready for school. I became the first person to understand what my attentive mother intuitively guessed.

The neuropsychologist, after conducting the diagnosis, also agreed with us. On my advice, my mother talked to the teachers, their conclusions were the same: learn early, period. As a result, the child went to school at almost eight years old. What parents (including dad, who insisted on his point of view before the conversation with the neuropsychologist) are now only happy about.

Don't have the opportunity to consult with specialists? Take advantage of tests that determine school maturity; they can be found in specialized literature or even on the Internet. There are comprehensively prepared for school. Don’t be lazy, study them carefully and honestly admit to yourself whether your child can do everything.

What should I do?

If experts believe or tests show that the child’s level of knowledge, skills and abilities is more or less comparable to what is required for a first-grader, be sure to pay attention to those points that are still causing difficulties. During that time, you will have time to improve a lot.

Pay more attention not even to reading technique and mental arithmetic speed, but to everyday and psychological readiness. Problems with learning rarely begin due to undeveloped intelligence, much more often due to social problems, insufficient development of fine motor skills, restlessness, inability to concentrate. We can and should work with these difficulties. It is important not to wait for the weather by the sea, but to identify the problem and begin to fight it. Fortunately, if your child is now six years old, there is still time.

Do experts or test results indicate that a preschooler is not ready? Take it for granted and give your child and yourself one more year. Don't give up, work with him. Most likely, a lot will change during this time, and the baby will finally be ready for school. And then years of study will not become an incessant nightmare for him and for you.

And as a final note, two more stories from my practice:

Story one. Amazing pattern

Now children under six and a half years old are not accepted into first grade. In any case, this should be the case, although, of course, anything can happen, but these are still exceptions, not practice, and the majority of preschool children become first-graders no earlier than six and a half years old. However, just a few years ago, teachers had to work with those children whose parents sent them to school at six, or even less than six years old. As a rule, there were only a few of these in each class, two or three.

I first paid attention to these children in my second year of work at school, as soon as I finally got used to it and began to gain experience. A wonderful girl came to one of my classes, let's call her Alya. She was an average student, but was very nice, kind and charming. However, her classmates treated her somewhat condescendingly. The teachers were perplexed, since the class was good; before this, the guys accepted all the new students without any problems. And then suddenly this happens.

The class teacher, a sensitive and caring woman, tried to figure it out. Fortunately, her son studied in the same class, who eventually helped her understand what was what. It turned out the following: her classmates, having learned that the new girl was a year younger than most of them, and some almost two, considered her a “small fry” and, although they did not offend her, they considered communicating with her beneath their dignity.

It's funny to you? Now remember yourself at school. If at the dacha or with a grandmother in the village we could easily communicate without noticing (well, almost not noticing) the difference of several years, then at school, especially in the middle classes, friendship between representatives of different parallels was very rare. At this age, a year or two difference is a whole abyss, and a dismissive “small thing” thrown by one of the older classmates is a label.

After that incident, I began to specifically pay attention to the age of my students. And - incredible! - I have repeatedly noticed that if there is a child in the class who is not only disliked, but shunned, then he is most likely the youngest. Those who are older than most of their classmates are more often respected and considered an authority. Of course, this pattern has its exceptions, but in my practice they did not occur so often, but confirmation of this observation occurred regularly.

The second story. The hard life of a child prodigy

Igor went to school at the age of seven, but studied so well that in the middle of the second grade it was decided to transfer him to the third. The boy was happy at first. His parents and himself were flattered by such obvious recognition of his success, abilities and efforts.

Having jumped from class to class, Igor quickly got used to it and continued to study well. But there was no contact with classmates. As with Alya, he was considered too small. No, no one offended Igor, they were even proud of him and showed off to other classes. But right up until graduation, Igor was friends with the guys from his previous class.

Of course, he made friends at the institute. However, once in a conversation with me, he sadly remarked that he would prefer to study among peers and graduate from school a year later.

So, when deciding to send your child to school at six and a half years old or at over seven, be sure to weigh the pros and cons and do not forget that all children are different.

By the way, my husband and I, having three sons born in winter, were also forced to choose when to send them to school. And each time they took into account everything I wrote about above. As a result, our eldest son entered first grade at seven and a half years old, and our middle son at six years and eight months. So far it seems to me that we were not mistaken in doing just that. My youngest son recently turned five, and now I’m still looking at him. Because I don’t want to make a mistake and complicate life for my child and myself. I’d rather step on the throat of my own ambitions and wait an extra year. Although it definitely won’t become superfluous.

Photo - photobank Lori

Moms and dads should not strive to send their child to school under 7 years of age(at 6.5 years old and even younger).

This opinion was expressed and substantiated by the Institute’s specialists age physiology Russian Academy education. Director of this scientific center Maryana Bezrukikh urgently asked parents not to rush into educating their child.

The Law “On Education in Russia” allows parents to decide for themselves when to send their son or daughter to first grade, minimum age - 6.5 years. Experts in the field of developmental physiology say that it is best to send a child to school from 7.5 years old, and sometimes from 8.5 years old.

They carefully studied the issue and came to the conclusion that children who are sent to school at 6.5 years old are more likely to get sick, study worse, get more tired, and have little interest in additional education. The load that starts from first grade, beyond the capabilities of six-year-olds, experts are sure.

The study was conducted in 15 Russian regions.

It affected 60 thousand children aged 6-7 years. A detailed study of the issue showed that about 50% of children who were brought to first grade have unformed speech, and 30% of children have insufficiently developed motor and emotional development.

Maryana Bezrukikh and her team of child psychologists consider a child to be ready for school if he has sufficient perseverance and, after 40 minutes of quiet, sedentary study, is able to remember, record new information and emotionally comprehend it.

According to statistics, such children at the age of 6.5 years, alas, no more than 5%.