Children starting school

Experience has taught me the hard way that sending children to kindergarten early isn’t a good idea.  Both of my children where born in early fall.  My son being the oldest was clearly not ready socially, so I kept him in preschool another year. He did very well in elementary school and was apart of their gate program and entered a magnet school in junior high. My daughter seemed both socially and scholastically ready and her friends in preschool where going off to kindergarten so I let her go at a younger age.  In kindergarten she got along fine, but by first grade she began to fall behind. She was not able to catch up with the other children until junior high.  Though they were not in the same grade, the teachers often compared her performance to her brothers. At 17 she is a good student, but she still has really bitter memories of grade school.  I would think that your younger child would be at a severe disadvantage going to school with a sibling who is likely to be much a more competent student.

Dana, AMEN. I made the mistake of sending my youngest child to school when he was only 4. Big mistake!!! It took him til 4th or 5th grade to finally get with the program socially. Academically he was fine (IQ of 130) but socially and psychologically he was way behind. And he's had problems ever since trying to "fit in."

Robert Martin keep the second child home til 6. You will have a much better psychologically adjusted child. And far fewer problems down the road.