School closures/delays?

My kid absolutely hates coloring. It’s just not his thing. Give him some letters, basic math, or random facts instead. I can already tell school is going to be an interesting ride for us.

A total lack of actual stakes just leads straight into pure boredom.☕
It’s honestly such a shame that B. Wild and her entire following didn't seem to grasp that.
In this obsessive push to make everything feel "easier," more "playful," or somehow more "accessible," they’ve swung too far in the opposite direction, and now we're left with something that feels incredibly shallow—just overly simplistic, repetitive, and lacking any real intrigue.
And then there are those moments where you can see the outcome coming from a mile away for absolutely no reason at all...
I suppose we should really think about what we're doing to our kids.
If a child starts developing an intense phobia of being scared at age eight, only to spend the years until eleven essentially coloring, doodling, and singing through life, I imagine they'll find school quite riveting.

Susan Martin4 said:My kid absolutely hates coloring. It’s just not his thing. Give him some letters, basic math, or random facts instead. I can already tell school is going to be an interesting ride for us.

So, you can eventually write up a post about whether delaying things was actually the right call or not...

The curriculum my daughter had back in 2015/2016 for first grade was way simpler and less intense than what I went through back in '85, and honestly, looking at what kids have been doing in first grade over the last two years, it looks even easier than what she had.

I've seen scans of the old "Good Morning" series—it includes 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade stuff, plus reading materials from 4th grade. It’s all so much more comprehensive than what kids are dealing with today, regardless of how many pages there are.

Back then, they wrote way more essays and different types of texts. They really pushed kids to practice their writing skills.
Coloring was treated like a reward for when you finished your work.
Nowadays, they just call it "early English immersion."😬

I remember those massive, 200-page textbook doorstops we had to lug around back before the school district overhauled everything—I’m not entirely sure what the current editions look like, though. Honestly, the third-grade curriculum now seems lightyears ahead of the nonsense my older one had to deal with. It used to be all about memorizing useless trivia, like "In what year was the telegraph invented?" or "How much did the first amphibious vehicle weigh?" Just pure busywork. Nowadays, they aren't just coloring or doodling all day in third grade; they’re actually learning the core material, just without all that extra fluff we were forced to swallow.

No matter how you slice it, though, school is still a much better environment for most kids once they're ready to move on from preschool. Luckily, most of that trivial garbage we adults have to sit through doesn't even register on their radar yet...

urbantinker8 said:I mean, yeah—everything just feels so much more shallow these days. It’s all too easy, far too simplistic.😬
Honestly, if you look back, the textbooks used in the first, second, and third grades were pedagogically miles ahead of the junk they're pushing now.🙂
Nowadays, through fourth grade, it seems like kids are mostly just playing around and coloring; they might pick up a few bits here and there, I suppose, but it’s hardly challenging for them at all.
It’s actually been proven that overdoing the drawing, coloring, singing, and reciting can really just burn kids out.

But then again... I guess that's just life preparing them for the real world.🙂

The Scandinavian model?

Brandon Newman95 said:The Scandinavian model?

not really.
it's more like the American way.😬

mistyjackal842 said:Why would anyone want to delay starting school? To me, it’s such a milestone—something every kid should actually look forward to. I suppose the academic pressure on children today is much higher than when I started first grade back in 1984, but back then, the cutoff was just before September 1st once you turned six. There weren't many little ones in my class; most of us were a bit older. And honestly, elementary school isn't that hard. At least, it wasn't for me. Maybe first grade was a bit of a whirlwind since we were all still so restless, but I think I just got incredibly lucky with my teacher. I used to go to the after-school program, too. Personally, I actually preferred being in school over being in preschool. If nothing else, I didn't have to deal with those mandatory afternoon naps.

The main thing is whether they're emotionally ready. Plus, kids these days seem way meaner than they used to be. Or maybe that's just me.

urbantinker8 said:not really.
it's more like the American way.😬

I was talking about that whole drawing and coloring thing. You know, like a real life lesson.

Betty Wood54 said:But honestly, times aren't that dark anymore. From what I hear, the specialists in the public preschool systems are actually quite good now, and parents can always just take their kids to a private speech therapist if they need to. So, I don't really think many children will slip through the cracks like that today.

Look, I went to a tiny little schoolhouse, and I had the same teacher all the way through fourth grade—she didn't notice a single thing. Not one thing during those four years. And now? The fallout is just devastating. She never even suggested seeing a school counselor. Don't even get me started on the issues with rapid speech, or how bad my essays were. All I remember from that whole era is the alphabet book. If she wants to, I could suggest some neuropsychological testing. Why didn't she catch it back then? Because teachers always have their favorites.

Susan James said:So, you can eventually write up a post about whether delaying things was actually the right call or not...

The curriculum my daughter had back in 2015/2016 for first grade was way simpler and less intense than what I went through back in '85, and honestly, looking at what kids have been doing in first grade over the last two years, it looks even easier than what she had.

I've seen scans of the old "Good Morning" series—it includes 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade stuff, plus reading materials from 4th grade. It’s all so much more comprehensive than what kids are dealing with today, regardless of how many pages there are.

Back then, they wrote way more essays and different types of texts. They really pushed kids to practice their writing skills.
Coloring was treated like a reward for when you finished your work.
Nowadays, they just call it "early English immersion."😬

My kid’s school stuff got pushed back last year, and now it's finally happening. Honestly, whether it was then or it is now, they still have zero interest in drawing or coloring. I'm pretty sure they actually despise it with every fiber of their being. ☕ I see some real progress being made.
He’s older now. More emotionally grounded. He handles failure without spiraling, and he actually stays focused on the grunt work he hates instead of checking out. Progress, I guess.

None of us can actually determine if a kid is school-ready just by guessing on an internet forum. We either have to trust the parents or rely on professionals, hoping there isn't some hidden motive behind their decision.

Think about it: if parents follow advice from a thread like this only to have their child held back at the end of first grade, what's their excuse? Maybe they'll say, "But someone online told us elementary school was just coloring and drawing!" When asked who said that, they'll point to urbantinker8. Then CPS shows up and takes the kids away.

I hope Tinkertoy has stopped reading this thread. If she hasn't, she really should—and she needs to ignore most of what's being said on this page and the last one, because a lot of it is flat-out wrong (and even if it isn't, just because one kid was ready doesn't mean hers is). She made the right call taking him to a speech therapist for an evaluation. She should go for a full assessment—speech therapist, specialist, psychologist, whatever—and listen to what the pros say. They might not be perfect, but they're probably as close as we're going to get.

It honestly feels like they’re just dragging a child to a speech therapist now solely to justify delaying school enrollment. What on earth have they been waiting for? If there were red flags, that kid should have been in therapy a year or two ago.

The whole point of this forum is to share diverse perspectives. I highly doubt anyone is making definitive decisions based solely on whether Jacob Lopez2 or someone else claims a delay isn't necessary.

You have to look at the full picture instead of blindly trusting some specialist who barely spends five minutes looking at a child. They aren't nearly as infallible as they think they are.
In my opinion, the most weight should be given to the preschool staff, as they actually observe these children over a significant period of time.

Jacob Lopez2 said:It honestly feels like they’re just dragging a child to a speech therapist now solely to justify delaying school enrollment. What on earth have they been waiting for? If there were red flags, that kid should have been in therapy a year or two ago.

The whole point of this forum is to share diverse perspectives. I highly doubt anyone is making definitive decisions based solely on whether Jacob Lopez2 or someone else claims a delay isn't necessary.

You have to look at the full picture instead of blindly trusting some specialist who barely spends five minutes looking at a child. They aren't nearly as infallible as they think they are.
In my opinion, the most weight should be given to the preschool staff, as they actually observe these children over a significant period of time.

Best regards,
And if those teachers haven't noticed any issues needing a speech therapist yet—even though we're told the staff is great—then it seems like the parent is just taking the child to therapy to get that specific paperwork that everyone says is easy to obtain.
The reality is that it's pretty easy to get school deferrals for kids born in February or March, or maybe January. For almost everyone else, it's a NO. There are a few exceptions, usually kids under the care of Child Protective Services, who finally get a chance during that pre-K year to catch up on everything they missed while being separated from their families.

Jacob Lopez2 I can't even begin to process this. Seriously. What are we even doing here? It’s like everyone just decided to collectively lose their minds at once. I'm sitting here trying to make sense of the absolute chaos, and honestly, it feels like I'm shouting into a void filled with nothing but static. Brandon Newman95 was saying something earlier—something about how things shouldn't be this way—and you know what? They're right. They're absolutely right. But does anyone listen? No. We just keep circling the drain. It’s frustrating, man. It really is. You try to bring up a point, a real, solid point, and it just gets swallowed up by the noise. And don't even get me started on the way people are reacting to this. It's all just... much. Too much. I feel like my head is spinning just trying to follow the logic, if you can even call it that. It's a mess. A total, unmitigated mess.
It honestly feels like she’s just dragging a speech therapist into this at the last second just to prove her kid isn't ready for kindergarten. Like, what was the hold-up? If there were red flags, they should have been getting professional help a year or two ago. You don't just wait until the eleventh hour to start treatment when you already know something is off.

Look, a forum like this exists so people can actually share their experiences, right? It’s about hearing what others went through. I doubt anyone is out here making any kind of final calls or big life decisions because then Jacob Lopez2 or someone else would just jump in and say there's absolutely no reason to wait.

Look, you’ve gotta look at the whole picture here. You can't just blindly trust some specialist who spends maybe five minutes looking at your kid and thinks they've got it all figured out. They aren't that much of an expert, honestly.
Honestly, the whole thing boils down to one thing for me: the teachers at the preschool. I mean, they’re the ones actually on the ground, right? They’re watching these kids day in and day out, seeing how they act, how they interact... they have the long-term perspective that nobody else has. At the end of the day, their professional insight carries way more weight than anyone else's.

Look, I’m just laying out my own experience from back in '87. They completely missed the mark on this one. You can see the fallout everywhere now. There’s this whole neuropsychological testing thing that the psychologist keeps pointing toward. Back in the day, they had three people running those tests in Rhode Island, but now? Now they're down to just two.

Jacob Lopez2 said:It honestly feels like they’re just dragging a child to a speech therapist now solely to justify delaying school enrollment. What on earth have they been waiting for? If there were red flags, that kid should have been in therapy a year or two ago.

The whole point of this forum is to share diverse perspectives. I highly doubt anyone is making definitive decisions based solely on whether Jacob Lopez2 or someone else claims a delay isn't necessary.

You have to look at the full picture instead of blindly trusting some specialist who barely spends five minutes looking at a child. They aren't nearly as infallible as they think they are.
In my opinion, the most weight should be given to the preschool staff, as they actually observe these children over a significant period of time.

It’s possible. Even though our preschool staff completely dropped the ball on this one, they were 100% behind the enrollment without a single second thought.

So, here’s the thing—I was thinking about something a colleague of mine told me about ten years ago. She’s an elementary school teacher I really look up to, and she was digging through some old boxes at the bottom of her closet when she stumbled upon these old exams from back in the late eighties and early nineties. They were specifically designed for students with special needs... and honestly? The scope of the material and the types of problems in those tests were basically identical to what the entire general curriculum was covering back then.
Honestly, her references are probably worth next to nothing. I mean, what does she know? She’s only got about forty years under her belt. ☕

The school curriculum today is just insanely intense—it feels like it's seven times harder than it was even ten years ago, and at least fourteen times tougher than when we were kids. The stuff these children are being expected to learn is completely incomprehensible and just way too much volume-wise. It’s actually pretty scary.
Are you happy now? Feeling satisfied?

The whole truth of the matter is that back when we’re comparing eras, there wasn't this massive pressure for everyone to pull straight A's. If you pass with a B? Hey, good for you, that’s very good. You pass with a C? That’s good enough. But nowadays, everyone expects these kids to have a perfect 4.0 GPA by the time they finish fourth grade, even if it means they have to spend another four to six hours every single day after school drilling the same stuff over and over again just to keep up.
But nobody wants to admit that. Instead, they just throw stones and complain about how "unreasonable" or "overloaded" the current curriculum is.

There is a massive gap between an "A" grade and failing first grade. And if she’s right, that’s exactly where her kid is headed. "Look, nobody is going to tell you this because they want the enrollment numbers, but for the sake of your child, repeating first grade is actually the better move. Long-term, it's less damaging than forcing them through a curriculum they aren't ready for, which just leads to burnout for both of you. Regardless, if they had listened to you, the kid would have started first grade in the 21/22 school year anyway—this way, they still start in 21/22, but they'll actually be prepared instead of wasting another year in preschool.". Well, here we go: her kid is repeating first grade. This isn't some hypothetical case about a kid from a movie or some crazy character; it's her actual child. And predictably, people like Frupi and Mad Hatter will ignore the core issue, burying one relevant comment about schooling under ten different remarks about hairstyles, all while picking fights just to make the thread more entertaining.

First grade isn't just "coloring and drawing"; it’s genuinely demanding for any kid who lacks emotional maturity or is performing below grade level. Whether her kid fits that description is something the school district's specialists should decide. I wasn't planning on getting sucked into this debate, but I couldn't let those blatant falsehoods and generalizations slide. It seems like the OP has already checked out of the conversation, so there's really no point in debating whether delaying enrollment was the right call anymore.

urbanowl81 said:There is a massive gap between an "A" grade and failing first grade. And if she’s right, that’s exactly where her kid is headed. "Look, nobody is going to tell you this because they want the enrollment numbers, but for the sake of your child, repeating first grade is actually the better move. Long-term, it's less damaging than forcing them through a curriculum they aren't ready for, which just leads to burnout for both of you. Regardless, if they had listened to you, the kid would have started first grade in the 21/22 school year anyway—this way, they still start in 21/22, but they'll actually be prepared instead of wasting another year in preschool.". Well, here we go: her kid is repeating first grade. This isn't some hypothetical case about a kid from a movie or some crazy character; it's her actual child. And predictably, people like Frupi and Mad Hatter will ignore the core issue, burying one relevant comment about schooling under ten different remarks about hairstyles, all while picking fights just to make the thread more entertaining.

First grade isn't just "coloring and drawing"; it’s genuinely demanding for any kid who lacks emotional maturity or is performing below grade level. Whether her kid fits that description is something the school district's specialists should decide. I wasn't planning on getting sucked into this debate, but I couldn't let those blatant falsehoods and generalizations slide. It seems like the OP has already checked out of the conversation, so there's really no point in debating whether delaying enrollment was the right call anymore.

A child who is academically behind will likely stay behind. If they truly can't keep up with the curriculum, they'll probably end up in a specialized program later on. In my opinion, it’s a real shame to delay school just to drill first-grade material into them beforehand, only for them to breeze through first grade with straight A's and then hit a massive wall in second or third grade when the workload gets heavier. I've noticed that school specialists are often hesitant to approve individualized plans in these cases because they worry it's more about a parent's desire to collect perfect grades rather than an actual necessity for the child.

On the other hand, a child who is emotionally immature will very likely catch up within that extra year. But if that's the case, they might not even need a speech therapist (in this specific scenario). More importantly, if that child stands out for other reasons during first grade—since they'll be celebrating an 8th birthday while most kids are still 6—they could quickly run into situations that crush their self-esteem. They might become depressed, and suddenly that "emotional immaturity" at age seven seems minor compared to the struggle of being the oldest, biggest kid in class who can't do something that everyone else finds easy.

There are so many skills children need to master before starting school. Parents really need clear guidance here. Most kids, if they aren't quite ready for testing, will catch up in a month or two if given the chance. Instead of fighting through the bureaucracy and chasing experts for paperwork to delay enrollment, it would be much more productive to spend that time working on the specific skills the specialists identified as missing (and no, I don't mean drilling reading and writing).

Most kids don't fail first grade. When they do, it's usually due to unrecognized issues—cases where the kids were technically old enough for second grade and had to start, but weren't actually ready.
Mogue is an option, too: you can always defer or adjust things after they've started school if the challenges become impossible to ignore.

So, we have a little one here (6th grade), currently going through the evaluation process—everything points toward dyslexia and dysgraphia. From 1st through 5th grade, he actually pulled straight A's. He got a B in 5th, but I’m just not even going to go there regarding last year. It was a total disaster. And you mean to tell me nobody noticed any of this until now?! Not the parents, not the teacher, not even the after-school instructor?!
I mean, back in my day, school definitely wasn't nearly as demanding as it is now. For instance, my daughter is working on a PowerPoint presentation right now. She has to include a hypothesis and everything. Personally, I didn't even hear the word "hypothesis" until I was already in college...

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I don't think it's fair to complain about how demanding school is, since the whole approach has just changed. From what I can see, there's less focus on memorizing raw facts or covering massive amounts of material, but instead, there's a much bigger emphasis on things like presentations, lab experiments, and having to hunt down data from multiple sources to draw conclusions.
Ideally, all of this would be designed in a way that actually makes sense for kids.
The perennial issue with our American textbooks is that the language is totally disconnected from how kids actually speak—especially those who aren't big readers—and that's made worse by terrible layouts where you get lost in a sea of clouds, clip art, and comics.
Back in my day, we had dry, straightforward text, but honestly, it was much easier to pull the actual information out of it.

Unfortunately, they're still teaching a lot of useless trivia, and the subjects feel completely disconnected. For example, in geography, they might learn about certain regional climates right before the holidays, only to have science class cover the exact same thing months later. It feels pretty redundant.