[Martha]

My gut tells me that if you're on the fence about it at all, keep 'em home for the year.

We have friends with a daughter who has a Sept. b-day. She was doing fine in school here, hanging out just as much with kids her AGE as her GRADE, but when they moved out of state, they put her back a grade. They said it was the best thing they could have done for her, and she didn't think anything of it. No scars for life from it at all! OTOH, my MIL put my BIL in kindergarten when he was 4 and 10 months (November b-day), and they held him back cuz he just wasn't ready to move on. (and don't think for a MINUTE that we don't still tease him about flunking kindergarten...'course, as 40-somethings, it IS funny now!)

The Young Master is a December b-day, so he missed the cut-off date by nine days. What a lucky break that was! He was SO not ready to start kindergarten at 4yrs 9 mo. He's a smart kid, but he does. not. care. for school. One advantage that he's REALLY looking forward to is being among the first in his class to get his driver's license! (I'm an end of Sept. b-day, and I was among the last to get my license and it was a bummer!).

So, not knowing your child, I don't see where there would be anything wrong with keeping him/her home one more year. Kindergarten is NOT for babies. Gone are the days of playing with big red blocks, naps, and walking hand-in-hand to the cafeteria for a snack of juice and graham crackers. Kids are expected to know SO much before they even START school it's not even funny. They're getting exposed to algebra by 4th grade, and most will never master math concepts (I'll save that rant for another day). If you're not yet in a pre-school program, do that. Find one that focuses on kindergarten ready-ness (I understand both The Ranch and The Learning Center do, and they're close!) and do that.

I can't recall a time I've ever regretted waiting when I've had some hesitation/reservation about something. Go with your gut. Erring on the side of caution quite often gives you more options for making changes rather than jumping in to something and discovering that wasn't what you should have done.