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School-age starting considerations

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Kerry:
Something to consider when enrolling your child in school.

Research has shown that a 5-year-old with 10-months of living as a five-year-old is considerably more "woke" than a child who just turned five.* However, both start school at "age five," and both unfairly compete with each other throughout life.

Adam Grant, during one of his mind-expanding podcasts, discussed with guest Malcolm Gladwell (an equally acknowledged intellect), the significant performance differences (K-12) between any two five-year-old children born the same year, one born January first, the other born, later in the year, say October 31.

The conclusion? Ideally wait until your child has seven or more months of being a five-year-old so that their "street" smarts (their intellectual and emotional intelligence) is at least as high as 50% of their classmates.  And, they won't have to compete, K through 12, with children 7 months smarter. Not to worry, most parents who read this will not/cannot wait, often child-care/budgets are determining factors.

* Months-older children are slightly** better coordinated and often appear (even to other five-year-old's) to be slightly more mature; they are often chosen first for games. You and I forget how perceptive we were at age five, we just wouldn't play with "those kids."

** Research has shown that Talent Scouts for various professional sports usually end up choosing older five-year-olds because those children are better coordinated than the younger 5-year-olds. For example: Of a group of five-year-olds trying out for any sport, 80% of those selected for future training have been five-years-old for more than 7 months. [per a study of all (yes all) Canadian hockey teams].

Last edited 3/14/24

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