How old will your child be when they start college?

HImom
Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:07:48 +0000

My S turned 19 in November (he started college in Aug). It worked fine for him. D graduated form HS at 17 & turned 18 in Nov in community college. When she had started the U where she transferred to after 3 semesters of CC, she was 19. It worked well for both of them as they did a lot of growing in the months before they flew off to the U. I’m very glad they had that chance to stay closer to hom for a bit longer. Both my kids were Nov-born and the pediatrician said academically, S could have started kindergarten when he was 3 but socially, he’s never found any parents regret holding their kids back to give them more time to grow & be able to have a richer social life. It was a good choice for us, as both kids are smaller stature (can be an issue to consider if the kids are large starture compared with peers, as that is a difficult peer issue).

There was some concern that the kids were very intellectually gifted (S taught himself to read before he started preschool at 3), but they were both able to supplement what they were covering in school & keep themselves intellectually stimulated. Much depends on the balance the family is able to strike in meeting the children’s needs.