My 5 year old daughter is having to repeat Prep next year. She is a LONG way behind standard so it needs to happen now. We have had some incredible upheaval in the past 2 years and this has most definitely affected her, and her first year at school. She goes to a fantastic small school, and I dont blame the teachers at all, my husband however does. I feel awful, like we have failed her terribly. I'm noticing a lot of signs of anxiety and regression that's becoming more and more evident as the year goes on. Does anyone that has repeated a girl have any advice to make it easier for her, and how to go about helping the anxiety?
She is quite a popular young miss but 3ven so so Im concerned about the social aspect.
Daughter repeating a year
Daughter repeating a year
Posted in:
Parenthood Guilt, Education, Kids
6 Replies
Repeating a prep year is much easier than repeating later on. You are doing the right thing by her - she will gain so much confidence and independence. Its not a blame game- some kids need more time to grow and thrive. You are doing the best thing possible for her future. Pushing her into grade 1 would be detrimental to her development and learning.
Kids will adjust, but I get the social side of things.
Repeat her in prep
If you let her continue into year one she’ll fall further behind, and then she’ll end up just refusing.
My sister repeated and she blossomed in that year. She went from the child who would hand in the least possible level of work and was about to be assessed for intellectual disability to the child who was middle of the road.
I think being away from her friends actually worked in her favour as her friends had started to see her as someone who needed help and couldn’t do things, and were making the situation worse.
Also the more negative or sad you are about the situation the harder it will make it for your daughter. She is still only five and many kids won’t even have started school yet at her age.
It’s important she is cushioned from any adult emotions.
Get to a psychologist to treat the anxiety. The problem is that the overthinking and worry and stress can actually stop the brain from working and learning. The other problem is that often what the teacher says is not the same at all as what the child thinks and feels. There is great help and strategies available, get on them as soon as you can.
I repeated my daughter for 4 year old kinder. She is already 6 (turned 6 in September) and starts prep next year.
She had a speech delay and her confidence was very low.
Repeating her was THE beat thing we could have done for her. She is a new child this year, all caught up with fantastic confidence and some great friends.
Don’t feel bad, roll with it! All kids learn at different paces, some take a little longer. It’ll be the best thing you can do!!