Age breakdowns can be a headache. At my last church you had to calculate when a child would go to kindergarten to know what class they would be in, which I never quite understood and always had to have help from an Admin. Kindergarten can be one of the most difficult ages in the breakdown of a children’s ministry because they can’t read so they don’t quite fit with elementary, but they are also too old for preschool. So where do you put them?
In my current ministry the 5 year olds and kindergarten are fully apart of the elementary ministry. I’ve had them as part of Preschool, and I’ve also had 5 year olds as part of preschool with kindergarten as a transition year in their own room. But the way we currently have them has been my favorite.
The biggest reason is because you don’t have to transition an entire class at once. Instead of having 10 kids to teach how everything runs in the elementary service (something that can take up to 3 months), you have one student at a time learning what is expected and how to operate in the Elementary service and they learn classroom structure from the kindergarteners that are already in there. It goes much smoother. This also allows you time to talk with Mom and Dad when their birthday comes up as to what will change. Such as our students have a take home sheet that they can get a prize for if they bring it back completed once they get to the elementary service. The other small reason I like it is that no calendar math is required. I never have to figure out when a child enters kindergarten, because they are already in the class.
Age groupings can be tricky, and some of it depends on your school system and your kids. But think outside the box and figure out what is truly the best option for your kids, rather than you’ve always done it this way. You never know if there’s a better way until you try.
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