[lippylulu]

We adopted an 8 year old so we kept her Russian name as she already had her own strong identity. We started her in school a week after she came home and it has been a total success for us. That being said, an 8 year old is in a very different situation than a 4 year old. Our daughter had already attended school for 2 years so the familiarity with certain school routines was probably comforting to her. We also have GREAT ESL services in our school system (probably the best in the country---NYC) where the schools have a lot of experience helping immigrant kids adjust. We also were not that concerned about attachment issues with our daughter since we could see from the start she was not atatchment disordered. Attachment took time, but it wasn't necessary for us to keep her at our side at all times to foster the attachment relationship. A 4 year old has very different needs than an 8 year old and with a younger child I might be more inclined to hold off a bit longer to give the child more time at home with mom and dad. I would not worry too much about enrolling the first of the school year anyway. I really wanted our daughter to start on the first day with the other kids but she ended up starting a month late. The Principal told us not to worry and he was right. In fact, there is something to be said in favor of a child starting after the school year has already begun and the chaos and nervous tension of the first few weeks has subsided.