My DD started K at 4 due to her Aug. birthday. She was the youngest in the school. She is 7 in 2nd and most of. Her peers are 8/9. She is doing fine academically. Socially she has always been awkward. Even as a toddler she would play alone or try to find older kids. Now she rather hang out with the teachers. If you are following the district guidelines why does it matter?
This is why my Mom who taught 4th grade for 20+yrs then was a school counselor is pro-redshirting. being younger then the typical kid in class can cause social issues especially around years where there are social development leaps and can lead to kids being ostracized or acting out (class clown or otherwise) and in her experience kids did better socially if they were redshirted so they were more in line with the other kids in the class.
As she put it in all her years she never had a parent regret redshirting but had more then a few parents who admitted regretting not redshirting and asked about retaining their child for a year.
I'll spare you the details of my own anecdotes(?), but I don't get the argument that "no one regrets redshirting, but people do regret not redshirting."
It stands to reason for me that those who do redshirt and then their kids still struggles would think "thank god we didn't send him early! He would have done worse!", even if that wouldn't have been true. And those who send their kids early, or as the youngest, would automatically blame their age, even if that's not the cause. Does that make sense?
Wait, how would you be 9 in 5th grade, even with summer birthdays (well 9 for most of the year anyway). My bday is in August. I started kinder after just turning 5 so ...
1st 6 (just turned) 2nd 7 3rd 8 4th 9 5th 10
I don't know how you would be 9 in 5th (for a long period anyway) unless you started K at 4 and remained 4 yrs for most of K. Which shouldn't be happening? Is there something I am missing? I am bad at math lol.
Anyway, I was fine being one of the youngest. I was and always have been super social. Never had an issues with academics.
ETA: Our district requires you to be 5 to start by 9/30, so you would only be 4 for like 2-3 weeks).
I had an October birthday and was skipped straight into 1st when I was 5, so I was definitely 9 for the first two months of 5th grade.
Wait, how would you be 9 in 5th grade, even with summer birthdays (well 9 for most of the year anyway). My bday is in August. I started kinder after just turning 5 so ...
1st 6 (just turned) 2nd 7 3rd 8 4th 9 5th 10
I don't know how you would be 9 in 5th (for a long period anyway) unless you started K at 4 and remained 4 yrs for most of K. Which shouldn't be happening? Is there something I am missing? I am bad at math lol.
Anyway, I was fine being one of the youngest. I was and always have been super social. Never had an issues with academics.
ETA: Our district requires you to be 5 to start by 9/30, so you would only be 4 for like 2-3 weeks).
Wait, how would you be 9 in 5th grade, even with summer birthdays (well 9 for most of the year anyway). My bday is in August. I started kinder after just turning 5 so ...
1st 6 (just turned) 2nd 7 3rd 8 4th 9 5th 10
I don't know how you would be 9 in 5th (for a long period anyway) unless you started K at 4 and remained 4 yrs for most of K. Which shouldn't be happening? Is there something I am missing? I am bad at math lol.
Anyway, I was fine being one of the youngest. I was and always have been super social. Never had an issues with academics.
ETA: Our district requires you to be 5 to start by 9/30, so you would only be 4 for like 2-3 weeks).
Psst. This thread is about skipping grades.
Wait, it is? My parents probably should have redshirted me bc I thought it was about sending on time vs redshirting.
Wait, how would you be 9 in 5th grade, even with summer birthdays (well 9 for most of the year anyway). My bday is in August. I started kinder after just turning 5 so ...
1st 6 (just turned) 2nd 7 3rd 8 4th 9 5th 10
I don't know how you would be 9 in 5th (for a long period anyway) unless you started K at 4 and remained 4 yrs for most of K. Which shouldn't be happening? Is there something I am missing? I am bad at math lol.
Anyway, I was fine being one of the youngest. I was and always have been super social. Never had an issues with academics.
ETA: Our district requires you to be 5 to start by 9/30, so you would only be 4 for like 2-3 weeks).
Psst. This thread is about skipping grades.
But the OP doesn't talk about skipping grades! It just says she wants to send her kid with a summer birthday now so her and her sibling aren't too far apart in grades. Then other people start talking about skipping grades OP is talking about starting her kid in K right before age 5 vs. red shirting.
But the OP doesn't talk about skipping grades! It just says she wants to send her kid with a summer birthday now so her and her sibling aren't too far apart in grades. Then other people start talking about skipping grades OP is talking about starting her kid in K right before age 5 vs. red shirting.
All you people got off topic
I don't consider that I'm off-topic when I was specifically mentioned in her original post (i.e., I was the one who was nine in fifth grade).
To tell you the truth, I am more interested in helping my kids develop traits like perseverance and determination than sheltering them their whole lives. The latter is not going to help them as adults.
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This is also something I need to hear. I know in my head this is the case, I just need to execute. I'm not a typical helicopter parent in that I never defend my kids to teachers, etc. but I am extremely guilty of sheltering them. I hate to see my kids struggle in anyway. I know it is going to be so difficult for me to watch them go through inevitable struggles at school and wonder whether it is bc of something I have done, but hopefully ill be able to convince myself the trials will make them stronger in the long run
I did struggle when I moved from 4th directly to 6th, especially in math. But I was able to get some extra help and then it was fine for the rest of the year.
I am really glad I did move up, because I was super high strung about having perfect grades. Moving up allowed me to have a more relaxed attitude about school and my self-worth.
Something happened when I was younger and I remember turning 6 in second grade. My mother bought these Pac-man cookies to school for my birthday and I thought they were nasty.
I was quiet and shy in elementary school and junior high - but I made a few really close friends.
I didn't feel any differently from anyone, but some people would make a big deal about it. But really, it's not that rare. I think my friend who was super short and got her period rather late (in high school) felt more self-conscious about her development than I did.
I ended up being 16 starting college, but I turned 17 in October. I wasn't really interested in drinking or going to bars in school - but if I were, it would have been easy to get alcohol as most people partied in their dorm rooms (yay for liberal arts schools in the middle of nowhere!).
Now I'm like two years younger than all of my college friends, which is TOTALLY awesome.
Oh wait - one point. If your child does skip a grade - don't set arbitrary age deadlines for her. Like my mother, who was awesome in all other ways, got it into her head that I shouldn't be allowed to wear make-up until I was 16, which meant when I was a senior in high school. I'm still pissed about that. I feel that had I been able to experiment with makeup at CVS like all the other 8th graders I would have mastered eyeliner.
Post by formerlyak on Feb 27, 2015 14:48:58 GMT -5
Both ds and I have July birthdays. We both started Kinder right after turning 5.
When I was little, there wasn't all this red shirting - that's just what you did. I turned out just fine - didn't get into any more or less trouble socially than my peers in my classes and attended one of the top universities in the country.
DS is a boy with a summer birthday so the question of red shirting was asked by many of my mom friends. We asked his pre-K teacher and she told us we'd be insane to red shirt him. He's smart and social and he'd be fine. There are kids that are a full year older than him in his class because they did red shirt. Academically, he is one of the top in his class (as reported by his teachers) and has a great group of friends, so I don't think starting him in Kinder at 5 was a bad choice at all for my kid. That said, we have a friend who has a son and his birthday is the exact same day as my son's buy one year earlier. They did red shirt. Their ds is a bit on the shy side, so it was likely the right choice for them.
I went from K to 2nd grade so was always the youngest in my class after that. I was 9 when I started 5th grade, 17 when I graduated HS, etc.
It happened early enough that social issues were not a factor. It was mildly annoying not being able to drive until jr year of HS or drink until senior year of college.
Butting in... my 10 year old is in 5th grade right now. When she starts 6th grade, she will still be 10. Her bday is in September, so she was a 4 year old K. She's the youngest in her grade, but one of the best students. She's in student council, honor choir, and is a kindergarten mentor.
I am a firm believer that it is child dependent. I wouldn't have had any trouble holding her a year, or having her repeat a grade if she honestly wasn't ready to move ahead. Fortunately she's done great, so I don't regret this decision. On my local board, one of the ladies is a K teacher, and she was adamant that children should not start K until they are 5, even 6 years old because they aren't mature enough. I disagreed and sent her anyway, obviously. At the time, our cutoff was 5 before October 15. Now it's 5 before July 31.
Wait, how would you be 9 in 5th grade, even with summer birthdays (well 9 for most of the year anyway). My bday is in August. I started kinder after just turning 5 so ...
1st 6 (just turned) 2nd 7 3rd 8 4th 9 5th 10
I don't know how you would be 9 in 5th (for a long period anyway) unless you started K at 4 and remained 4 yrs for most of K. Which shouldn't be happening? Is there something I am missing? I am bad at math lol.
Anyway, I was fine being one of the youngest. I was and always have been super social. Never had an issues with academics.
ETA: Our district requires you to be 5 to start by 9/30, so you would only be 4 for like 2-3 weeks).
Alissa was 9 for the first month of 5th grade. September birthday with a mid August start date.
I finished HS at 16, finished UG at 19, worked seven years and then went to grad school. Have been/had a President title since 29.
I'll admit, some of it was challenging, socially speaking, but it really pushed me to become more confident and articulate as I got older. I think that is why I was so driven to succeed!
I was 3 when I started school (November bday) and I was always the youngest in my grade. I can't remember anytime that I had any difficulties because of that.
The only thing that sucked was that in my senior year of high school, I still couldn't sign my own notes because I was still 17yrs old. And in college, I couldn't drink (legally) for 3 months. So much for frosh (?) week. Haha
I was 3 when I started school (November bday) and I was always the youngest in my grade. I can't remember anytime that I had any difficulties because of that.
The only thing that sucked was that in my senior year of high school, I still couldn't sign my own notes because I was still 17yrs old. And in college, I couldn't drink (legally) for 3 months. So much for frosh (?) week. Haha
If you started kindergarten at 3, you would not have graduated at 17.
I was 3 when I started school (November bday) and I was always the youngest in my grade. I can't remember anytime that I had any difficulties because of that.
The only thing that sucked was that in my senior year of high school, I still couldn't sign my own notes because I was still 17yrs old. And in college, I couldn't drink (legally) for 3 months. So much for frosh (?) week. Haha
If you started kindergarten at 3, you would not have graduated at 17.
Umm. Pretty sure I remember but whatevs. I graduated in June 2003 and was born November of 85.
My kids both have Summer birthdays and are the youngest in their classes. It has been fine. DD will be 9 for a week or two in 5th, but will be 10 for the vast majority of the year which is the norm for a 9/1 cut off. OP, are you talking about skipping a grade?
For or me, it was awesome because it allowed me to be en par with my older sister, so while we were always in different class groups, we were going through the same experiences throughout elementary/high school and even in college.
I enjoyed it.
Starting college at 16 was not challenging then, but I wish I would have taken a year off sometime, instead of focusing on finishing early.
I was 9 in 5th grade because I'm an August birthday and then I also skipped second grade. It was really no big deal to me except around major milestones like driving, drinking age, etc. like others have mentioned. I have recently realized that means I have to work 2 extra years before I reach retirement age, though, so that seems kinda unfair. Lol.
I was 3 when I started school (November bday) and I was always the youngest in my grade. I can't remember anytime that I had any difficulties because of that.
The only thing that sucked was that in my senior year of high school, I still couldn't sign my own notes because I was still 17yrs old. And in college, I couldn't drink (legally) for 3 months. So much for frosh (?) week. Haha
If you started kindergarten at 3, you would not have graduated at 17.
Ontario used to have grade 13/5 years HS. I was the 2nd last year. @teabag is also in Ontario.
Our age cutoffs are also totally different. There is no redshirting, and you enter a grade based on your year of birth, so cutoffs are Dec. 31. We also have JK so someone could be 3 for the first 4 months of the school year.
If you started kindergarten at 3, you would not have graduated at 17.
Ontario used to have grade 13/5 years HS. I was the 2nd last year. @teabag is also in Ontario.
Our age cutoffs are also totally different. There is no redshirting, and you enter a grade based on your year of birth, so cutoffs are Dec. 31. We also have JK so someone could be 3 for the first 4 months of the school year.
Ontario used to have grade 13/5 years HS. I was the 2nd last year. @teabag is also in Ontario.
Our age cutoffs are also totally different. There is no redshirting, and you enter a grade based on your year of birth, so cutoffs are Dec. 31. We also have JK so someone could be 3 for the first 4 months of the school year.
Ontario used to have grade 13/5 years HS. I was the 2nd last year. @teabag is also in Ontario.
Our age cutoffs are also totally different. There is no redshirting, and you enter a grade based on your year of birth, so cutoffs are Dec. 31. We also have JK so someone could be 3 for the first 4 months of the school year.
Well then I stand corrected.
It was the norm for so long I think a lot of people didn't know it wasn't a Canada-wide thing and forget it is odd.
i totally gapped that the U.S. might have different age cut offs and so on.
It's always on my mind since I work with schools, and the redshirting posts seem so foreign to me (not necessarily this post, but the fall ones about keeping kids out of kindergarten until well after 6.)
I think the almost blanket rule re: year here ends up making for smaller gaps between peers since the most will be 12 months.