Actually controversial: redshirting summer kids

[niq]

Discuss. ETA this is for academics more than sports.

(redshirting="holding back" young five year old kids from kindergarten so that they start school as old kids instead of young kids)

I blame all wring words on Swype

[georgeharrison]

Tman's birthday is the end of July. He is the youngest kid in his class. Behavior wise, the difference of just a few months is evident. Academically, Tman is right there with the rest of the class - maybe even ahead of some of the children. Granted, he's only in 2nd grade, so we don't know how the years are going to progress. He says he hates being the youngest kid in his class, but I think the truth is that he is just jealous that the other kids are 8 when he's still 7.

I think that red-shirting should only been done with there is evidence that the child will not do well at their current age. I agree with spun that doing it for athletics is ridic.

[georgeharrison]

agree with @jennuinne often more appropriate for boys than girls.

[jennlin]

it *really* depends on the kids.

i'm a mid-august baby, and started "on time", which can be considered "early", cause i was a fresh-5yo in kindergarten. i turned out just fine, tyvm...often times, and usually, ahead of the class.

my brother, is a late august baby, and started "on time"/"early". he was *not* the head of the class. i can pin this for two reasons...one, he is male..and males tend to develop a little slower than females. two, my parents's english skills were more primitive then, and were unable to help my brother through school, whereas my parents had 5 more years of english experience, plus i had an older brother who was able to help me develop english-language skills that were used in class. my brother was in ESL for 4? 5? years. i was in ESL for 2.


i have NO idea what this means for sports.

[jennlin]

Mar 25, 2013 16:13:52 GMT -5 spunbutterfly said:

Mar 25, 2013 16:10:25 GMT -5 jennlin said:

i have NO idea what this means for sports.

If you have two freshmen in the same class:

15 year old, redshirted July baby 1998
14 year old, not redshirted July baby 1999

The 15 year old is usually physically more mature, bigger, stronger, and more focused/disciplined to make the cut on sports teams in schools, maybe even making varsity 'early'. This means he gets 4 years of high school sports, whereas the 14 year old will likely only get 3 years of high school sports.

This can impact position to play, star quality, and recruitment from colleges...

... which then in turn can impact pro eligibility and recruitment.

For example.

OMG. people DO this?! talk about forcing something onto the kids to live out the parents's dream!

[niq]

Mar 25, 2013 16:10:25 GMT -5 jennlin said:

i have NO idea what this means for sports.

There was a famous study of Canada's junior hockey leagues. An unusually large share of the players were born in the first months of the year ... because most kid hockey leagues in Canada use Jan 1 as the cutoff for age-based leagues. So starting at 6 or 8 or whatever if you are one of the older kids you play "better" because you're more developed physically. And so you get more attention from coaches, which gets you to play in leagues with better players, which helps you develop faster in the sport, etc.

After the study came out, other researchers were able to identify similar results across all sorts of sports and academics. Being just a few months older gives you a big advantage ... one-half a grade level or more in some situations.

I'm trying to find the study, but I thought I read somewhere UK has already started putting kids in kindergarten in half-year increments. If you turn 5 by September 1, you start school in September. But if you turn 5 between September 1 and March 1, you start school in March. All your classmates are within 6 months of each other instead of 12. They're considering moving to 4-month or 3-month groups even. (I think the plan is to put everyone in the same grade starting at ... 7 or 8?)

It's all totally a FWP/alpha parent worry, but I confess to thinking a lot about this, esp. since we will probably have an August baby...

[niq]

Mar 25, 2013 16:17:07 GMT -5 jennlin said:

Mar 25, 2013 16:13:52 GMT -5 spunbutterfly said:

If

This can impact position to play, star quality, and recruitment from colleges...

... which then in turn can impact pro eligibility and recruitment.

For example.

OMG. people DO this?! talk about forcing something onto the kids to live out the parents's dream!

Shrug. People do it for academics more than they do it for sports.

[sarack]

Mar 25, 2013 15:29:35 GMT -5 @jennuinne said:

Agree w/ pp. It should be done on a case by case basis, only if I child is not ready to start kindergarten and their birthday is on the cusp. I think this may more often be appropriate for boys than girls. I can understand the frustration of being the youngest kid, but I wouldn't hold my child back for that reason alone.

This baby will be a late July/early Aug baby. So, when the time comes, we'll evaluate it and decide if he is ready for school. If so, great. If not, he can wait a year.

this.