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mad - kid in kindergarten has late birthday
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Anonymous
| Thee is a boy in my son's class who should be in first grade. He will be 7 in April. 7 year olds should be in first grade. Ridiculous. |
Anonymous
| Why would that make you mad? |
Anonymous
| Why do you care? |
Anonymous
| Its not normal to have a 7 year old April birthday in first grade, but its even less normal to be mad at it. |
Anonymous
| Wouldn’t care |
Anonymous
| Would you be just as mad if there was a child turning 5 in April in the class? |
Anonymous
| No typical but perhaps he has special needs or there is another reason. Who cares? MYOB |
Anonymous
| Does he exhibit behavioral issues? |
Anonymous
|
This doesn't make me mad, exactly, but this also happened to us (in both K and 1st actually -- a 7 yr old in K and an 8 yr old in 1st) and in both cases the reason we became aware of it was because the child in question was being aggressive towards other kids.
To be clear, I am NOT anti-redshirting, and especially with kids who have birthdays on the cusp, I don't really care. But in both of these cases it was a kid who didn't have a cusp birthday (the K kid turned 7 in February, the 1st grader turned 8 in September!) and I don't even think it was redshirting. I think the kids had special needs and could not start school on time and were effectively held back. And I guess in theory I get that, but trust me, when your 6 yr old comes home crying because the 8 yr old they sit next to in class has been getting aggressive with them (both physically and verbally), you definitely aren't enthusiastic about it. OP, in our case we asked that your young-for-the-grade child be moved to a different table and not paired with the older child for activities, and the teacher seemed fine with that request. Not much you can do about the kid's presence in class unless their behavior is really bad (and even then, not always much you can do) but you can make an effort to protect your kid from a much larger and older child if it's causing a safety or even just comfort problem for your kid. |
Anonymous
| I get it op. My late-August birthday girl was called a baby and told she belonged in pre-k because she was still 5 in the late spring of her kindergarten year, by the 7 year olds in the class. Blatant red-shirting skews the dynamics. |
Anonymous
You sent a 4 year old to kindergarten? |
Anonymous
DP. If they are 5 at the end of kindergarten and their next birthday is in August, then they could have been 4 for at most a couple of weeks depending on the start of the school year. This would be on time for kids in this area (Sept cut off). |
Anonymous
I hate this. Redshirt a summer birthday if you feel they aren't ready, but kids with a birthday during the year should not be redshirted at parent discretion (it should be the school's call) and if you do hold a kid like this back, teachers should be proactive about shutting down this kind of teasing/bullying. It happened to my kid too (early August birthday and a full 2 months before the cutoff of September 30th) and it was really frustrating because the attitude of some parents seems to be "if you don't like it, you should redshirt." But that's nuts. You should be able to send a child who is prepared on time and not assume they will get harassed by redshirted kids for being too small. |
Anonymous
Why not? My kid turned 5 last January. Her K class has had 3 birthday parties so far for kids who turned 5 in August or September. Sending a kid with a late summer/early fall birthday is expected and there’s nothing wrong with a kid finishing K at 5. |
Anonymous
|
We know plenty of redshirted by choice kids with summer birthdays…but if they redshirted an April birthday kid there is probably valid reason.
We know 2 kids who had to repeat K (not really the parents’ choice..school recommended or required). We know another who started K a year late due to medical issues (I don’t know the details but he had a stroke?! when preschool aged). None of the parents like to talk about it, for obvious reasons. It is fine. Why do you care so much? It doesn’t take anything away from your own child. |