NOT redshirting august DS

[Anonymous]

Above poster adding that I like the idea that he could take a gap year after high school if he wants and still enter college at 19.

In the younger grades, you do have to make sure your age appropriate son is not being compared developmentally and emotionally to the kids that are over a year older than him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Above poster adding that I like the idea that he could take a gap year after high school if he wants and still enter college at 19.

In the younger grades, you do have to make sure your age appropriate son is not being compared developmentally and emotionally to the kids that are over a year older than him.

What good is a gap year if they were not as ready or mature in high school as they should have done and the grades reflect that? The damage is done.

[Anonymous]

Public vs private will really make the differnce here. If you enroll your kid in a private where "everyone does it" you probably will have more regrets than if you send him to a public that takes cutoff seriously.

[Anonymous]

NP. We did not redshirt our September boy. Nor did our family friends. We knew of 4 or 5 other one-time fall boys as well.

Every single boy had a very rough first few years of school. Constantly on red, sent to the office, calls and emails from the teachers. By upper elementary school, that had mostly straightened out and our DS as well as the other boys matured and grew out of being wild children, being trouble boys. But those first few years of school were hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Above poster adding that I like the idea that he could take a gap year after high school if he wants and still enter college at 19.

In the younger grades, you do have to make sure your age appropriate son is not being compared developmentally and emotionally to the kids that are over a year older than him.

What good is a gap year if they were not as ready or mature in high school as they should have done and the grades reflect that? The damage is done.

I agree, reassess in 5th and 8th.

[Anonymous]

It has been fine for my August birthday boy. The only difficulty is sports, where other kids are older. He still wouldn’t want to be a grade below where he is now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Above poster adding that I like the idea that he could take a gap year after high school if he wants and still enter college at 19.

In the younger grades, you do have to make sure your age appropriate son is not being compared developmentally and emotionally to the kids that are over a year older than him.

What good is a gap year if they were not as ready or mature in high school as they should have done and the grades reflect that? The damage is done.

Why hold a perfectly ready child back at kindergarten? If you see the child struggling at 8th, then reassess. You don’t have that option if you hold your kid back at K unless you want to have them be 2 years older than the other kids in their graduating class. My July 8th grader is doing well and I’m glad we started him on time. I don’t think any future struggles in high school would be different if he was a year older.

We didn’t consider gap year timing when he started K as we didn’t consider holding him back. But when posts like this, it crosses my mind.

[Anonymous]

I have a late June boy who went to school on time. He's one of the younger and smaller kids, but he has super short parents so a year wouldn't make much of a difference in size. He's in 8th grade is currently a year ahead in math.

I also have an October girl who went to kindergarten at 4. She wasn't reading at the time (so not like a genius or anything), but she was socially/emotionally ready. She's in 6th grade, and I'm really thankful that she's one of the youngest girls in her grade.

[Anonymous]

We didn't redshirt our August boy, and ended up having to hold him back in 2nd. It worked out bc of the pandemic, but in retrospect, I think I was a little arrogant in thinking he would rise to the challenge. He has ADHD and dyslexia though that weren't apparent in K, and weren't diagnosed until 2nd, so that was certainly a factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Above poster adding that I like the idea that he could take a gap year after high school if he wants and still enter college at 19.

In the younger grades, you do have to make sure your age appropriate son is not being compared developmentally and emotionally to the kids that are over a year older than him.

What good is a gap year if they were not as ready or mature in high school as they should have done and the grades reflect that? The damage is done.

Why hold a perfectly ready child back at kindergarten? If you see the child struggling at 8th, then reassess. You don’t have that option if you hold your kid back at K unless you want to have them be 2 years older than the other kids in their graduating class. My July 8th grader is doing well and I’m glad we started him on time. I don’t think any future struggles in high school would be different if he was a year older.

We didn’t consider gap year timing when he started K as we didn’t consider holding him back. But when posts like this, it crosses my mind.

Because kindergarten is just one year? We thought ahead thru senior year not just whether a 4 yr old could keep pace. It's a journey, not a race. My July 7th grader is also doing well and as it turned out he's a very late bloomer. It would have been a disaster to be the smallest and youngest 8th grader. No regrets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you have a good grasp of K expectations and feel like your son is ready. I’d go ahead and send him. I have a July boy that we didn’t consider redshirting and will be entering high school this year. Academically he’s great, socially he’s fine, but he is on the smaller side. You never really know when they’ll grow. Two other July boys on his team grew “early” and tower over most of the other kids.

+1 if he's been on track in preschool, he will be bored with another year of it. Don't just redshirt because "other people are doing it" - it shouldn't be a default.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Above poster adding that I like the idea that he could take a gap year after high school if he wants and still enter college at 19.

In the younger grades, you do have to make sure your age appropriate son is not being compared developmentally and emotionally to the kids that are over a year older than him.

What good is a gap year if they were not as ready or mature in high school as they should have done and the grades reflect that? The damage is done.

Why hold a perfectly ready child back at kindergarten? If you see the child struggling at 8th, then reassess. You don’t have that option if you hold your kid back at K unless you want to have them be 2 years older than the other kids in their graduating class. My July 8th grader is doing well and I’m glad we started him on time. I don’t think any future struggles in high school would be different if he was a year older.

We didn’t consider gap year timing when he started K as we didn’t consider holding him back. But when posts like this, it crosses my mind.

Because kindergarten is just one year? We thought ahead thru senior year not just whether a 4 yr old could keep pace. It's a journey, not a race. My July 7th grader is also doing well and as it turned out he's a very late bloomer. It would have been a disaster to be the smallest and youngest 8th grader. No regrets.

Does your school year start in July? If not, your child would have been 5, not 4 when he could have started kindergarten. We also thought it through and felt like our child was ready to start his journey on time with his peers and didn’t need the extra year and be older than most. We’re certainly not trying to win a race (if we were trying to “win” we would have held him back to get that advantage). Glad it’s working out for both of us.

Someone has to be the smallest in any group. I looked at the middle school boys (grades 6-8) at my son’s school and realized we would have needed to keep him back two years in order for him be in the taller half and he still wouldn’t be the tallest in the grade.

[Anonymous]

We never even considered redshirting our Aug DS, but we had the same experience with people being surprised we weren't. After one week of kindergarten is was SO glad we didn't. You could tell he was immediately thriving on the increased rigor of kindergarten. I cannot imagine what he would be like if he was doing another pre-k year. I honestly think a lot of parents blame not redshirting on issues with behavior, academics, and sports down the road, but I have to wonder how much that one year is really the cause in those cases.

You know your kid best, but it sounds like he's ready.

[Anonymous]

My August boy who started on time is doing great as a high school freshman and I think may have struggled if held back (he gets annoyed easily by less mature kids and has always gravitated towards an older crowd).

That said, we know another kid his age who would have benefitted from the extra year. It’s so hard to know at age 5 but I think you just need to make a guess based on what you know about your kid.

[Anonymous]

I did not redshirt my oldest son with an August bday because there didn’t seem any pressing reason to do so, and that I would only be doing it for competitive reasons and not because he wasn’t ready for school.

My husband and I were also both young for our grades and thought it was fine.