oldest or youngest in class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it would be wiser to repeat first. I was always the youngest and while I survived, it didn't make life any easier.

Just think of middle school. Do you want your sensitive 11 year old trying to keep up socially with 13 year olds?

Don't you think she would be bored and stagnate if she repeated a grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it would be wiser to repeat first. I was always the youngest and while I survived, it didn't make life any easier.

Just think of middle school. Do you want your sensitive 11 year old trying to keep up socially with 13 year olds?

Or the reverse, an 11 year old with breasts and a period while peers in the same grade could still be 9.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter, supposed to start 2nd grade in DC, has a late November birthday. We can either keep her where she is, as the very youngest, or have her repeat 1st. Which is better, in the long run, do you think? She's academically strong but very sensititve.

if your daughter has a late November birthday, I can't see how she can be the very youngest. are you saying that you are coming from areas with different cut off date (say December 30) and are thinking about letting her continue in the grade she is already in, even though by DC cut off date when she started school now she would be one year behind? so are you asking if you should go with grade (where she is now) or with age (where she would be had she started in DC based on DC cut off date)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter, supposed to start 2nd grade in DC, has a late November birthday. We can either keep her where she is, as the very youngest, or have her repeat 1st. Which is better, in the long run, do you think? She's academically strong but very sensititve.

I can see how the wording of the OP is confusing now.

The way *I* took this is that OP's daughter is coming from an area with a different age cut off. Thus she is the YOUNGEST in her class now. So having her repeat first grade in school in DC wouldn't be REDSHIRTING. It would be putting her with kids her own age.

[Anonymous]

Eldest Ds is July bday. He had been thru two full years of preschool so we went ahed with k at just barely 5yrs old (year round school so started in July) . Now as a fourth grader I see immaturity getting in the way b/c most of the boys in class are a full year older. And girls are for the most part showing more maturity in the classroom setting. I thought it would be better for him to have older kids for role models, but now I am questioning that wisdom.

[Anonymous]

If she is 6, turning 7 in November then she'll be up to 15 months younger than some of her DC classmates. The cut off is Sept 30th here but our experience in a good (JKLM) public is that most of the Septembers and many Augusts are held. So your child would be 15 months younger than the August birthdays who were held and 14 months younger than the Septembers. We have a September birthday child who we held and across the grade at our school (100 kids) I'd say that 70% of Septembers were held and 25% of Augusts. So you are talking about very few kids over-all. So your child will definitely be the youngest but there will only be a 15 month spread.

The DC privates are a different scene all together and your child might be up to 20 months younger than kids who were red shirted with late spring birthdays. But in our DCPS experience, kids really aren't held back with early or mid summer birthdays and definitely not with spring birthdays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was always the youngest and smallest in my class but I graduated near the top of my high school class and went to Harvard at 17, where I struggled. If I had it to do over again I wouldn't have repeated a year in primary school, but I would have taken a year off between high school and college.

My senior year in high school I had classmates who were 1-2 years older and they were miserable, they were clearly ready to move on.

I have a youngest girl (August) who has always been top of her class, and I took a year off both between high school and during college and look forward to her doing the same if she chooses without ending up being born 2 years earlier than all the kids in her graduating class.

I also have an oldest (who ironically is the youngest in our family) with a Dec birthday and she is petite and somewhat immature and I am glad that DC had moved the cutoff (when she was born it was Dec 31st) because I think I would have made a decision that would not have worked so well for her.

Depends on the kid, especially in terms of academics. First grade is where the play based learning ends and school becomes school. If your kid can already do the reading and math, I wouldn't hold her back now.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a folder with her work that you can show to your DCPS school to find out where she is academically compared to where kids are in 1st and 2nd in the DCPS curriculum? Also, you could likely talk with the principal about the social climate at the school. For girls, social pressures start young. I think it would be an advantage to be among the older kids.

I am an earlier PP with a child that has a November birthday and is among the older children in her DCPS class and we are very happy with this. By age, she is not at all an outlier. I have not really paid attention since then, but in her K class almost a third of the class had fall birthdays so were her age or slightly older.

Also, one more time in case anyone has not figured it out yet. THIS IS NOT REDSHIRTING.

[Anonymous]

My child is the oldest with a Halloween birthday. It's sucks that she's can't move up.

[Anonymous]

My kid is being invited to birthday parties to classmates who are 2 years older than him.
It did not bother him until this year. He adds +1 to his actual age. He said he did not want to be considered younger than the others.

[Anonymous]

I repeated K and have a late July Bday, so I was always pretty much the oldest. I did just fine academically and socially. I always thougth it was pretty cool that I was one of the first ones to become a teenager, get my driver's license, vote, buy beer legally...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she is 6, turning 7 in November then she'll be up to 15 months younger than some of her DC classmates. The cut off is Sept 30th here but our experience in a good (JKLM) public is that most of the Septembers and many Augusts are held. So your child would be 15 months younger than the August birthdays who were held and 14 months younger than the Septembers. We have a September birthday child who we held and across the grade at our school (100 kids) I'd say that 70% of Septembers were held and 25% of Augusts. So you are talking about very few kids over-all. So your child will definitely be the youngest but there will only be a 15 month spread.

The DC privates are a different scene all together and your child might be up to 20 months younger than kids who were red shirted with late spring birthdays. But in our DCPS experience, kids really aren't held back with early or mid summer birthdays and definitely not with spring birthdays.

Which JMLK? Redshirting is not very common at Janney.

[Anonymous]

This should all be dependent upon your child. I have a late birthday and started K when I was four (back when they tested you first) and excelled. I was in class with people who were a year older due to late birthdays and have friends who were a little older but a grade behind for the same reason. I have another friend with a late birthday whose parents had him repeat Kindergarten and he's still a little embarassed by it. Have friends who redshirted their child so he could be at the 'top' of his class. Not sure its actually working. If your daughter can handle the work and adjusts socially let her move on to 2nd grade. If she still wants to take naps in class or play instead of doing work, she's not ready...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter, supposed to start 2nd grade in DC, has a late November birthday. We can either keep her where she is, as the very youngest, or have her repeat 1st. Which is better, in the long run, do you think? She's academically strong but very sensititve.

I can see how the wording of the OP is confusing now.

The way *I* took this is that OP's daughter is coming from an area with a different age cut off. Thus she is the YOUNGEST in her class now. So having her repeat first grade in school in DC wouldn't be REDSHIRTING. It would be putting her with kids her own age.

OP here-yes, sorry for the confusion.

[Anonymous]

A third of the class at our wotp dcps elementary has birthdays falling between july and november. Some even skip grades, imagine that.