How to “redshirt” in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child with a mid September birthday started kindergarten at 4 last year. She had a wonderful experience both socially and academically. I'm so glad I did not redshirt her. Have some confidence in your kids, people.

This, sent my June birthday boy on time and no regrets. He regularly scores 98th percentile on his standardized testing and was identified in 2nd grade as gifted & talented. The research shows that putting your kid in a slightly older cohort challenges them more and holds them to higher standards, which ultimately sets them up for had work and success in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child with a mid September birthday started kindergarten at 4 last year. She had a wonderful experience both socially and academically. I'm so glad I did not redshirt her. Have some confidence in your kids, people.

This, sent my June birthday boy on time and no regrets. He regularly scores 98th percentile on his standardized testing and was identified in 2nd grade as gifted & talented. The research shows that putting your kid in a slightly older cohort challenges them more and holds them to higher standards, which ultimately sets them up for had work and success in life.

This is the norm in my parents' immigrant community (which I will not name, because it would derail the thread with racist replies).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child with a mid September birthday started kindergarten at 4 last year. She had a wonderful experience both socially and academically. I'm so glad I did not redshirt her. Have some confidence in your kids, people.

This, sent my June birthday boy on time and no regrets. He regularly scores 98th percentile on his standardized testing and was identified in 2nd grade as gifted & talented. The research shows that putting your kid in a slightly older cohort challenges them more and holds them to higher standards, which ultimately sets them up for had work and success in life.

This is the norm in my parents' immigrant community (which I will not name, because it would derail the thread with racist replies).

+1

DH was not raised in the US and always talks about how late we graduate HS here. It’s definitely seen as better to send a younger kid to school in some cultures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child with a mid September birthday started kindergarten at 4 last year. She had a wonderful experience both socially and academically. I'm so glad I did not redshirt her. Have some confidence in your kids, people.

My kid with an August birthday honestly struggled a bit in kindergarten due to maturity. But you know what, it was okay. We supported her, the teacher supported her, the school worked with her. A few years on, she's doing great.

Someone has to be the youngest. For my kid, it's helped her learn that she could do hard things, that it's okay to struggle with something new. She learned to be diligent and not get too down if something takes a bit longer to master. It can be hard to watch your kid go through something hard, but it's actually essential to their development as people. Why would you deprive a developmentally normal and otherwise perfectly healthy child the opportunity for that growth just to spare them the difficulty of "being the youngest"?

There are other ways this can go — we have a kid who is the youngest in the whole grade at school who is a constant problem behaviorally. But that’s when the school should step in. Ours shuffles him to a new class every time he has absolutely exhausted one of the teachers, but it seems like it would be better for him — and every other student who is being disrupted by his behavior, frankly, if the school would just hold him back. He is smart but not behaviorally where the others are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child with a mid September birthday started kindergarten at 4 last year. She had a wonderful experience both socially and academically. I'm so glad I did not redshirt her. Have some confidence in your kids, people.

My kid with an August birthday honestly struggled a bit in kindergarten due to maturity. But you know what, it was okay. We supported her, the teacher supported her, the school worked with her. A few years on, she's doing great.

Someone has to be the youngest. For my kid, it's helped her learn that she could do hard things, that it's okay to struggle with something new. She learned to be diligent and not get too down if something takes a bit longer to master. It can be hard to watch your kid go through something hard, but it's actually essential to their development as people. Why would you deprive a developmentally normal and otherwise perfectly healthy child the opportunity for that growth just to spare them the difficulty of "being the youngest"?

There are other ways this can go — we have a kid who is the youngest in the whole grade at school who is a constant problem behaviorally. But that’s when the school should step in. Ours shuffles him to a new class every time he has absolutely exhausted one of the teachers, but it seems like it would be better for him — and every other student who is being disrupted by his behavior, frankly, if the school would just hold him back. He is smart but not behaviorally where the others are.

Is your child’s behavior just immature or are there other issues at play? Because just holding them back might not solve the behavior issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child with a mid September birthday started kindergarten at 4 last year. She had a wonderful experience both socially and academically. I'm so glad I did not redshirt her. Have some confidence in your kids, people.

My kid with an August birthday honestly struggled a bit in kindergarten due to maturity. But you know what, it was okay. We supported her, the teacher supported her, the school worked with her. A few years on, she's doing great.

Someone has to be the youngest. For my kid, it's helped her learn that she could do hard things, that it's okay to struggle with something new. She learned to be diligent and not get too down if something takes a bit longer to master. It can be hard to watch your kid go through something hard, but it's actually essential to their development as people. Why would you deprive a developmentally normal and otherwise perfectly healthy child the opportunity for that growth just to spare them the difficulty of "being the youngest"?

There are other ways this can go — we have a kid who is the youngest in the whole grade at school who is a constant problem behaviorally. But that’s when the school should step in. Ours shuffles him to a new class every time he has absolutely exhausted one of the teachers, but it seems like it would be better for him — and every other student who is being disrupted by his behavior, frankly, if the school would just hold him back. He is smart but not behaviorally where the others are.

Is your child’s behavior just immature or are there other issues at play? Because just holding them back might not solve the behavior issues.

Sorry, I meant we have in our grade -- not my kid. The behavior has always seemed just immature to me, but of course I don't know if there are other issues. Either way, there should be another way aside from inflicting it on everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child with a mid September birthday started kindergarten at 4 last year. She had a wonderful experience both socially and academically. I'm so glad I did not redshirt her. Have some confidence in your kids, people.

My kid with an August birthday honestly struggled a bit in kindergarten due to maturity. But you know what, it was okay. We supported her, the teacher supported her, the school worked with her. A few years on, she's doing great.

Someone has to be the youngest. For my kid, it's helped her learn that she could do hard things, that it's okay to struggle with something new. She learned to be diligent and not get too down if something takes a bit longer to master. It can be hard to watch your kid go through something hard, but it's actually essential to their development as people. Why would you deprive a developmentally normal and otherwise perfectly healthy child the opportunity for that growth just to spare them the difficulty of "being the youngest"?

There are other ways this can go — we have a kid who is the youngest in the whole grade at school who is a constant problem behaviorally. But that’s when the school should step in. Ours shuffles him to a new class every time he has absolutely exhausted one of the teachers, but it seems like it would be better for him — and every other student who is being disrupted by his behavior, frankly, if the school would just hold him back. He is smart but not behaviorally where the others are.

Eh, the most challenging kid in DS's grade is an October birthday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child with a mid September birthday started kindergarten at 4 last year. She had a wonderful experience both socially and academically. I'm so glad I did not redshirt her. Have some confidence in your kids, people.

This, sent my June birthday boy on time and no regrets. He regularly scores 98th percentile on his standardized testing and was identified in 2nd grade as gifted & talented. The research shows that putting your kid in a slightly older cohort challenges them more and holds them to higher standards, which ultimately sets them up for had work and success in life.

This is the norm in my parents' immigrant community (which I will not name, because it would derail the thread with racist replies).

+1

DH was not raised in the US and always talks about how late we graduate HS here. It’s definitely seen as better to send a younger kid to school in some cultures.

LMAO. They graduate HS at 19 in South Korea and they are doing just fine.
It is not better but your own choice, it will not automatically benefit your child. I graduated HS at 16 and started college at 17. It impacted me negatively in social relationships. However, this won’t be everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child with a mid September birthday started kindergarten at 4 last year. She had a wonderful experience both socially and academically. I'm so glad I did not redshirt her. Have some confidence in your kids, people.

My kid with an August birthday honestly struggled a bit in kindergarten due to maturity. But you know what, it was okay. We supported her, the teacher supported her, the school worked with her. A few years on, she's doing great.

Someone has to be the youngest. For my kid, it's helped her learn that she could do hard things, that it's okay to struggle with something new. She learned to be diligent and not get too down if something takes a bit longer to master. It can be hard to watch your kid go through something hard, but it's actually essential to their development as people. Why would you deprive a developmentally normal and otherwise perfectly healthy child the opportunity for that growth just to spare them the difficulty of "being the youngest"?

There are other ways this can go — we have a kid who is the youngest in the whole grade at school who is a constant problem behaviorally. But that’s when the school should step in. Ours shuffles him to a new class every time he has absolutely exhausted one of the teachers, but it seems like it would be better for him — and every other student who is being disrupted by his behavior, frankly, if the school would just hold him back. He is smart but not behaviorally where the others are.

Is your child’s behavior just immature or are there other issues at play? Because just holding them back might not solve the behavior issues.

Sorry, I meant we have in our grade -- not my kid. The behavior has always seemed just immature to me, but of course I don't know if there are other issues. Either way, there should be another way aside from inflicting it on everyone else.

I'm the PP who has the kid who was very young for K and struggled a bit. I think what you are describing is a kid with special needs. If it's DCPS, likely the kid has been evaluated already and is simply being mainstreamed. Him being on the young end for the grade *might* exacerbate the behavioral issues but it's not the cause.

Especially in DCPS, where redshirting almost never happens at most elementary schools, being the youngest will not result in a kid be dramatically less mature than the rest of the class, because there will be other kids with birthdays around the same time even if they are a bit older. In my kid's K classroom, there were multiple kids with August and September birthdays, and they were on the less mature end for the classroom, especially when you compared them to the kids with October and November birthdays. The difference between 4 or just-5 and almost 6 can be pretty stark. The 4 year olds still cry when upset, get tired more easily, struggle to sit still. The 6 yr olds have largely outgrown those behaviors. So that's hard. But by first, the gap has shrunk considerably. In first grade, my kid was a model student.

Meanwhile, there have been a few disruptive kids in her classes. One of them was actually old for the grade -- started 1st grade at age 7, I think due to a neglect situation. She was immature both for her grade and her age (not her fault, I'm not criticizing this child) and really struggled at emotional regulation. None of the others were the youngest either. A consistently disruptive child over several years is not just too young. They have special needs. It's like how there's a range for when kids learn to read with ordinary instruction, but a child with dyslexia may still not be reading even on the late end of this window because they have a special need and require different instruction. It's not about age.

If the only concerns about a child is just that they are on the young end of the cohort and that might be hard, they should go on time IMO. It may in fact be hard. That's life. If they have no developmental issues, they will mature and overcome those early challenges, and be better off for it. And if they have undiagnosed issues, then that will become clear when getting older doesn't solve the issue, at which point the school and parents can look at their options. But there's no real point in holding them back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child with a mid September birthday started kindergarten at 4 last year. She had a wonderful experience both socially and academically. I'm so glad I did not redshirt her. Have some confidence in your kids, people.

This, sent my June birthday boy on time and no regrets. He regularly scores 98th percentile on his standardized testing and was identified in 2nd grade as gifted & talented. The research shows that putting your kid in a slightly older cohort challenges them more and holds them to higher standards, which ultimately sets them up for had work and success in life.

This is the norm in my parents' immigrant community (which I will not name, because it would derail the thread with racist replies).

+1

DH was not raised in the US and always talks about how late we graduate HS here. It’s definitely seen as better to send a younger kid to school in some cultures.

LMAO. They graduate HS at 19 in South Korea and they are doing just fine.
It is not better but your own choice, it will not automatically benefit your child. I graduated HS at 16 and started college at 17. It impacted me negatively in social relationships. However, this won’t be everyone.

Um okay why is that a funny post? Just stating that not all cultures view being older when you graduate as a good thing. Great for South Korea though!