How does redshirting work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've done both - redshirted and sent an August birthday on time. Oldest DS has an August birthday. He started school on time. He was small for his age - still is. He is now a senior in HS. Academically, he has always done fine in school. Socially, there have been a few hiccups on the way. 1st grade was a rough transition. 7th grade was really bad - there was one day he was crying because he couldn't open his locker. I am a little nervous about college. He will turn 18 and leave home a week later.

Second DS has a late September birthday. I redshirted him. He was VERY tall for his age - so not only was he the oldest in his class, he was head and shoulders taller than everyone. Academically he was advanced up until about 5th grade when everything seemed to even out. Socially, he fit right into his class until about 5th/6th grade. He went through puberty a little earlier than some of his friends. Around that time he seemed much older than a lot of his friends. He is now a freshman in high school. He is very athletic so physically he looks much older than many of his classmates.

Do I regret how I handled both situations? No. I made the right decision for the right child at the time.

.

Isn't this basically true regardless of when you start your kids? There's always social hiccups along the way, I was right in the middle (June bday back when the cut off was Dec. 31) and of course experienced social hiccups. My DH was redshirted (a million years ago) and experienced the usual social issues all along the way. Extreme immaturity is one thing, but thinking that redshirting your kid means smooth sailing in the social arena probably isn't going to be the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: My kid is only three, but their preschool is already talking about kindergarten readiness, and as they decide classrooms for next year the administrators asked some questions about our kindergarten plans. I had never heard of redshirting before, but my kid was born in early August. We live in Alexandria if that makes a difference. Sorry if this is all very obvious to everyone else but I am a first-time parent and I wasn’t sure about the logistics of this. It sounds like I can just choose whether to put my child in kindergarten right after he turns five or wait and do it right after he turns six, right? So far he is a little small for his age and tends to be very active and fidgety. I could see where giving him an extra year to mature and get a little bit more impulse control would probably make sitting at a desk for longer stretches a lot easier for him. On the other hand, he tends to do better with older kids, so it might be that he’d be happier as the youngest kid in the class versus being one of the older ones. I would love to hear perspectives and general information about how people make this decision so that I have some time to ponder and keep track of what’s happening with him.

If your kid does better with older kids, keep them with older kids and make a decision later to see how he is doing.

There is no reason to continue the race to the bottom by dumbing down or stunting kids by having them be artificially the oldest in academic or athletic settings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I started my kids on time, even though one of them arguably would have benefited from an extra year of preschool.

However, i did not want to have a 20-year-old high school senior. That's the other end of redshirting that nobody is talking about at all.

Preschool and grade school had its ups and downs since my kid was the youngest in the class, but now she's a star student in high school and will graduate HS at 17.

Think about both ends of redshirting, OP.

So, your DD will graduate at 17. Yet, you say that had you redshirted her, she would have graduated at 20? Do you not see a problem with this calculation?

I'd much prefer to have an 18 year old at graduation. I wouldn't want a 20 year old high school senior, either. And, that is not what happens.

Here is that 20 year old high school student again. That means if you redshirted your kid (graduated at 18, redshirted) they would have to be retained twice to graduate at 20. Pretty sure that never happens to anyone, ever.

Someone who redshirts will be 19 when the are in highschool and there are older redshirts (I know of Feb (!!) bdays who will redshirt who will be 20 when they graduate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: My kid is only three, but their preschool is already talking about kindergarten readiness, and as they decide classrooms for next year the administrators asked some questions about our kindergarten plans. I had never heard of redshirting before, but my kid was born in early August. We live in Alexandria if that makes a difference. Sorry if this is all very obvious to everyone else but I am a first-time parent and I wasn’t sure about the logistics of this. It sounds like I can just choose whether to put my child in kindergarten right after he turns five or wait and do it right after he turns six, right? So far he is a little small for his age and tends to be very active and fidgety. I could see where giving him an extra year to mature and get a little bit more impulse control would probably make sitting at a desk for longer stretches a lot easier for him. On the other hand, he tends to do better with older kids, so it might be that he’d be happier as the youngest kid in the class versus being one of the older ones. I would love to hear perspectives and general information about how people make this decision so that I have some time to ponder and keep track of what’s happening with him.

If your kid does better with older kids, keep them with older kids and make a decision later to see how he is doing.

There is no reason to continue the race to the bottom by dumbing down or stunting kids by having them be artificially the oldest in academic or athletic settings.

+1.

OP - what 3 year olds aren't very active and fidgety? When my DS was 3, the preschool he was in did an evaluation of each kid and then painted this scary picture of poor fine motor skills and it'll be so much work to get him where he needs to be. We changed preschools the following year (not based on that) and that preschool urged me to have DS tested to start kindergarten early (mid-Sept. bday), they felt he was ready, hungry to learn, and we should take advantage of it.

I wouldn't be thrilled with a preschool evaluting 3 yr olds on readiness for kindergarten. So much can change in a year and I don't think a fair number of preschool administrators are qualified to make the call in the first place. Both of our preschools were highly regarded, which one was I to believe in their evaluations of our son?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Someone who redshirts will be 19 when the are in highschool and there are older redshirts (I know of Feb (!!) bdays who will redshirt who will be 20 when they graduate.

Let's say you turned 20 in February of the year you graduated. That means you were 19-20 in 12th, 18-19 in 11th, 17-18 in 10th, 16-17 in 9th, 15-16 in 8th, 14-15 in 7th, 13-14 in 6th, 12-13 in 5th, 11-12 in 4th, 10-11 in 3rd, 9-10 in 2nd, 8-9 in 1st, 7-8 in K. That is, you started K at 7 and 6 months.

How do you start K at 7 and 6 months without having been delayed two years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Someone who redshirts will be 19 when the are in highschool and there are older redshirts (I know of Feb (!!) bdays who will redshirt who will be 20 when they graduate.

Let's say you turned 20 in February of the year you graduated. That means you were 19-20 in 12th, 18-19 in 11th, 17-18 in 10th, 16-17 in 9th, 15-16 in 8th, 14-15 in 7th, 13-14 in 6th, 12-13 in 5th, 11-12 in 4th, 10-11 in 3rd, 9-10 in 2nd, 8-9 in 1st, 7-8 in K. That is, you started K at 7 and 6 months.

How do you start K at 7 and 6 months without having been delayed two years?

If you redshirt your DC in K and then retain them some point, that's how. If you think that doesn't happen, you don't know much about private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Someone who redshirts will be 19 when the are in highschool and there are older redshirts (I know of Feb (!!) bdays who will redshirt who will be 20 when they graduate.

Let's say you turned 20 in February of the year you graduated. That means you were 19-20 in 12th, 18-19 in 11th, 17-18 in 10th, 16-17 in 9th, 15-16 in 8th, 14-15 in 7th, 13-14 in 6th, 12-13 in 5th, 11-12 in 4th, 10-11 in 3rd, 9-10 in 2nd, 8-9 in 1st, 7-8 in K. That is, you started K at 7 and 6 months.

How do you start K at 7 and 6 months without having been delayed two years?

If you redshirt your DC in K and then retain them some point, that's how. If you think that doesn't happen, you don't know much about private school.

Right, that's two years. You only graduate from high school at age 20 if you were redshirted twice.

[Anonymous]

If you redshirt your DC in K and then retain them some point, that's how. If you think that doesn't happen, you don't know much about private school.

This is a whole different issue than redshirting your late birthday kid for K. And, public schools would not do this. Retention is very uncommon. i knew a family that regretted starting their late birthday child and wanted him to repeat. The school would not let him. They moved when he was in middle school and the school allowed them to place him in 7th instead of 8th. It was a whole new world for the child and the family. Mom said that had she been able to do it over, they would have kept him out for K and started him the following year. This was not a slow child--just young and immature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Someone who redshirts will be 19 when the are in highschool and there are older redshirts (I know of Feb (!!) bdays who will redshirt who will be 20 when they graduate.

Let's say you turned 20 in February of the year you graduated. That means you were 19-20 in 12th, 18-19 in 11th, 17-18 in 10th, 16-17 in 9th, 15-16 in 8th, 14-15 in 7th, 13-14 in 6th, 12-13 in 5th, 11-12 in 4th, 10-11 in 3rd, 9-10 in 2nd, 8-9 in 1st, 7-8 in K. That is, you started K at 7 and 6 months.

How do you start K at 7 and 6 months without having been delayed two years?

There are plenty of 16 year olds in the sporty/all-boys schools as freshman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I started my kids on time, even though one of them arguably would have benefited from an extra year of preschool.

However, i did not want to have a 20-year-old high school senior. That's the other end of redshirting that nobody is talking about at all.

Preschool and grade school had its ups and downs since my kid was the youngest in the class, but now she's a star student in high school and will graduate HS at 17.

Think about both ends of redshirting, OP.

So, your DD will graduate at 17. Yet, you say that had you redshirted her, she would have graduated at 20? Do you not see a problem with this calculation?

I'd much prefer to have an 18 year old at graduation. I wouldn't want a 20 year old high school senior, either. And, that is not what happens.

There is something else going on there, it’s not redshirting at that point. Maybe the child was retained twice?? Most kids who are redshirted have September or Summer birthdays, meaning they will be 18 and turn 19 in the next couple of months after graduation. I guess there are some early June/ May redshirts, but this is more the exception. So most 18 at graduation, not 19. For them to be 20 or nearly 20 they would have had to be retained. And this is an exceptional circumstance. My redshirt kid is a few days before our current off and would automatically be the oldest in 40 states.


Here is that 20 year old high school student again. That means if you redshirted your kid (graduated at 18, redshirted) they would have to be retained twice to graduate at 20. Pretty sure that never happens to anyone, ever.

Someone who redshirts will be 19 when the are in highschool and there are older redshirts (I know of Feb (!!) bdays who will redshirt who will be 20 when they graduate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I started my kids on time, even though one of them arguably would have benefited from an extra year of preschool.

However, i did not want to have a 20-year-old high school senior. That's the other end of redshirting that nobody is talking about at all.

Preschool and grade school had its ups and downs since my kid was the youngest in the class, but now she's a star student in high school and will graduate HS at 17.

Think about both ends of redshirting, OP.

So, your DD will graduate at 17. Yet, you say that had you redshirted her, she would have graduated at 20? Do you not see a problem with this calculation?

I'd much prefer to have an 18 year old at graduation. I wouldn't want a 20 year old high school senior, either. And, that is not what happens.

There is something else going on there, it’s not redshirting at that point. Maybe the child was retained twice?? Most kids who are redshirted have September or Summer birthdays, meaning they will be 18 and turn 19 in the next couple of months after graduation. I guess there are some early June/ May redshirts, but this is more the exception. So most 18 at graduation, not 19. For them to be 20 or nearly 20 they would have had to be retained. And this is an exceptional circumstance. My redshirt kid is a few days before our current off and would automatically be the oldest in 40 states.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Someone who redshirts will be 19 when the are in highschool and there are older redshirts (I know of Feb (!!) bdays who will redshirt who will be 20 when they graduate.

Let's say you turned 20 in February of the year you graduated. That means you were 19-20 in 12th, 18-19 in 11th, 17-18 in 10th, 16-17 in 9th, 15-16 in 8th, 14-15 in 7th, 13-14 in 6th, 12-13 in 5th, 11-12 in 4th, 10-11 in 3rd, 9-10 in 2nd, 8-9 in 1st, 7-8 in K. That is, you started K at 7 and 6 months.

How do you start K at 7 and 6 months without having been delayed two years?

There are plenty of 16 year olds in the sporty/all-boys schools as freshman.

Really plenty? This is not a thing, Stop trying to
Perpetuate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have end of August child whose birthday is 3 days before cut-off and we kept him back, in part because he was still napping at age 4 and still having accidents then, too. It was definitely the right decision. He is in middle school and that extra year helped him tremendously with maturity (willingness to sit down and do homework for example). He is also under 50% percentile for size in his age, and so he has never been the largest in the class, nor the smallest. He is also not that far ahead in terms of birthday - there have always been kids with September and October birthdays in his class, but really, one of his best friends since first grade is 11 months younger than him, so the age range has never been an issue.

It's hard to know what to do at this age, but trust your instincts.

My kid is the counter-factual to this one: the description sounds similar (still napping, still having accidents, not able to sit still for long periods of time) but we sent him to K on time. I'm only 18 months in but have had a lot of regrets. We had to keep reminding teachers who imply there may be a diagnosis in his future that he's the youngest in the class and maybe they should give him some time to mature. Especially given all the kids who did red-shirt, he's over a year younger than several kids in his class. It's getting better mid-first grade and maybe I'll be happy about our decision by high school, but right now it just feels like we made things unnecessarily difficult for him.

[Anonymous]

I taught K. The largest kid in my class one year was also the youngest. I constantly had to remind myself that he had just turned 5. He acted like the youngest but looked like the oldest. And, no, he wasn't slow--he was plenty smart. He was just very immature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've read several threads on DCUM where people hotly debate the pros and cons of redshirting, and it's never quite made sense to me. Assuming you're sending your kid to public school, why not just send him to kindergarten on time and avoid the expense of daycare/preschool for an additional year? If there's an issue with readiness/maturity/etc., he can repeat kindergarten based on the advice of his teachers. If not, then he can move on to first grade. No need to stress about the decision. Just see how he does in kindergarten and, if need be, he can repeat it.

I don't know about this. My kids would have been devastated to stay back in K while their friends moved on to the next grade.