Does anyone petition to send their kids to K early?

[Anonymous]

Since red shirting is such a big topic these days, I was wondering if anyone did the opposite? In MoCo, you can petition to send your child to school a year earlier if the birthday is within a certain cut-off window. I was sent to school early and I was the youngest in my class. And I think I liked it. If I had to psychoanalyze myself, it may have made me more confident, because I felt like I could fail (I had a good excuse for it). Anyway, I was a straight A student and I think that other kids looked up to me. I am sure that I am making it all up and that I am projecting... Still, DD has a late September birthday and she is within the petition window. I am toying with the idea of maybe sending her early, but the whole red shirting discussion makes me wonder.

[Anonymous]

yes, some early octobers do this and frankly more should.

Maryland only moved off the Dec 31 cutff 10 or 15 years ago, mostly to game the NCLB tests by having older kids take them.

[Anonymous]

September doesn't make the cutoff? I thought it was Sep 30?

[Anonymous]

I was also the youngest in my class years and years ago, though redshirting was unheard of at that time. My experience was very different than yours, OP.

Our oldest DS was young for the grade. We sent him on time because he was ready and we didn’t know better. If I could do-over one parenting move, it would be that one. Academically, he was fine. Socially and emotionally, not so much.

What you need to be thinking about is not kindergarten, but rather the lunch table at middle school, the kid who cannot drive when all his peers can, the 17-year-old going to college. Our younger DS was going to be the youngest in his class and we did not send him. It has been 1000 times easier on every front.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was also the youngest in my class years and years ago, though redshirting was unheard of at that time. My experience was very different than yours, OP.

Our oldest DS was young for the grade. We sent him on time because he was ready and we didn’t know better. If I could do-over one parenting move, it would be that one. Academically, he was fine. Socially and emotionally, not so much.

What you need to be thinking about is not kindergarten, but rather the lunch table at middle school, the kid who cannot drive when all his peers can, the 17-year-old going to college. Our younger DS was going to be the youngest in his class and we did not send him. It has been 1000 times easier on every front.

I went to college at 16 and it was great. This is horrible adviec.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was also the youngest in my class years and years ago, though redshirting was unheard of at that time. My experience was very different than yours, OP.

Our oldest DS was young for the grade. We sent him on time because he was ready and we didn’t know better. If I could do-over one parenting move, it would be that one. Academically, he was fine. Socially and emotionally, not so much.

What you need to be thinking about is not kindergarten, but rather the lunch table at middle school, the kid who cannot drive when all his peers can, the 17-year-old going to college. Our younger DS was going to be the youngest in his class and we did not send him. It has been 1000 times easier on every front.

I went to college at 16 and it was great. This is horrible adviec.

I was 17 when I started college. It was really no big deal.

[Anonymous]

I know some families who did this, but none of the kids were allowed to start early. The county is very strict about it.

[Anonymous]

I might do this if I had a very verbal, big, and mature girl. There's one girl from my new mom's group who's just 8 weeks older than my DS but missed the cutoff. It's absurd to think she's only in K now, because she's always been light years ahead of my DS. I'm sure she's bored to tears in K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was also the youngest in my class years and years ago, though redshirting was unheard of at that time. My experience was very different than yours, OP.

Our oldest DS was young for the grade. We sent him on time because he was ready and we didn’t know better. If I could do-over one parenting move, it would be that one. Academically, he was fine. Socially and emotionally, not so much.

What you need to be thinking about is not kindergarten, but rather the lunch table at middle school, the kid who cannot drive when all his peers can, the 17-year-old going to college. Our younger DS was going to be the youngest in his class and we did not send him. It has been 1000 times easier on every front.

I went to college at 16 and it was great. This is horrible adviec.

+1

I agree. No way would I want to graduate when I am late 18 or early 19. No way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know some families who did this, but none of the kids were allowed to start early. The county is very strict about it.

Most people who do this start at private school, then after second grad or so, transfer in (the public school usually can not do anything about it). I have seen people do this when their children are exceptionally bright or when their child is not developmentally delayed in any way.

[Anonymous]

I know a family who tried in Virginia. Their child had to take exams in the core subjects and essentially had to score as if they had completed kindergarten. They missed the score by two questions and were denied. It is very hard to get the school to allow you to start early.

[Anonymous]

My child had a classmate whose parents tried to send her early. MoCo has an exam the child must pass. I'm assuming the child didn't pass because she ended up going to Kindergarten on time. From what I understand, the test has a list of over 20 words/sightwords the child must read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was also the youngest in my class years and years ago, though redshirting was unheard of at that time. My experience was very different than yours, OP.

Our oldest DS was young for the grade. We sent him on time because he was ready and we didn’t know better. If I could do-over one parenting move, it would be that one. Academically, he was fine. Socially and emotionally, not so much.

What you need to be thinking about is not kindergarten, but rather the lunch table at middle school, the kid who cannot drive when all his peers can, the 17-year-old going to college. Our younger DS was going to be the youngest in his class and we did not send him. It has been 1000 times easier on every front.

I turned 5 during fall of K, and wow, none of these things were ever a concern for me. I had no real sense of who was older or younger than me throughout school. I mean, middle school wasn't smooth, but I don't attribute it to being young at all (I attended a pretty rough middle school as a new kid).

The only annoying thing I can think of was that I was 17 for a couple of months as a freshman, and so I couldn't go out to bars/nightclubs with my friends for a little while. I finally felt challenged during my Ph.D. program, which I finished in my mid-20s. I say this just to say I don't think any of us can draw a definitive straight line between the decision to redshirt or not, and later outcomes. Some things may have happened irrespective of redshirting; some of it is just individual temperament.

I think there may be a bit of a confirmation bias going on on the part of some posters--if they thought about redshirting but didn't and there are negative outcomes later, they look back and think, "Holy cow, this is because I/my child started school too early. None of this would have happened if I had only held them out of school an extra year." It's pretty natural to want to control outcomes, and to look back and try to figure out what we could have done differently (just listened to an episode of Hidden Brain about this very phenomenon). When in reality, the negative (or positive) outcome may not have much to do with redshirting.

[Anonymous]

Yes, my mid-October birthday girl started early. Currently in 3rd grade and everything is going well. Her best friend is over a year older (September birthday - turned 9 at the beginning of 3rd grade, and my child turned 8 a month later). My daughter is on the small side. She's very bright and at the top of her class academically. I think she's in the right grade for her and can't imagine her being in 2nd this year instead, but I guess we'll see if there are challenges later. I was a late-October birthday and started K at age 4 and didn't have problems with it in high school, college, etc., and used that experience in deciding for my daughter.

[Anonymous]

I will keep the details vague, but my early elementary kid (who is young for grade) has a good buddy who is over one year younger. My kid recently told me a detail that, if true, suggest the buddy is probably on the extremes of intelligence. The buddy is tiny, but seems to be holding their own so far.