Wide age spans of girls in a grade- what to expect?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You couldn't overthink this any more if you tried. I would not be at ALL surprised if you wrote these things out on a piece of paper. An Excel spreadsheet could be involved.

You need to unclench. You need to let this unfold however they unfold, and deal with whatever comes up. You can't predict or control or prepare. Relax.

I kind of agree.

My DD did early entrance, so she is always the youngest.

Some ‘older’ girls are fantastically sweet and kind. Some ‘older’ girls live off of drama. Same with the younger girls. Some girls got their periods in 4th grade. DD and her one other friend still haven’t gotten them.

Just wait and see what happens.

I have a sweet older girl. She's good at comforting the younger kids who get bothered by the more "mature" girls, but even she gets sick of how the "mature" ones dominate the spirit of the class.

[Anonymous]

You know where kids who have “during the school year” birthdays aren’t redshirted and there are no “unofficial cut offs?” Public school. It’s basically only the July-September kids who get held back a year in K, and not even all of them.

[Anonymous]

I find this a bit strange. My dd has an aug 30 birthday. I didn't redshirt her, and she's in all the advanced/honors track. She's 12 going into 8th now. 6th grade was bad for her - most of the kids had different interests. They had phones, were permitted to watch more mature content on tv, had access to social media, into makeup etc....my kid was literally still playing with dolls and running around on her bike. On top of that, she is 5th percentile for height/weight. I just told her to stick to what interested her and after some adjustment, she found a group of kids whose interests aligned more with her. 2 years in, these kids are *still* not really into dating/boys. They all do a sport together and one additional after school activity, and for the most part, they are all summer birthdays, so on the young side for their grade. I do think this group is much easier to find in a large public school, however. Something to consider. Also, I highly recommend sports as a way to get through this challenging time. It's the great equalizer and a good way to make friendships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IME it's not the girls' ages, it's the girls that have older, "mature" siblings that are the absolute worst. They start drama early, they bully early, they start dressing and acting much older than they are around 4th grade. Happened with both of my girls. My older one is an introvert and had such a hard time. My younger one saw what happened to my older daughter and, I think, was extra careful with her social interactions.

I agree that this is a factor, but it’s both.

My second child is a young for grade July birthday (plus a bit immature due to adhd) who I think is probably saved socially bc she has a cool older sister ha. She has no drama and doesn’t run with the cool crowd but can keep up with it all bc she’s up on the pop culture stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know where kids who have “during the school year” birthdays aren’t redshirted and there are no “unofficial cut offs?” Public school. It’s basically only the July-September kids who get held back a year in K, and not even all of them.

There are official cut offs for every public school, but some have test in flexibility for usually a month or two. Usually the cut off is sometime in September. Rarely is it july or august.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find this a bit strange. My dd has an aug 30 birthday. I didn't redshirt her, and she's in all the advanced/honors track. She's 12 going into 8th now. 6th grade was bad for her - most of the kids had different interests. They had phones, were permitted to watch more mature content on tv, had access to social media, into makeup etc....my kid was literally still playing with dolls and running around on her bike. On top of that, she is 5th percentile for height/weight. I just told her to stick to what interested her and after some adjustment, she found a group of kids whose interests aligned more with her. 2 years in, these kids are *still* not really into dating/boys. They all do a sport together and one additional after school activity, and for the most part, they are all summer birthdays, so on the young side for their grade. I do think this group is much easier to find in a large public school, however. Something to consider. Also, I highly recommend sports as a way to get through this challenging time. It's the great equalizer and a good way to make friendships.

My child has a similar birthday and we worried come high school but the spring/summer before high school they had a huge growth spurt and are still on the shorter side but look more mature and ready for high school. The height is probably genetic so holding back would not have helped.