Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar with "Junior First". Are you sure he won't be going into 2nd grade next year? He'll definately stand out as he'd be a full year older than the other kids.

No it's a transition year between K and 1st, I'm in the Baltimore area and a lot of the prep schools have this option

Well it appears to be just a single year of redshirting, not 2 years like OP claims. So perhaps this child has some special needs that required both redshirting for K and "pre-first." In any event she should MYOB.

https://www.gilman.edu/academics/pre-first

Not sure where I claimed the kid was redshirted 2 years. He started K at 5.75 years old which is the correct time for him to have started- if he was born in late fall, he was 5 when he started K and was on the older end of kids in the class. Now, at the end of K, instead of going on to first grade he is going on to the transition class. He will do first grade the year after that. So he is being "held back" one year. The fact that makes him super old compared to other kids is that he was already on the older end starting K, it's not like he was an august birthday.

My son had a classmate in PreK with a July birthday (making her the youngest one in the class). The mother decided to put her in PreK again (the preschool calls it transitional). I didn't bat an eye over it and it must be common if this school has a name for it.

I was one of the youngest in my class. I had no issues. My classmates were just that. The only time age came up was when people were getting their drivers licenses many many many years later. It's a big deal because you make it a big deal.

If this is a private and you are in a public school it doesn't affect you at all. The Baltimore privates have a different time scale for the kids that I don't quite understand. Redshirting is not universal like this in the public schools. People who do it usually have summer birthday kids, so the age range for the class only expands by another 2-3 months or so. If people hold back fall kids, it is probably for profound delay reasons. Don't worry about sending your kid on time. I have a summer birthday child sent on time to a fairly competitive public school and it was fine. Not everyone with summer birthdays were redshirted.

Anonymous wrote:
Sigh. No one cares.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both situations.

If you don't care don't read and don't post. The headline was very clear. And speak for yourself. I care and agree with OP.

I’m not entirely we need another thread on this but if possible, don’t let your attitude / your fears impact your kid.

I was a young for the grade kid myself and at times I asked why there were kids over a year older than me in my grade. My parents told me - some people think their kids needed more time to be ready, but we thought *you* were ready. I think that’s a powerful message and it’s what I tell my young for the grade kid too, on the rare occasions it comes up.

I do know it’s hard to see the kids over a year older in kindergarten but the difference does decrease as the kids get older. My kid is older now and I really don’t think about it anymore.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar with "Junior First". Are you sure he won't be going into 2nd grade next year? He'll definately stand out as he'd be a full year older than the other kids.

No it's a transition year between K and 1st, I'm in the Baltimore area and a lot of the prep schools have this option

Well it appears to be just a single year of redshirting, not 2 years like OP claims. So perhaps this child has some special needs that required both redshirting for K and "pre-first." In any event she should MYOB.

https://www.gilman.edu/academics/pre-first

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar with "Junior First". Are you sure he won't be going into 2nd grade next year? He'll definately stand out as he'd be a full year older than the other kids.

No it's a transition year between K and 1st, I'm in the Baltimore area and a lot of the prep schools have this option

I seriously doubt the child is going into 1st again next year. That would be double redshirting. OP should MYOB.

It's Baltimore. That's how they roll.

Poor kid, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar with "Junior First". Are you sure he won't be going into 2nd grade next year? He'll definately stand out as he'd be a full year older than the other kids.

No it's a transition year between K and 1st, I'm in the Baltimore area and a lot of the prep schools have this option

I seriously doubt the child is going into 1st again next year. That would be double redshirting. OP should MYOB.

You can’t afford private school, but you can afford to do whatever you have been doing for the last five years though, right? Or if your kid had been born in October instead of August you would have been totally screwed?

I have a 3rd grade with a May bday. In earlier grades he seemed younger than most due to his maturity. His bffs both had September birthdays so their sheer physical coordination was superior. Marked differences for kids with this 6-8 month spread.

But at least in DC schools, we tend to have kids from throughout the year. Birthday graphs are always it seems decorations in the room so you can visually see how many younger/older kids there are.

Keep supporting your kiddo, trust the teachers, and in the end, hopefully everyone will be successful adults.

Incidentally two of my best friends growing up were had birthdays of November 1 & 11, the one friend being almost exactly 354 days younger than the other. Both fared well, had friends, and enjoyed school. Their parents projected to them they were in the right grade, period.

Just call it holding a kid back. Call it what it is.

red shirting refers to sports which is not why the majority of people are doing it.

this is by and large an attack on our boys. teachers just don't want to 'deal' with boys

Hey op, I sympathize. My August birthday girl will forever be the youngest in her class. And she knows it and hates it. Mentioned it all the way through K how she was ‘still 5’ and hadn’t lost teeth yet.

Our town did a comparison to towns around us last year because the school board was getting so many complaints. 27% of our k-5 kids failed to start school on time. Surrounding towns were 12-18%. This is in Boston.

That poor kid. How embarrassing.

Anonymous wrote:What is "junior 1st"? What make you think he's going to do first grade again next year? That seems unlikely. I think you're confused.

Not confused, there is K and then 1st and then 2nd and so on and so forth, but there is a transition year between K and 1st for kids the school deems not quite ready for 1st grade after k (basically- anyone whose parents are paying full tuiton so that they can squeeze an extra year out of them, I'm sure)