Anonymous wrote:For sports. That’s the truth. And it worked - he got a baseball scholarship to college.

We have an honest answer here. I know many who did the same, but for tennis. Usually held back in 8th grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For sports. That’s the truth. And it worked - he got a baseball scholarship to college.

Ditto, except even with redshirting my son was the smallest kid on his varsity teams freshman year (family history of delayed growth).

+2. Same. Just for sports. And he has an August birthday with a Sept 1st cut off.

Anonymous wrote:I know a few people back their tall, mature, academically and athletically gifted 5 year olds with birthdays months before the cut off. WHY?
I know one who made the decision when her kid was one (July birthday)

Is it just so your kid has advantages socially and athletically and breezes through?

yup

His birthday is 5 days before the cut-off, which in our area is December 31.

In general I think the cutoff is far too late, and it should be more like September like the rest of the country. I don't think kids who are 4 for the entire fall should be in K.

He was not very emotionally mature.

He had delays in preschool for which he got services.


Redshirted him and everything worked out beautifully. No regrets at all.

DS is a citizen of a foreign country. If he doesn’t go straight to college after graduation, he will get drafted into their army an an enlisted soldier. He has a a late summer birthday, and I don’t think starting at college at 17 would be a good thing for him. I have heard that younger guys sometimes try to fit in by drinking, etc. Because he can’t take a gap year at the end, we have to redshirt him at the beginning.

My son has a July birthday and we live in Baltimore. There was no question we had to redshirt in Baltimore once we decided to go the private school route given the popularity of pre-first here. He’s now in middle school and exactly in the middle of his grade age-wise, even spring birthday kids are red-shirted here on the regular.

Anonymous wrote:
Diagnosed global developmental delays, pediatrician recommended.

Turned out DS was horribly bored and jumped back to his age level afterward.

Lesson: development is not linear!!!

My brother was redshirted before redshirting was a thing. He was socially immature and the school recommended it. He's very bright, ended up being bored and had issues with underachievement as a result (tested perfectly but never wanted to do the homework). The issues weren't only as a result of redshirting of course, but it contributed to a bad start.

I feel social immaturity tends to be looked at as one of the "good" reasons for redshirting, but it's not always appropriate either. Definitely depends on the kid.

Anonymous wrote:My nephew was redshirted because he was hyperactive and they didn't think he was ready for a classroom setting. My brother himself really struggled in Kindergarten with the same hyperactive stuff so they decided to wait a year.

What you see from your friends may be a limited set of kid's behavior, so don't be too quick to judge. Any "academic" advantage from being slightly older will be limited to the early years so it's not some weird conspiracy.

Age is not an advantage in later years testing where they compare knowledge based on age down to the year and month. Some people redshirt due to sports reasons such as the be the bigger/stronger football player.

I read studies on how older boys do better in school and how it carries through to later in life. I sent my daughter on time but she was brighter, more studious, very social and most importantly I thought she sat well and followed instructions. She was ready in every sense for kindergarten. My son would just be getting in trouble because he wasn’t mature enough to sit well. A year would do him well. I think a lot of boys get pegged with adhd because schools expect too much from children.

Anonymous wrote:For sports. That’s the truth. And it worked - he got a baseball scholarship to college.

Ditto, except even with redshirting my son was the smallest kid on his varsity teams freshman year (family history of delayed growth).

DS is a September child and school starts August 12th. We didn’t want to send a 4 year old off to real school. DS lacked good fine motor skills, but otherwise a great kid. He went to a really great part time pre-k program with other red shirted kids. And I taught him how to read this past year. While I love my kid, he is pretty average. He now reads at about a fourth grade level and writes like a first/second grader just from the one on one he got for me each afternoon. He isn’t partially smart, so he will fit in great this coming year for K (whatver that even means in these times), because he is just a happy go lucky kid. He likely knows most academic skilled already, but k is about so much more. He would have struggled this past year and likely again as he entered middle/high school. Now he will be going into full time school as a confident 5 year old and not a timid, immature 4 year old.

FWIW - we would have sent him had he turned 5 before school started.

Diagnosed global developmental delays, pediatrician recommended.

Turned out DS was horribly bored and jumped back to his age level afterward.

Lesson: development is not linear!!!

My son’s birthday was 2 days before the cutoff. He was socially and behaviorally not ready, I thought so as did his teachers. I’m so glad we held him back, the year he should have been in kindergarten was not great, especially at the beginning. It would have been horrible if he had been in kindergarten. But he matured a lot that year, and started kindergarten on a better footing. 15 years later and I think it was absolutely the best decision.

What kind of an answer are you expecting, OP? “ Yes, I redshirted my child specifically so that he would have a competitive advantage to crush your child“?

I did it because I thought my kid would learn better and have a better experience. I was right. He’s not even close to being the oldest or the youngest in his class, which is a very comfortable place to be.

We are considering it for our current 4 year-old. He has a July birthday. His older brother with a July birthday went in time and it was the right decision for him. His younger brother is just very immature, a very sensitive kid who still needs lots of one on one attention to stay on task. His preschool teacher supports redshirting him. Some kids do fine as the youngest. Some would do better on the older end.