Anonymous wrote:Were you or the other parent of the child late bloomers? How are they socially and size wise?
I have two kids. Both summer birthdays. One is academically advanced, like 2 grades ahead. The other is just above average. Both are late bloomers, even with the summer birthday. They were also on the smaller side all through ES to 15 yrs old when they finally hit puberty and had a growth spurt.
We did not redshirt either children, but from a social/emotional/physical perspective, I think redshirting would've been beneficial for both.
Academically, the advanced DC would absolutely not have benefited from redshirting. They were already so far ahead; if we had redshirted them, they'd have been even more bored at school.
In hindsight, we should've redshirted the other child who has an August birthday. They were fine academically, but they lagged behind everywhere else, and it impacted their school experience.
I never thought about how the possibility of being a late bloomer would impact them. Both my spouse and I were late bloomers; my spouse was held back a year when they moved (spouse is actually British); I was not. Academically, I was fine, did really well, but I was small for my age, and it was difficult emotionally and socially.
It's hard to know how your kids will be when they are older, but if there is a chance that your child will hit puberty later, and they don't need advanced academics right now, I would seriously think about holding them back.
Op here. He is very large for his age which is why we did not redshirt (one of the reasons anyway). DH and I are both over 6 ft.
I was extremely advanced academically throughout school. Like I took the SAT when I was 9, skipped multiple grades, and graduated college as a teen. DH was a super late bloomer academically and never bloomed socially lol.
I’ll admit I kind of thought DS was going to be super smart but most evidence points to him being very average. The only indicator that he might be above average is he does have a high EQ and ability to read people/empathize which his 1st and 2nd grade teachers pointed out and said is unusual. But IQ tests have shown him as very average.