Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP - I think my child would do quite well in K if he went "on time," as he is doing great in junior kindergarten... but I'm thinking longer term, like middle school or high school, it might be hard to always be the youngest one. I appreciate all of the thoughtful responses on this thread.

There is risk and reward in redshirting or just moving along. No one knows the outcome. Without taking specific children into account - only you know your son - the safer bet is to red shirt. Girls average a year more mature and rule the scholastic roost generally speaking. Girls make up 2/3 of the top 10% of high school classes and boys make up 2/3 of the bottom 10%. Some people (google Richard Reeves) say that across the board - red shirt all boys one year to even the academic playing field b/w boys and girls. Interesting. Wish we had. But coming out of a daycare / pre-k, there was no reason to. And looking back to the teachers in pre-K - they are not making recommendations taking where our cherubs would like to matriculate into college and thinking about any long term academic / social goals of your kids. You'd have to pick the brains of high school teachers to get that level of input.

Holding kids back is not evening the playing fooled. It means that parents and preschools or Nannie’s did not prepare these kids well for K. Holding them back makes the less mature for their age as their peers are much younger so they appear older than they are. They may also resent it as when they should be graduating and going to college at 18, they are now stuck waiting till 19, which pushes everything back a year.

You cannot fix iq. If your kid is struggling get them help.

I have the youngest. No regrets not holding back with an early fall birthday. Child is glad I did not hold back. Some sports age out at 18 so if you are doing it for sports consider that.

You’re pretty much a little sh!t.

Anonymous wrote:Children who are too old for the grade sometimes get teased for it. Not in a school where everyone does it, but in a school that admits plenty of on time birthdays. Kids know who was held back.

This is only something that exists in the head of the DCUM crazies.

NP - along the same conversation, I was wondering which private schools are open to accepting girls with summer birthdays on time for kindergarten. Is it the same for girls and boys? Thanks

Anonymous wrote:Children who are too old for the grade sometimes get teased for it. Not in a school where everyone does it, but in a school that admits plenty of on time birthdays. Kids know who was held back.

Nah, I’ve never seen this.

Children who are too old for the grade sometimes get teased for it. Not in a school where everyone does it, but in a school that admits plenty of on time birthdays. Kids know who was held back.

There are many options for schools depending on the child and his maturity. I know that SSAS, GDS, Norwood, and other schools take boys on time. Even so, some parents do choose to redshirt at those schools.

I have slightly older kids with summer birthdays, who are academically strong and went on time. I know people make a big deal out of the academics, but by high school, many schools have curriculum that stretches older students. Kids who are advanced are generally taking some independent studies by senior year, so I’m not sure it matters whether they max out curriculum sophomore or junior year in a couple of subjects. In retrospect, I wish I had considered maturity more than academics in the decision to send one of my boys on time. My regret is not related to intelligence, but rather maturity.

That being said, even if your son goes on time, there are still points down the line when you can reevaluate—for example, you can consider reclassing in 6th, 9th or 10th grade or taking a gap year. By those grades, you may have a better sense of how your child’s maturity level compares to his peers. Sometimes it is hard to know whether it will be an issue when your son is 4 or 5.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP - I think my child would do quite well in K if he went "on time," as he is doing great in junior kindergarten... but I'm thinking longer term, like middle school or high school, it might be hard to always be the youngest one. I appreciate all of the thoughtful responses on this thread.

There is risk and reward in redshirting or just moving along. No one knows the outcome. Without taking specific children into account - only you know your son - the safer bet is to red shirt. Girls average a year more mature and rule the scholastic roost generally speaking. Girls make up 2/3 of the top 10% of high school classes and boys make up 2/3 of the bottom 10%. Some people (google Richard Reeves) say that across the board - red shirt all boys one year to even the academic playing field b/w boys and girls. Interesting. Wish we had. But coming out of a daycare / pre-k, there was no reason to. And looking back to the teachers in pre-K - they are not making recommendations taking where our cherubs would like to matriculate into college and thinking about any long term academic / social goals of your kids. You'd have to pick the brains of high school teachers to get that level of input.

It means that parents and preschools or Nannie’s did not prepare these kids well for K.

Someone didn’t prepare you well for using apostrophes (or is it apostrophe’s?).

NP. You’ve kicked up a hornet’s nest here, OP. You are probably going to eventually get some flatly insane posts from the nutty anti-redshirters who don’t understand the fundamentals of private school admissions (or often basic math). I say this as someone who didn’t redshirt but who has read these threads here before. However, I didn’t read the rest of this thread so idk if they are here yet.

You are correct to ask about specific schools but the problem is that the answer is often kid-specific. The competitive privates will often have a range in grade that is quite wide, but if they recommend redshirting your specific kid, I would listen. In private HS school seminar-style classes there are multiple grades in each class anyhow, so the wider age range in an individual grade isn’t a big deal. Typically private schools are recommending redshirting or not in kindergarten based on their experience with kids through their system, so you will want to understand the academic and social factors each school looks at in making its recommendation.

For the competitive privates, most are happy to accept on-time kids, but they are also happy to recommend redshirting. It’s not a strict either/or. You’ll probably get answers here from people with on-time kids at all the competitive privates, and that is correct. All accept and even look for on-time boys. But they also recommend redshirting.

In general, don’t listen to DCUM too much on this. You might get the bizarre IQ-obsessed lady and maybe the natural law anti-redshirter, because these threads definitely bring out the weirdos, but after years of parenting kids, I can tell you that redshirting is just not that big of a deal one way or another. I say that as a parent of kids who are young for grade and old for grade. My young-for-grade kid has kids over a year older in class, but it is not that big a deal and they are some of DCs good friends. Don’t let the DCUM Thunderdome weirdos get to you. Either way it will be fine.

I’m very glad that my June born 8th grader was red shirted. Yes, it’s something that you appreciate as the middle and high school years approach. Being the youngest boy is a real disadvantage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP - I think my child would do quite well in K if he went "on time," as he is doing great in junior kindergarten... but I'm thinking longer term, like middle school or high school, it might be hard to always be the youngest one. I appreciate all of the thoughtful responses on this thread.

There is risk and reward in redshirting or just moving along. No one knows the outcome. Without taking specific children into account - only you know your son - the safer bet is to red shirt. Girls average a year more mature and rule the scholastic roost generally speaking. Girls make up 2/3 of the top 10% of high school classes and boys make up 2/3 of the bottom 10%. Some people (google Richard Reeves) say that across the board - red shirt all boys one year to even the academic playing field b/w boys and girls. Interesting. Wish we had. But coming out of a daycare / pre-k, there was no reason to. And looking back to the teachers in pre-K - they are not making recommendations taking where our cherubs would like to matriculate into college and thinking about any long term academic / social goals of your kids. You'd have to pick the brains of high school teachers to get that level of input.

Holding kids back is not evening the playing fooled. It means that parents and preschools or Nannie’s did not prepare these kids well for K. Holding them back makes the less mature for their age as their peers are much younger so they appear older than they are. They may also resent it as when they should be graduating and going to college at 18, they are now stuck waiting till 19, which pushes everything back a year.

You cannot fix iq. If your kid is struggling get them help.

I have the youngest. No regrets not holding back with an early fall birthday. Child is glad I did not hold back. Some sports age out at 18 so if you are doing it for sports consider that.

This was confusing. I am assuming you mean no regrets not holding back with an early fall birthday somewhere/sometime when the cutoff was 12/31??? Because here now it’s 9/1. Also no sports ‘age out’ at 18?? You might mean that some sports are by birthdate - not by grade - so for those in theory it doesn’t matter. This is true for club sports - high school sports birthdate never matters so if you redshirt for sports, eventually it will help when your 16 year old 9th grader is playing against a kid who just turned 14.

A good conversation - both sides for and against presented.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP - I think my child would do quite well in K if he went "on time," as he is doing great in junior kindergarten... but I'm thinking longer term, like middle school or high school, it might be hard to always be the youngest one. I appreciate all of the thoughtful responses on this thread.

There is risk and reward in redshirting or just moving along. No one knows the outcome. Without taking specific children into account - only you know your son - the safer bet is to red shirt. Girls average a year more mature and rule the scholastic roost generally speaking. Girls make up 2/3 of the top 10% of high school classes and boys make up 2/3 of the bottom 10%. Some people (google Richard Reeves) say that across the board - red shirt all boys one year to even the academic playing field b/w boys and girls. Interesting. Wish we had. But coming out of a daycare / pre-k, there was no reason to. And looking back to the teachers in pre-K - they are not making recommendations taking where our cherubs would like to matriculate into college and thinking about any long term academic / social goals of your kids. You'd have to pick the brains of high school teachers to get that level of input.

Holding kids back is not evening the playing fooled. It means that parents and preschools or Nannie’s did not prepare these kids well for K. Holding them back makes the less mature for their age as their peers are much younger so they appear older than they are. They may also resent it as when they should be graduating and going to college at 18, they are now stuck waiting till 19, which pushes everything back a year.

You cannot fix iq. If your kid is struggling get them help.

I have the youngest. No regrets not holding back with an early fall birthday. Child is glad I did not hold back. Some sports age out at 18 so if you are doing it for sports consider that.

There are kids here with January birthdays which means that the range in some classes can be January of one year to summer of the year after. If your child is socially precocious, my advice is do not redshirt. The kids I know who are 3rd or 5th kid in family who redshirted, are socially precocious which means they are bored with these younger kids and cause trouble. OR save your extra year and see how your kid develops. If you use it for an extra year of K, that’s it. Unless you’re a lacrosse player at Prep.

Anonymous wrote:This is OP - I think my child would do quite well in K if he went "on time," as he is doing great in junior kindergarten... but I'm thinking longer term, like middle school or high school, it might be hard to always be the youngest one. I appreciate all of the thoughtful responses on this thread.

There is risk and reward in redshirting or just moving along. No one knows the outcome. Without taking specific children into account - only you know your son - the safer bet is to red shirt. Girls average a year more mature and rule the scholastic roost generally speaking. Girls make up 2/3 of the top 10% of high school classes and boys make up 2/3 of the bottom 10%. Some people (google Richard Reeves) say that across the board - red shirt all boys one year to even the academic playing field b/w boys and girls. Interesting. Wish we had. But coming out of a daycare / pre-k, there was no reason to. And looking back to the teachers in pre-K - they are not making recommendations taking where our cherubs would like to matriculate into college and thinking about any long term academic / social goals of your kids. You'd have to pick the brains of high school teachers to get that level of input.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP - I think my child would do quite well in K if he went "on time," as he is doing great in junior kindergarten... but I'm thinking longer term, like middle school or high school, it might be hard to always be the youngest one. I appreciate all of the thoughtful responses on this thread.

Someone has to be the youngest!

Didn’t even know red shirting was a thing when my kid started school, he’s a June birthday and he is not quite the youngest but close in his current 8th grade at a competitive private. He is physically and socially totally equal with his classmates

Oh, and academically!