Anonymous wrote:Have you been collecting their bdays just from conversations?

My son is at a different school and after a few years on the birthday party circuit, it isn't that difficult to list most of the boys birthday months and to know their birth year. This isn't 'collecting' birthdays, it's being part of a community.

Sidwell 2nd

Neither choice is inherently worse or better--really depends on the individual child and even more importantly the peer group at the school. If the school your kid is attending holds most boys back, then I would not hesitate to do the same. But if they don't, send him on time if you think he can do it.

Long term studies show that holding them back is not the best thing in the long term. The younger children have much better work habits when older and tend to do better than those that were held back due to birthday. If you are a year older and don't really have to try how do you learn to try hard?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I LOVE is when parents assume my son (July b-day) started K a year late because he is one of the biggest kids and one of the most talented academically (he's in 4th now). Nope, he's one of the youngest in the class because we started him on time. I'm not typically competitive (case in point we didn't hold our son back), but I just love to see parents faces fall when they realize their grand plan of their child having a leg up has failed miserably. And for those of you about to say he's probably immature for the grade -- nope to that also. Definitely a leader.

Well, you are bragging on the internet, so really, you lose.

uh, how exactly did I lose?

Anonymous wrote:What I LOVE is when parents assume my son (July b-day) started K a year late because he is one of the biggest kids and one of the most talented academically (he's in 4th now). Nope, he's one of the youngest in the class because we started him on time. I'm not typically competitive (case in point we didn't hold our son back), but I just love to see parents faces fall when they realize their grand plan of their child having a leg up has failed miserably. And for those of you about to say he's probably immature for the grade -- nope to that also. Definitely a leader.

Well, you are bragging on the internet, so really, you lose.

What I LOVE is when parents assume my son (July b-day) started K a year late because he is one of the biggest kids and one of the most talented academically (he's in 4th now). Nope, he's one of the youngest in the class because we started him on time. I'm not typically competitive (case in point we didn't hold our son back), but I just love to see parents faces fall when they realize their grand plan of their child having a leg up has failed miserably. And for those of you about to say he's probably immature for the grade -- nope to that also. Definitely a leader.

Anonymous wrote:When my son started K at a DC private school, 1/2 of the boys in his class had been held back by their super-competitive parents with Ivy League dreams. With his late May birthday, my son turned out to be the youngest boy in his class. On top of private tuition, we paid extra for tutoring and OT (for handwriting) for 7 years. Many boys in the grade below him were only one month younger than he was. When he took the SSATs for high school, his scores were mediocre, maybe because he was competing with boys who were so much older. It's a crazy system but it's reality in pressure cooker cities like DC & NYC.

My gosh. I am so sorry that it turned out that your son, as opposed to someone else's son, was near the youngest in his grade. That's terrible. How could those other, overly-competitive parents do that to your poor son? Making him the youngest?

There may be one summer pk girl at Sidwell. There will be no summer boys in the incoming pk class. This is typical.

Anonymous wrote:When my son started K at a DC private school, 1/2 of the boys in his class had been held back by their super-competitive parents with Ivy League dreams. With his late May birthday, my son turned out to be the youngest boy in his class. On top of private tuition, we paid extra for tutoring and OT (for handwriting) for 7 years. Many boys in the grade below him were only one month younger than he was. When he took the SSATs for high school, his scores were mediocre, maybe because he was competing with boys who were so much older. It's a crazy system but it's reality in pressure cooker cities like DC & NYC.

Does this happen with girls? I guess spring birthday is now the youngest?

When my son started K at a DC private school, 1/2 of the boys in his class had been held back by their super-competitive parents with Ivy League dreams. With his late May birthday, my son turned out to be the youngest boy in his class. On top of private tuition, we paid extra for tutoring and OT (for handwriting) for 7 years. Many boys in the grade below him were only one month younger than he was. When he took the SSATs for high school, his scores were mediocre, maybe because he was competing with boys who were so much older. It's a crazy system but it's reality in pressure cooker cities like DC & NYC.

Sidwell - 7th grade girl

It's a few years ago, but my son had a preschool friend with a May 1 birthday who was the youngest child in the Sidwell PK class (thus the youngest in the entire school). I had people, including my pediatrician, pressure me to apply for my son, who has a March birthday for PK instead of K.

Anonymous wrote:Preschool classmate, boy with August birthday, interviewed at Sidwell and said we think he may be ready for K. Accepted for PreK. This kid was more mature than my March boy so that wasnt the issue.

There is truth to the August birthday issue. My kid applied to Beauvoir PK with off the charts scores and the rest of the package and was wait listed. I was stunned and asked a friend who is a trustee at another top school, and he just said "when his his birthday". I said 'August and he is the right age". He said, "you don't understand, private school boys tend to be a year older than public school. They get better athletes, higher SATs and go to better colleges." We sent him somewhere else but as PPK. In 4th got in everywhere and went to STA.

At the time I was baffled why a bright kid wouldn't be put on a get on with it track, but I think it makes sense. School is not just can you do the 3 Rs. The social and sports are a big part of it. The private school boys do tend to be older, and therefore bigger, and a shade more mature. It's not a bad thing.

Anonymous wrote:I call BS--they don't publish birthdays. And definitely not year of birth...

Why wouldn't they? Our school's class listings includes each child's birthday (to include the year). It was interesting to look at DC's class - birthdays are all over the place, including for boys.