Anonymous wrote:Boys with late summer birthdays repeat.

Not true in our case, repeat.

It's ridculous what these schools and out-of-control parents are doing. Don't buy in to the nonsense. If your kid needs to delay, then delay, but don't otherwise. Some kids can handle being a yonger one.

Boys with late summer birthdays repeat.

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I have a friend who is an AD, and she said that the only kids with summer birthdays that get admitted are first born girls (in general, there are always exceptions). They do tell people this, it's just that so many parents think their child is exceptional (he's so smart, mature, etc!).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don't like summer birthdays at Sidwell for pk and k, especially for boys. Even May is tough for boys applying, though not as much for girls. This is not as much a factor once applying for third grade and later.

I'm sorry, but someone is spreading mistaken info. I'm right now looking at a list of my child's classmates from K at Sidwell. I have birthdays listed for about two thirds of them, and I see at least four boys with summer birthdays (June-August). None of those four are held over from the previous year, so they all are among the youngest in the class. There may be more than four of them, because as I wrote, my birthday list is incomplete.

Thats interesting as a parent of a k there now told me that april was the youngest...boy

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This not to be mean, but if these outcomes persisted over so many years, even after intervention and investment, I would suggest that your child is just one that needs extra support and that that would not have been much different if he started a year later.

My child is a different story. After a few weeks in kinder, the teacher approached us to suggest moving them up to first grade. This was a child with a late October birthday, mind you, so well past the August/September cutoff guidelines of most schools. DC has always thrived and fit in with their peers, some of whom are more than a year older. When DC was a 16-year old 11th grader, they took the SAT and scored well north of 2300+. It really is an individual decision which is different for every child, and should be made with the help of experienced teachers.

Anonymous wrote:I hope the schools that do not take summer birthdays do not take the application fee. It is better to post the ages you will take.

Parent of two kids with August bdays. I don't think that it is an official policy, but do think that an August (or summer) bday child applying to PK/K/1 are automatically looked at with more scrutiny.

In both our kids' classes there are students who are at least 14 months older than they are. Some were held back by parents, others did two years of K, and some we know applied for K the previous year and were asked to wait a year and try again. (different schools)

If you have a child with a summer bday it is something to be aware of, but if you feel your child is ready, you should send them "on time", if you think they are not, you may want to wait. It does depend on the child and the differences tend to even out in a few years.

I hope the schools that do not take summer birthdays do not take the application fee. It is better to post the ages you will take.

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.

This not to be mean, but if these outcomes persisted over so many years, even after intervention and investment, I would suggest that your child is just one that needs extra support and that that would not have been much different if he started a year later.