Anonymous wrote:Friendly acquaintance posted a "back to school" pic of her son complete with his age (6.75 years) and grade (Junior First/ Prep First/ whatever your private school calls it). This little boy has a late fall birthday!!! He is going to be almost 8 years old when he starts first grade. Meanwhile, my child has a July birthday and I cannot afford private so he will be starting K right after he turns 5 and starting first right after he turns 6. He and this child are going to be almost 2 full years apart while in the same grade. I KNOW, it doesn't affect me in the slightest especially since he isn't even at my child's school. But it makes me so angry! My child is a little socially immature and I am worried he is not only going to be chronologically the youngest when he starts real school but he is going to be socially young for his age too, making it so much harder for him if his classroom is full of kids who are 7 when he is only 5. Ugh. Vent over. Side note- does anyone know if redshirting is as prevalent in public schools?

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Anonymous wrote:Can you always tell why a kid was red-shirted if you don’t know them well?

Some people can. They can also see through your BS “excuses.” See the other thread on this.

My, my. Sooo angry. Fall birthdays here. Just wondering how everyone is always so certain why another parent did red-shirt when they don’t even know the kid. And of course a stranger knows much better than a parent, don’t you agree?

So then you have no idea what it's like in our shoes, as parents of children who turn 5 in July or August, starting K with kids who turned 5 LAST summer, and are now more than a full year older than them, and teasing them on the playground for being babyish and not wanting to play them them. I'm not worried about academics for my son I'm worried about the social aspect of him being picked on for being the youngest, smallest, and least socially mature boy in a class with kids who were held back, are over a year older than him, and then pick on him for being small!

So an extra year of pre-k turns kids into bullies? That’s interesting. My redshirted fall birthday kid has always been nice to everyone regardless of age.

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Anonymous wrote:Can you always tell why a kid was red-shirted if you don’t know them well?

Some people can. They can also see through your BS “excuses.” See the other thread on this.

My, my. Sooo angry. Fall birthdays here. Just wondering how everyone is always so certain why another parent did red-shirt when they don’t even know the kid. And of course a stranger knows much better than a parent, don’t you agree?

So then you have no idea what it's like in our shoes, as parents of children who turn 5 in July or August, starting K with kids who turned 5 LAST summer, and are now more than a full year older than them, and teasing them on the playground for being babyish and not wanting to play them them. I'm not worried about academics for my son I'm worried about the social aspect of him being picked on for being the youngest, smallest, and least socially mature boy in a class with kids who were held back, are over a year older than him, and then pick on him for being small!

I just don’t understand why you would put your child in this situation.

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Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar with "Junior First". Are you sure he won't be going into 2nd grade next year? He'll definately stand out as he'd be a full year older than the other kids.

No it's a transition year between K and 1st, I'm in the Baltimore area and a lot of the prep schools have this option

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Anonymous wrote:Can you always tell why a kid was red-shirted if you don’t know them well?

Some people can. They can also see through your BS “excuses.” See the other thread on this.

My, my. Sooo angry. Fall birthdays here. Just wondering how everyone is always so certain why another parent did red-shirt when they don’t even know the kid. And of course a stranger knows much better than a parent, don’t you agree?

So then you have no idea what it's like in our shoes, as parents of children who turn 5 in July or August, starting K with kids who turned 5 LAST summer, and are now more than a full year older than them, and teasing them on the playground for being babyish and not wanting to play them them. I'm not worried about academics for my son I'm worried about the social aspect of him being picked on for being the youngest, smallest, and least socially mature boy in a class with kids who were held back, are over a year older than him, and then pick on him for being small!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you always tell why a kid was red-shirted if you don’t know them well?

Some people can. They can also see through your BS “excuses.” See the other thread on this.

My, my. Sooo angry. Fall birthdays here. Just wondering how everyone is always so certain why another parent did red-shirt when they don’t even know the kid. And of course a stranger knows much better than a parent, don’t you agree?

So then you have no idea what it's like in our shoes, as parents of children who turn 5 in July or August, starting K with kids who turned 5 LAST summer, and are now more than a full year older than them, and teasing them on the playground for being babyish and not wanting to play them them. I'm not worried about academics for my son I'm worried about the social aspect of him being picked on for being the youngest, smallest, and least socially mature boy in a class with kids who were held back, are over a year older than him, and then pick on him for being small!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you always tell why a kid was red-shirted if you don’t know them well?

Some people can. They can also see through your BS “excuses.” See the other thread on this.

My, my. Sooo angry. Fall birthdays here. Just wondering how everyone is always so certain why another parent did red-shirt when they don’t even know the kid. And of course a stranger knows much better than a parent, don’t you agree?

So then you have no idea what it's like in our shoes, as parents of children who turn 5 in July or August, starting K with kids who turned 5 LAST summer, and are now more than a full year older than them, and teasing them on the playground for being babyish and not wanting to play them them. I'm not worried about academics for my son I'm worried about the social aspect of him being picked on for being the youngest, smallest, and least socially mature boy in a class with kids who were held back, are over a year older than him, and then pick on him for being small!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you always tell why a kid was red-shirted if you don’t know them well?

Some people can. They can also see through your BS “excuses.” See the other thread on this.

My, my. Sooo angry. Fall birthdays here. Just wondering how everyone is always so certain why another parent did red-shirt when they don’t even know the kid. And of course a stranger knows much better than a parent, don’t you agree?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you always tell why a kid was red-shirted if you don’t know them well?

Some people can. They can also see through your BS “excuses.” See the other thread on this.

My, my. Sooo angry. Fall birthdays here. Just wondering how everyone is always so certain why another parent did red-shirt when they don’t even know the kid. And of course a stranger knows much better than a parent, don’t you agree?

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Anonymous wrote:AAP skews younger. At least my September boy will (finally!) have some company, being the youngest.

Is this a documented thing? I was wondering because both my kids are on the younger side of their classrooms (late July, late August) but there are tons of kids younger than them in their respective AAP classrooms. Specially in my oldest daughter's class. She is July and there are 8 kids younger than her, and a ton of early summer birthdays. There are 2 redshirted kids and they definitely look a lot older in her classroom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you always tell why a kid was red-shirted if you don’t know them well?

Some people can. They can also see through your BS “excuses.” See the other thread on this.

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Anonymous wrote:You can’t afford private school, but you can afford to do whatever you have been doing for the last five years though, right? Or if your kid had been born in October instead of August you would have been totally screwed?

What does this mean? Correct, I can't afford 30k a year in tuition to a private school but I can afford free public pre-K and my mom to watch my kid after that. Not sure why you're confused.

Why can’t you just do that one more year?

Because I can't. Public pre-K is for children who are 4 on Sept 1, I can't just send my kid for another year after that because I want to, unless the school board says it's okay, which I'm sure they won't because my kid is 4 this year and knows his letters, numbers, etc and doesn't have any delays so they won't allow him to repeat it. This whole "you have a choice!" thing is for people who can afford private

OP - if this is the case, then I'm confused about why you think your son will be disadvantaged by starting public kindergarten on time?

I think you're freaking out for no reason -- it's only a small percentage of people who actually redshirt their child.

Personally, I feel sorry for the teachers who have to deal with boys that act out when they are the oldest and biggest in the class, and are bored because they already know much of what is being taught in kindergarten.

+1

Most likely, those "big" boys would act out and disrupt the class, either way (redshirt or not), from what I have seen.

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Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar with "Junior First". Are you sure he won't be going into 2nd grade next year? He'll definately stand out as he'd be a full year older than the other kids.

No it's a transition year between K and 1st, I'm in the Baltimore area and a lot of the prep schools have this option

Well it appears to be just a single year of redshirting, not 2 years like OP claims. So perhaps this child has some special needs that required both redshirting for K and "pre-first." In any event she should MYOB.

https://www.gilman.edu/academics/pre-first

Not sure where I claimed the kid was redshirted 2 years. He started K at 5.75 years old which is the correct time for him to have started- if he was born in late fall, he was 5 when he started K and was on the older end of kids in the class. Now, at the end of K, instead of going on to first grade he is going on to the transition class. He will do first grade the year after that. So he is being "held back" one year. The fact that makes him super old compared to other kids is that he was already on the older end starting K, it's not like he was an august birthday.

Ok so he was redshirted with a March birthday, apparently. That's unusual. The school website says that it's for May - Dec birthdays. But who cares, not your kid, not your school, you have no actual clue why they chose to put him in the transitional class or what he'll do next year.

As OP stated, it doesn't affect her, but it's the overall redshirting everywhere she's addressing. It's a broader topic.

a broader topic with zero relevance to her, since her school doesn't do redshirting.

So? She can't have an opinion about something that doesn't directly affect her? If we are only allowed to have opinions that directly affects us, then those people who are against abortion should really shut up since it doesn't directly affect them.

She's doesn't have an opinion on a current policy issue. She has a mean-spirited, jealous comment about a child whose parent has made a parenting choice that doesn't affect her in any way.

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Anonymous wrote:You can’t afford private school, but you can afford to do whatever you have been doing for the last five years though, right? Or if your kid had been born in October instead of August you would have been totally screwed?

What does this mean? Correct, I can't afford 30k a year in tuition to a private school but I can afford free public pre-K and my mom to watch my kid after that. Not sure why you're confused.

Why can’t you just do that one more year?

Because I can't. Public pre-K is for children who are 4 on Sept 1, I can't just send my kid for another year after that because I want to, unless the school board says it's okay, which I'm sure they won't because my kid is 4 this year and knows his letters, numbers, etc and doesn't have any delays so they won't allow him to repeat it. This whole "you have a choice!" thing is for people who can afford private

OP - if this is the case, then I'm confused about why you think your son will be disadvantaged by starting public kindergarten on time?

I think you're freaking out for no reason -- it's only a small percentage of people who actually redshirt their child.

Personally, I feel sorry for the teachers who have to deal with boys that act out when they are the oldest and biggest in the class, and are bored because they already know much of what is being taught in kindergarten.

Anonymous wrote:So, OP, you can afford Such and Such Prep School for the Mildly Affluent, but not an extra year and somehow we are supposed to feel sorry for your poor dear child who is being disadvantaged by someone else's decision to redshirt their slightly more affluent child? Lady, your diamond shoes are so tight they're cutting off the oxygen supply to your brain.