DD and DS are both late September Bdays and we sent them both on time. DD is thriving in MS. DS is in 4th and I regret not holding him back. He is fine academically, but very immature and struggles more with executive functioning. These things were not glaring in prek but they are now. Every child is different and I would think really hard about what type of child you have when making this decision.

Absolutely send him. The red shirting trend is out of control. My DD has a summer birthday and started Kindergarten soon after turning 5. Most of her classmates are six. I’d say 75%. A few are still 5 like her. And two are already 7. First time in K for them. Those two get in the most trouble, probably bc they are bored out of their minds amongst younger kids doing remedial work.

I did not redshirt my son with a July bday. Do I regret that decision? I still don’t know! He’s in 7th grade now, still a bit behind academically. Overall I think it’s appropriate he’s in 7th grade. He has great friendships. He seems too socially mature to be in 6th grade.

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Anonymous wrote:Anyone who is answering this before their kids are HS age is giving premature feedback. Middle school / HS is when the reasons for potential regrets (if present) will become show up

No, because you can reassess the situation in later grades and hold back if it is really for the best. It's easy to repeat a middle school year by switching schools.

If you hold back at K you can't get that extra year back unless you have a unicorn school that lets kids skip grades.

Send on time and monitor. That is the sensible and less risky path.

That’s an insane perspective. No WAY is that easier. Do you have kids??

The insane perspective is to hold back at K for no good reason except "everyone else does it."

How is “it will make my kid more compatible with his or her cohort” insane? That seems eminently sensible. And there’s nothing magical about age 5. More countries start their kids at age 6, and nobody moans about stealing the kids’ adulthood years.

It does not matter what other countries do. The norm here and expectation is they go at age five.

Apparently this “norm” and “expectation” are not universal, or you wouldn’t spend hours every day haunting every redshirting thread on DCUM.

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Anonymous wrote:Omg the number of people redshirting so their kid can be the biggest is nuts. Why not just start your own private school that has no cutoffs? 8-year-old kindergartners. That should be fun.

Now the kids are 8? How did they go from 6, which is when kids must legally be in school, to 8? Or is this a gross exaggeration on your part because the thought of a kid a few months older than another makes you hysterical?

Because that's what many people would do if they could. Private school weirdos. So glad my public school doesn't allow shenanigans with cutoffs.

Uh, okay. You’re definitely not a weirdo. It’s very, very normal to spend your time inventing scenarios about other people’s educational choices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg the number of people redshirting so their kid can be the biggest is nuts. Why not just start your own private school that has no cutoffs? 8-year-old kindergartners. That should be fun.

Now the kids are 8? How did they go from 6, which is when kids must legally be in school, to 8? Or is this a gross exaggeration on your part because the thought of a kid a few months older than another makes you hysterical?

Because that's what many people would do if they could. Private school weirdos. So glad my public school doesn't allow shenanigans with cutoffs.

Sent my late June boy on time and no regrets whatsoever - academically, he has breezed through his rigorous school. Has done very well socially. And unlike PP we most definitely are not among the “many parents who taught their kid to read at age 4” lol. He could not read at all when he started kindergarten because he was not prematurely taught this skill.

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Anonymous wrote:Anyone who is answering this before their kids are HS age is giving premature feedback. Middle school / HS is when the reasons for potential regrets (if present) will become show up

No, because you can reassess the situation in later grades and hold back if it is really for the best. It's easy to repeat a middle school year by switching schools.

If you hold back at K you can't get that extra year back unless you have a unicorn school that lets kids skip grades.

Send on time and monitor. That is the sensible and less risky path.

That’s an insane perspective. No WAY is that easier. Do you have kids??

The insane perspective is to hold back at K for no good reason except "everyone else does it."

How is “it will make my kid more compatible with his or her cohort” insane? That seems eminently sensible. And there’s nothing magical about age 5. More countries start their kids at age 6, and nobody moans about stealing the kids’ adulthood years.

It does not matter what other countries do. The norm here and expectation is they go at age five.

Anonymous wrote:Omg the number of people redshirting so their kid can be the biggest is nuts. Why not just start your own private school that has no cutoffs? 8-year-old kindergartners. That should be fun.

Now the kids are 8? How did they go from 6, which is when kids must legally be in school, to 8? Or is this a gross exaggeration on your part because the thought of a kid a few months older than another makes you hysterical?

Omg the number of people redshirting so their kid can be the biggest is nuts. Why not just start your own private school that has no cutoffs? 8-year-old kindergartners. That should be fun.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who is answering this before their kids are HS age is giving premature feedback. Middle school / HS is when the reasons for potential regrets (if present) will become show up

No, because you can reassess the situation in later grades and hold back if it is really for the best. It's easy to repeat a middle school year by switching schools.

If you hold back at K you can't get that extra year back unless you have a unicorn school that lets kids skip grades.

Send on time and monitor. That is the sensible and less risky path.

That’s an insane perspective. No WAY is that easier. Do you have kids??

The insane perspective is to hold back at K for no good reason except "everyone else does it."

Why does there have to be a good reason? What does it even matter to you? If you say it harms younger kids then you will have your answer as to why people do it. The deck is stacked against younger kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who is answering this before their kids are HS age is giving premature feedback. Middle school / HS is when the reasons for potential regrets (if present) will become show up

No, because you can reassess the situation in later grades and hold back if it is really for the best. It's easy to repeat a middle school year by switching schools.

If you hold back at K you can't get that extra year back unless you have a unicorn school that lets kids skip grades.

Send on time and monitor. That is the sensible and less risky path.

That’s an insane perspective. No WAY is that easier. Do you have kids??

The insane perspective is to hold back at K for no good reason except "everyone else does it."

How is “it will make my kid more compatible with his or her cohort” insane? That seems eminently sensible. And there’s nothing magical about age 5. More countries start their kids at age 6, and nobody moans about stealing the kids’ adulthood years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has a March birthday and while we did not redshirt, we had several people telling us it would only benefit him. We are in private school though and most summer birthdays are redshirted and therefore my March birthday son is usually one of the youngest in the class.

My friend with kids in a southern private school redshirted them and they have Jan and Feb birthdays. I was shocked that people would do this for kids without need (which hers do not have). And her kids are really tall too!

Yes we have family in Texas and redshirting for spring and even sometimes winter birthdays is really common. I was also shocked to learn how rampant it is. My August birthday kid went on time and it's funny to think about her graduating high school and going to college at the same time as kids who are nearly two years older. They will turn 20 before the end of their freshman year of college!

Texas is obsessed with hs football.

PP here and it's not just football. Most of the people redshirting in Texas don't have kids in football. But they do redshirt for advantages in other sports. But I also think it's just become part of the culture and now people do it even when they aren't obsessed with athletic potential. It's just become normalized in some towns and suburbs that most kids start K at 6 or almost 6. It's just funny for me to think about this with a kid who is young for the age in a district in DC where redshirting is all but unheard of, because eventually these kids will wind up at colleges and grad schools and in workplaces together.

I don't think it will matter that much, but I think back on my own college experience and I do think people would have looked askance at a 20 year old freshman. Not necessarily outright judgment (college kids tend to be kind of cynical, or they were when I was there, which gets in the way of that kind of judging) but kind of like "what the what."

On the other hand, I also assume a kid like that would be a popular candidate for sophomore year housing shares because they'd be able to legally buy alcohol significantly earlier than most other kids, which would come in very handy.