<p>My youngest D started K when she was 4 years 10 months. My older D was 5 years 8 months. Older D has a January birthday vs. younger D’s November birthday.</p>
<p>Our district has a December 31 cutoff. I did ponder hold younger D back especially since she was very petite, but in the end she was ahead of many of her peers in 4 year old nursery and very verbal with a great empathy for others that was beyond her years.</p>
<p>Her nursery teacher thought I was crazy to even consider it. In the end, I feel we made the right decision especially since (knowing my D) she would have questioned why we had held her back and that could have created an issue for her. And the only real reason would have been because she was short. To be honest, she was still short the following year against students a year younger!</p>
<p>She is somewhat disorganized and has lousy time management skills, but then so does my older D. Perhaps if they both had an extra year–more in middle school (perhaps a 2nd year of grade 7 or 8?)–I could see it may have given them more time to hone these skills developmentally before high school. But I can’t see how an extra year at nursery school would have helped.</p>
<p>I do wish that our district would reconsider their end-of-year cut-off date. It does put our district at a disadvantage when it comes to standardized tests and college admissions based on SAT’s. Plus for kids who are developmentally and academically average, waiting until 5 could help with their readiness to learn.</p>
<p>In the end both younger D and older D made it into NYU, so it did work out evenly.</p>
<p>"I liked it (SRA) because I am a very fast reader and was always several color levels above everyone else. "</p>
<p>Me too, so I was pretty much tearing through the cards by myself (I think the last ones were light gray), and i think I missed out on A LOT. Like “dangling participle”. I have no idea what it means. I know when something is “not right”, but I bet I skipped over the why.</p>
<p>I really think this is a very individual thing. In my state, the cutoff is Oct. 1. My D’s birthday is late September. The preschool teacher urged us to give our D more time. We held her for a year. It was the right thing to do. It had nothing to do with a desire to be more competitive in athletics. It was about maturity and task completion and the ability to sit still in a public school class of 30 with no teacher’s aide. </p>
<p>It didn’t hurt her one bit. She never had academic problems and was always at or near the top of her class. However, she took some time to “settle.”</p>
<p>I could not open the 60Minutes story, but one of the main reasons I kept my little angels home another year was because I did not want my kids to be the youngest when they were first exposed to drugs and sex ( some time after kindergarten!).</p>
<p>Not necessarily some time after kindergarten.</p>
<p>When my son was in second grade, his friends asked him to have sex with his sister, who was then one year too young for kindergarten, and report back to them on what it was like. He was chosen for this little adventure because he was the only one in the group who had a sister. He told me what he had been asked to do and said, “I’m not supposed to do that, right?” Uh, yeah, right.</p>
<p>As a mom of 5 Ds, I was never faced with holding one of them back. It was recommended by the kindergarten teacher of 3 of them that they skip K and go straight to 1st grade. We declined, even though all were reading by age four and were certainly ready for a 1st grade curriculum. We just didn’t think it was wise, and never regretted our decision. </p>
<p>Now, Ontario has Junior Kindergarten, so kids begin school here at age four, or even at age three for some who have late birthdays. The cut-off is December 31. So, this red-shirting doesn’t happen here, as far as I know. I’m not sure how it would if the child is going to JK already.</p>
<p>My daughter has a 11/29 birthday (we’re in California with a 12/2 cutoff) and we never even considered holding her back, although her pre-school recommended it. The school district at that time had a developmental kindergarten for those kids who weren’t quite ready; we had her tested and the counselor said she saw no reason to hold her back. Many of the boys in her class were 1 1/2 years older than she was. She has done just fine all the way through school and will be graduating from college in two months. I have a late November birthday and when I was in school (when the dinosaurs roamed) most of the academic superstars also had late birthdays, including the boys.
I think the red-shirting thing was really out of hand when she was going through this; one of the mothers who had held back all three of her kids (1 boy and 2 girls) was complaining because the math classes at the Jr. High weren’t advanced enough for her kid–then why in the world did she hold her kids back?</p>
<p>My sister held her daughter back (Oct) because she did her son (Dec) and she regretted it. She was fine, very smart,mature, but bored. When someone complimented her once in middle school, she said in so many words “I would have been more challenged if I was a year ahead” Simplistic response, but she wouldn’t have had any issues if she went early. Her brother, being a little scattered, it helped.
I think some children benefit a great deal, others not as much. To do it for reasons like sports, or to make a child seem smarter, when he/she isn’t young for their age seems wrong.
The type of class and school matters also. My children were in Catholic school, 28 children for my son, but a great teacher, a full time aid and a part time aid. The were wonderful. </p>
<p>I remember when my son was in Kindergarten, he was turning 5 in October and he was reading and loved puzzles (hated cutting/pasting which they thought was odd) He went with another girl to read twice a week in first grade class. At his birthday, the mom of the other girl was almost angry when she said to me, “He’s 5!, he’s only 5” She was upset because her daughter was 6 and felt it diminished her strength in that area. I heard her another time comparing her musical talent with other students and switching intstruments to get her to excell in one of them when she never really gave her a chance. That type of parent always made me sad.</p>
<p>Not really a ‘new’ thing. My parents had 2 September babies. Sept 1 was the cutoff. Older brother went to private school early and school was difficult for him–socially and academically. When I came along in september a few years later, I was held back. I turned 7 one week into the school year. School was less problematic for me. I enjoyed it completely and still do. Gender differences may have played a role, natural ability may have played a role. My parents always regretted the decision to send my brother early; felt it was the source of problems for him for many years. One never knows. Children are all different. I wouldn’t presume to make that call for others.</p>
<p>In California my oct. daughter started kinder at age 4. There were girls over a year older than her. However, there was a girl with a Dec 2nd (deadline date birthday) that was younger than her. That girl, the youngest in her class, ended up being their high school valedictorian, as well as multiple sport varsity athlete.</p>
<p>My second daughter, with a July birthday, also had girls and boys a year older in school.</p>
<p>The redshirt kids in general were fine. But as you headed toward junior high, all the school bullies, both girls and boys, were the kids a year older than their classmates. And when it came to the kids getting into trouble in school, especially those that had to be sent away due to drugs, I can’t think of a single one that was on the young side. Most were a year older than their classmates.</p>
<p>I have an S with a late November birthday and live in a state with an October 15th cutoff. No exceptions. S was fully ready to go to K that September, and would have if we had not moved here that spring. I was horrified when I realized that I had to find a preschool for him for another year. He went to a wonderful preschool and K, but…</p>
<p>S was reading before K and reading chapter books during K. In his multi-age 1/2 class, he spent all his time with the 2s, and was advanced far beyond them, academically. Part way through the year he told me he felt like a freak. His teacher said that skipping him to 3rd wouldn’t help, because he would still be ahead academically. He never did skip a grade, although we considered it several times. Luckily, he had teachers who were willing to take steps to accommodate his needs, at least partially. If our district had been one of those where kids are forced to sit in rows doing the same thing at the same time, it would have been disastrous.</p>
<p>People who confidently informed me that he would be “bigger for sports” and that “boys were less mature” made me foam at the mouth. I think that cutoffs should be GUIDELINES. Kids are individuals.</p>
<p>“Next fall, families will be charged $2,700 for full day kindergarten.” “Unfortunately, the way the classrooms are set up, academics are in the afternoon, so a child who attends mornings may be at a disadvantage when it comes time for first grade.”</p>
<p>This is awful…how could a school district do this?</p>
<p>I know that Indiana tried to pass full-day K, but lawmakers didn’t see the benefits over the cost, so it was scrapped. It looks to be approved this year. what districts in our state did was charge between $1000 and $2500 for full-day K programs, so it has become a rich/poor gap issue.</p>
I think that cutoffs should be GUIDELINES. Kids are individuals.</p>