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@looch: there was one particular study that really "spoke" to me..Lemme find it...But in the meantime I feel like this is fairly even handed and from a reliable source:
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My DD made the cutoff by 2 days and started 1st grade as a 5 year old. She is now in 3rd grade and thriving. It really does boil down to the child.
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My son has a late June birthday and our district has a mid-August cutoff. Red-shirting is also very common around here, and I think may people were surprised that we opted to send him on time.
Basically, I went with my gut. He's been pretty comfortable socially, no major behavioral issues other than what you may normally expect from an active boy, and physically he's pretty tall. He's a quick study (if we can get him to focus) and I didn't want him to get bored. Basically, I subscribe to the "better to be challenged than bored" theory barring other mitigating factors.
I will say the first couple of months I worried that we'd made the wrong choice. Mainly, he was way behind on his handwriting -- he has never been a kid who likes to sit and do fine-motor intensive things -- and his teacher seemed concerned. But we worked with him and once he started to gain confidence (huge for him) things started to really improve. His reading has absolutely taken off and he's above level now. He's also doing pretty well with math.
He has some behavioral hiccups from time to time, but as long as it's not a daily thing I've come to accept that he's never going to sit quite as still or quietly as a girl who's a year older. They don't get enough outdoor time, for sure, but short of spending 15k/year on private school, that's how it is, unfortunately. His teacher has incorporated movement breaks at certain points in the day that seem to help.
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@Mrs. Yoyo: you know what? Our dream is to buy a piece of land in the Appalachians while our boys are young enough so that we can go up there for the summer and camo, explore, and spend time with our family up there. We aren't looking for a big or fancy piece of land. So basically one extra year of pre k= down payment on that land. So for me, I feel like having a goal that actually advances our values and desires for our children played into our decision making. If we do public maybe the days will be longer and less recess. But then again we may have more quality family time, better vacations, and more $$ for enrichment. The people I know who bankroll private school are workaholics who never vacation. We actually have a very fancy old school boarding school here in town that is like 25k a year.
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@Mrs. Sketchbook: Yes. We could theoretically afford private but we already work our butts off, so something would have to give -- and my husband doesn't like to give up *anything* so he would probably just opt to work until he dropped dead!
And part of me feels like, ya know what, kid, you've already got it way better than so many people, so unless you really show me you've got needs that will be better dealt with in private school, it might actually be good for you to learn how to thrive in public without as much hand-holding!
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I have a kiddo that is a later August birthday and our cut is 9/1. She started Kinder on time with no consideration for redshirting. Academically she can handle it is in the more advanced grouping. Size wise she's one of the tallest kids in her class. Holding her back would only have helped with some of her social development. She's very well spoken and not shy. SHe has a hard time controlling her emotions and wiggles. As I discussed with her teacher, if we redshirted for the emotional issues, she'd be even more of a problem academically and size wise. Our teacher expects that emotionally she will catch up in 2nd grade. So we deal with lots of notes about behavior and try our best and know that it will continue for awhile but holding her back was never an option for us.
LO2 is a November birthday, and I fear for her academic career, she's quicker to reach most milestones over LO1, but she will be 9 months older when she starts Kinder. I wish we could private Kinder and start public 1st with her, but our district requires 5 by 9/1 for Kinder and 6 by 9/1 for 1st.
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I was born the day before the cutoff in our school district and my parents sent me on time. I did very well academically though I was was extremely shy. I might have had an easier time socially, if they had held me a year but the. I would have been incredibly bored academically.
DH has an August birthday and also went on time. He was still ahead academically and they had him skip 3rd grade. So he wound up being two years younger than some of his classmates. He did very well though!
We'll be sending both of our kids on schedule. -
Reshirting didn't really exist for me so I was always the youngest (Nov bday). BOTH my girls have Dec birthdays and our district cuts off 12/31 so they are definitely the youngest in class. I will see how ready they are but unless we have very real concerns, we won't redshirt.
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@snowjewelz: my birthday was a month before the cut off and I did well! I even graduated high school early so I obviously didn't have an issue with being young. I think it only matters in kinder for most kids. I definitely get that there are other kids for whom a different decision would have been beneficial.
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I'm in New Zealand so we don't have "redshirting" as such but although kids aren't legally required to start school until six, 99.9% of kids start as soon as they turn five (like literally the day after they turn five!).
Our school year runs from February to December and my daughter turns five in October but we aren't planning to start her until the start of the 2018 school year. Part of the reason is logistics (we have a 6-8 week break over Christmas and I'd have to arrange childcare over the holidays, leaving her at daycare / preschool is so much easier as it also solves the problem of afterschool care) and part of the reason is developmental (she's a sensitive poppet so I'd like to minimise the disruption and transitions if I can). Realistically she's not going to miss anything from an educational perspective and she would still have to do a full first year anyway!
Anyway, like I said, not redshirting as such, but just thought I'd offer another perspective.
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I've been extensively reading up on this topic as we're finishing up pre-k with my son and getting ready to start kindergarten in the fall. He has a late June birthday but the cut-off here is 9/1. From what I've read, the issue isn't so much really whether they are ready at 4/5 but moreso a quality of life issue during adolescence. An interesting podcast I listened to said that academically, any differences even out by 4th grade so there is not really a compelling reason to redshirt for that purpose. However, it did discuss whether redshirted adolescent boys were more or less happy in adolescence having been redshirted. They said that developing later than their peers was frustrating for boys (girls are different because they don't want to develop physically sooner). The adolescent boys interviewed apparently claimed that girls weren't interested in them or that they'd wished they were older (the podcast claimed these were quality of life issues). If anyone is interested: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/academic-redshirting/.
With our son, it's a bit of a tricky situation. Because he's already in preschool at a school that offers pre-k 3 through 8th grade, redshirting would really seem more like holding him back as his entire class would advance and he'd stay in pre-k 4 (despite being 5 the entire time). He's very social and pretty bright and I'm sure his fine motor skills and maturity will catch up eventually. However, I'm worried he will be physically smaller and hate always being the youngest. My husband was a full year younger growing up and although he excelled academically, he hated being younger. For now, we've decided to send my son to kindergarten in time in the fall because we worry that repeating pre-k 4 would be harmful to his confidence while staying at the same school but I'm constantly second guessing myself.
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I have a slight preference toward sending them when they are eligible age-wise, but I recognize that it should be evaluated on a kid-by-kid basis. I was a June birthday, my parents sent me on time, and I'm so thankful because I was already a little bored at school (thankfully, I loved to read and could happily fill my extra time with that) but I think it would have been awful to be a full year behind.
The thing that gets me now is that in our area EVERYONE redshirts if they are born in the summer (June or later for sure), but a lot of people even redshirt their boys that were born in the spring. So E & F will turn 5 in March before they start Kinder and one of our friends has a son who will turn 6 the same month and will start Kindergarten with them. That means for our other friend's kid, who has a late birthday and will be sent on time, he'll be in class with kids that are a year and half older than him. That starts to be a big gap and I think people feel pressured that they "have to" redshirt simply because of that issue.
Right or wrong, the other thing for us is that daycare is expensive and we'd love to have those few thousand/year to do other things with our kids that we think matter, too, like traveling and exposing them to things that they just won't have a chance to learn and experience in public school.
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@Shantuck: That's interesting about the podcast. It makes me wonder, though, if you ask virtually ANY adolescent boy if they wouldn't say they want to be older, girls didn't like them as much, etc. I feel like that is sort of a hallmark of the preteen and teenager years. (I haven't listened to the podcast, though, so it may address that.)
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@Mrs. Blue: They actually interviewed 25 teenage boys - half of whom were redshirted and half who weren't to gauge quality of life, satisfaction, etc. The woman who they are interviewing wrote her dissertation on this topic and her conclusion is that the redshirted males were happier overall. She also interviewed their parents and noted that all of the parents who were educators fell within the group that opted to redshirt. It's an interesting listen (even though I don't think we're going to follow their advice/conclusions).
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@Shantuck: that is interesting! Thanks for sharing more details!
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@Mrs. Blue: Yes, I think that's true, that a lot of the times, you feel like the decision is made for you based on what everyone around you is doing. This certainly played into it from my decision making process.
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I lean away from red-shirting in general because, on a societal level, it impacts the makeup of the rest of the class: suddenly a middle of the road child is the youngest by far. And I don't think that is necessarily fair to families (and the children) who send their kids "on time." It is also something that only upper-middle class folks can really do (from a financial standpoint) and so there are socio-economic ramifications as well. My husband is very opposed to red-shirting (not that anyone is asking HIS opinion here).
However, I would do it if I felt there was a need for my child. Our eldest boy - no way would we red shirt, based on his personality, abilities, and demeanor in school. He is a May birthday. Our middle boy - possibly (but he is a December bday so will be one of the oldest in his class anyways). Our third boy will be June or maybe July birthday, so we will have to see what his personality is like. Our cut-off is actually 10/15 so a little later than other areas, AND it is a little less common around here than in other areas, so it takes a little pressure off of the summer birthday thing. Finally, our boys are on the small side. Period. I'm 5'2 and my husband is 5'6. No amount of holding them back will allow them to "catch up" in adolescence for purposes of feeling accepted among women, etc. They'll have to rely on their baby blues and (hopefully) good interpersonal skills in that department!
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