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M's bday is 12/11 and our district's cutoff is Dec 1. Instead of pushing her, we will probably just hold her til the next year, especially since that is the track she will be following in preschool (going into the 2's program this Sept). We'll see how she progresses through preschool, though I'm not sure how much pull we'd even have with the district trying to get her past the 12/1 cutoff.
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LO's birthday is almost 2 months after the cut-off here. The cut-off is Sept 1 and that is with a kindergarten readiness approval by your pediatrician. I think August 1 and earlier, you don't need that approval. So, if your LO was born August 2, I guess you could "red shirt" them if you wanted.
LO's birthday is October 22 so she will start kindergarten at nearly 6 and I am very glad about that. I think it will give her an advantage, especially since kindergarten is very structured and high-pressure these days.
I am more interested in how to handle preschool, honestly.
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@Mrs. J: this is a pretty good summary:
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/the_kids/2013/09/academic_redshirting_what_does_the_research_say_about_delaying_kindergarten.htmlRegardless, we don't have a choice--we can't redshirt in NYC , so LO will be 4 when he starts kinder. I personally like having him with older kids, as I feel he is actually better behaved and more motivated.
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@youboots: lol, well i'm pretty positive LO will always be one of the shortest in her class even if we held her back a few years
but that's less of an issue for girls.@hilsy85: interesting read! i agree about being with older kids. kinda like the younger sibling tends to learn faster because he/she is around a big sibling
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@hilsy85: Thanks for the summary! Personally, I wouldn't redshirt, whether we can or not. If my child were going to be very young and I did not think he/she were ready, then I might consider it, but I wouldn't hold back for athletic reasons or other "advantages".
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In our district you have to turn 5 before 12/1 of the school year. DD1 will be 5 and 4m ish and DD2 will be 5 and 1m ish.
I think it kinda depends on the child but in general I wouldn't redshirt either.
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@Pirouette: Ah, so she'll be closer to 5 than to 4, that makes more sense. Our school uses the French system, so most kids have actually been in state "preschool" for 2-3 years before starting the equivalent of American kindergarten, which is why there are no 4 yos at that level. In our school, you have to turn 6 the year that you start school, but if you are 5.5 before 12/31, you can still enter the class (or something along those lines). DS will be more like 5.75 when he starts, but he will be one of the youngest in his class because he is an end of December birthday and he will potentially be in school with kids with early January birthdays.
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I am holding back my son, he's got a December birthday, the cut off is 12/31.
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Oh how I wish we had a December cutoff. Our cutoff is 9/1. LO1 will start Kinder about a week after turning 5 (mid August birthday). LO2 is a mid November birthday so she will be almost 6 when she starts. If LO2 is like LO1, I will explore options to get her started early. LO1 is ahead of her peers in her preschool program.
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My LO is also right after the cut-off. It feels weird to wait that extra year (I was a summer bday), but I don't see it hurting at all and my LO and probably will be small, so he make like some extra catch-up time. It just seems like FOREVER away! Academically, I think he would do fine either way. But I know a lot of kindergarten teachers and they all say wait and I trust them.
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DS has a 12/28 bday, we'll be holding him back, the cutoff is 12/31. I've never heard of anyone regretting the decision to hold their child back, but I have met people who regret NOT holding their child back.
In our case, I think 3 years of preschool will be good for our son, I hope it will help him to transition and adjust to kindergarten smoothly!
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@lamariniere: i like that system! i feel like having a more structured preschool system and starting K later makes a lot of sense. i feel like you'd have way less issues with the cutoff.
@regberadaisy: a 12/1 cutoff always seems SO arbitrary to me! i get 9/1, i get 12/31, i maybe even get 10/1, giving a month grace period after school starts. but why 12/1?!
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@Pirouette: haha don't know!
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The cut-off here is Sept 1st, and E's birthday is August 8th. Right now our inclination is to not hold him back a year, but we won't decide until closer to the registration date. He's big for his age, and relatively smart (he knows all his letters, colors, shapes, can count to 30...). I'm confident he could handle it.
However, both D and one of his brothers are August babies, and my MIL let my BIL be one of the youngest, but held D back a year so he was one of the oldest. She said she felt that BIL was more prepared (academically and especially emotionally) for it, and she didn't feel like D was. Both are successful, confident, well-rounded men, and neither suffered either way (although D said he was sometimes bored).
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I would do it depending on where I felt my child was at developmentally, but generally I'm against it. I like the idea of a child feeling more challenged in school.
Mrs. Cowgirl wrote some pretty awesome posts on the topic:
1) http://www.hellobee.com/2012/07/23/to-redshirt-or-not-to-redshirt/ -
Obviously it should be case by case, but I think, in general, it's better to wait. Kindergarten in So. Intense. these days. I don't see any rush to try & buck the cutoffs. Our son is late Sept birthday, right before the cutoff. If we can swing it, we'll do private K that year to buy some time, then decide on K again or 1st.
@hilsy85: I'm confused, how can you not? Can't you just not register for K until the year they turn 5?
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@JoyfulKiwi: so kids go to kinder the year they turn 5, with a cut off of 12/31. The following year, the yr they turn 6, they automatically go to 1st grade.
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I was on the cusp (August birthday) and went ahead so I was on of the youngest one of my class. I did well in school and was mature enough at the time to stay in my current grade. If I was held back I think it would have been miserable for me because I wouldn't have been challenged. I think it would have been different if I was a boy, but not necessarily.
LO has a birthday in the middle of the year, so this won't be a concern of ours.
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@hilsy85: what's your cut off? i was thinking he'd be old! ours in CA is sept. 1 now.
ETA: read it. that's so weird that L and R would be in different classes!
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I am so envious of reading about all of these 12/31 cutoffs. DD was born 12/29 and I don't think any schools here have a 12/31 cutoff
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LO will meet the cutoff by a couple of days and she will be the youngest but I have no intentions of having her wait another year.
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This will be a big issue for us. Our oldest has a 9/13 bday with a 9/1 cutoff. He's a boy which means it would be a fight to get him in early. I was a 10/25 who started a year early and was at the top of my class so I definitely support it.
However, to add to this, my twin boys would be in the next grade year, so all 3 of my kids would end up in the same grade if he didn't start early. Does anyone have any thoughts about pros and cons of holding back/starting early in that situation?
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Our cut-off is Sept 1 (they have to be 5 by Sept 1 to start kinder) and I'm having a late September baby. Unless she's unusually advanced or a crazy genius, I will keep where she is "supposed" to be and she will be almost 6 when she starts kindergarten.
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we can't hold back in nyc, but i wouldn't have held charlie back with a december birthday. would he have benefitted from an extra year? i think academically he would have been fine, but it is definitely harder for a 4 year old boy with a december birthday to sit still than a 5 year old girl with a january birthday. they have an advantage in the early years for sure.
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Our cutoff is September 1 and she was born on the 27th. So she will be almost 6 when she starts kindergarten.
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I think I would put a girl forward but not a boy.
I'm born in November and started kindergarten at 4. I have succeeded very well academically but I recall all the younger kids were crazy hyper by comparison to our classmates. I would fear that a boy would be mis-labeled as having ADHD since they tried to put me on meds at one point. Boys also develop a little slower so I would really be hesitant.
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@DillonLion: my experience was similar to yours. I guess that's why I'm not tempted to hold back lo.
@marionberry: oh wow, that's crazy! I actually think the school might accept that as a reason to let your lo move up the year. But who knows.
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@birdofafeather: I know! it is weird. And these two babes too!
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Man, I have so much to say about this. My daughter misses the cut off by 12 days, and I'm so stressed about it. I worry that holding her back would mean boredom academically, which is something that her father and I both really struggled with later in school. So, I'm for sure not going to let that happen. She's in a co op preschool now that has a kindergarten option, so I'm hoping that she can just go right to first grade afterwards. If not, I'll do the early testing process, which I feel confidant that she would pass.
It's really stressful, though. I was 5 when I started first grade, so the thought of her being almost 7 when she does is really not fun. I want her to be in an environment where she's challenged, and I worry that with this cut off, she just won't be.
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@sarac: the academics of first grade when we were little were also not the same as they are now, just something to consider.
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DS birthday is ON the cut off. I'm keeping him back a year. Sucks to pay more in child care but glad I'll have him home with me an extra year, one grade level apart from his sister. He'll be more mature even though I am positive academically he'll be ready.
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Our cutoff is 9/1 and my DD makes it by 3 days. She entered first grade as a 5 year old this year. She did wonderfully but was very conscious of being the youngest. Several of her classmates turned 7 within the first few months of school (all boys). She also has a classmate with a similar bday who is a full year older. That student flunked first grade the first time around as the youngest . So it all depends on the child.
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@marionberry: I would absolutely split them up in classes If you kept them in the same grade. I actually have a case at my school now of a 2nd grader who was retained so he and his sister ended up in 2nd together (diff classes though). My experience with early childhood is to keep boys back for many reasons already mentioned. When I'm testing kids or doing walkthroughs, I can tell almost right off the bat who is a late birthday vs early.
When is your twins bday? You could put your oldest in pre-K, see how he does. If he thrives and you feel ready to move him to kinder, continue, but if now, he can always do pre-K again.
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I don't plan on holding her back. DD2 has a 12/30 bday and we have a 12/31 cut off! She'll just barely squeak in, but I think she'll be ready.
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@marionberry: my neighbor was in this situation - she didn't want them in the same grade so she sent her older child to a private K that had a Dec 31st cut-off date - the following year she entered 1st grade and her younger child started public K
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I'd love to have the option to start later but we don't. Full time school starts at FOUR (which is crazy to me) and whilst it's not compulsory, if you choose not to start them until age five, when it is compulsory, they have to go right into the same grade all of the other five year olds are in, essentially meaning that they will have skipped the entire first year of school (called Reception here). That is ludicrous to me, so whilst I'm not thrilled about my late June baby starting full time school at four years and two months old, I can't have her skipping the entire first year of school and going straight into Year One as it will be a total disservice to her.
I don't know for sure that we would have held her back a year, but I do know that I would have liked the option to make that decision myself....you know, being her parent and all I sort of think I know her better than the school.....but alas, not the way it works here.
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@Ree723: wow, that's intense! i guess if there's one silver lining, at least everyone in the class is the same age, and you don't have the 2 year age gap problem. but yea, that's pretty nuts.
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@matador84: the twins' bday is 3/24. I agree that I would want them in different classes if they do end up in the same grade.
@Mamaof2: We don't have private kindergarten in my town...but we may move to a bigger city before they are that age, so that would be a great option! Thanks for the idea! -
@Pirouette: all kids here start kindergarten at age 4, so I would start at 4...
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DS has a November birthday and the cutoff in our town is 9/1. I'm not really thrilled about it. I grew up in a school system where the cutoff was 12/31, so it's really bizarre to me that he would be 6 practically right after he starts kindergarten.
Our other option is to send him to private kindergarten and then he can join the public school in 1st grade. He'll be going to daycare anyways, so we will decide later down the line if we think that's a good option. I too worry about boredom in school and not challenging and engaging him enough.
But it'll be really dependent on what kind of kid he is.
but that's less of an issue for girls.
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