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What are your thoughts on redshirting, and what is the age cutoff in your neck of the woods? For those of you who don't know what this is I've included a link, there is a lot of information on the web about this.
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It really depends on the child. We sent my son when he turned 5 an we truly regret it. His birthday is in aug and if he turned five now he would not be able to go as they have changed the cut off date too July here we held my dd back and are so happy we did she has a sept birthday -
I think if a child is socially/academically ready you are handicapping them by holding them back. There was on mom at a daycare I used to work at that wanted to hold her son back a year only because she realized he would be 17 when he graduated instead of 18, and everyone in her family I guess was 18 when they graduated from high school and apparently everyone in her family is successful (success is relative), so she thought he wouldn't be successful if he graduated at age 17 instead of 18 (that was seriously her only reasoning for holding him back
). Me and most of my friends graduated when we were 17 (most of our birthdays were during the summer or early fall- one girl barely turned 18 on graduation day {she was so mad that she had to do grad practice and parties all day instead of celebrating her 18th birthday 
}) and we thought it was cool that we were mostly a young class. One of my friends was 19 when she graduated because she failed kindergarten and her birthday was in the beginning of the year (she was probably the oldest graduate). There was one girl who took summer classes so she could skip a grade, go to grad night with our class, and graduate with our class at 16 (I think she was the youngest grad).
If you hold them back now when they are ready and they are supposed to graduate at 18 after that but need to repeat a grade or two later on they may not graduate until 19 or 20. I think if the child is ready you shouldn't take that option away from them- after all they are the ones who have to live with it. I think that is one of the good things about going to daycare (and preschool weather you agree with weather it helps you later academically or not) is that it will help a child with socialization with other kids their age. One mom I used to housekeep and babysit for, her oldest son (about 4 at the time but now almost 6) was very smart. He knew all the things a child his age should know, and maybe more, academically (she was a stay at home mom and taught him) and he could have just gone straight to kindergarten when he turned 5. But the mom admitted that she was afraid when he went to kindergarten that he would have social problems and that is the only reason why she enrolled him at a local preschool.Comment
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Our cut-off for Kindergarten is 5 yrs by Sept 1st and 6 yrs by Sept 1st for first grade. My son's birthday is September 11th and he is a very bright little boy. I knew he would be bored if we didn't get him into school so we sent him to a private school in a neighboring city. (The cut-off there is Oct. 1st) Getting him into school was so important to us that we would have moved in order to get him enrolled this past year but ended up sending him to the nearby Catholic school even though we are not religious.
I have a huge problem with schools not having some sort of "grace period" when it comes to admitting children who just miss the cut-off date. I believe there should be assessments done on children who are within a month or so of that date if the parents believe that their child is ready. If it turns out that a child isn't ready, no harm done. They get held back a year and although they may have made some friends, chances are they aren't totally emotionally bonded with them. What happens to the children that start later who are advanced learners? In my experience it takes too long to skip a grade and by that point they may have already lost interest in school. I was given the Gifted and Talented test just before I entered high school. When I was told I could skip right into my freshman year, I turned them down. There was NO WAY I wanted to leave the friends that I had been with since Kindergarten. In my case, I wasn't held back and I started school when I was 4 so I was already the youngest in my class. I'm guessing that may have been the reason for the school department brushing off my parents' concerns about me not being challenged enough as a child. ? I would have been much better off had I skipped a year earlier on because I did end up being quite bored when I got to high school. (I should have moved when I had the chance though. Hindsight is always 20/20.)
I think that holding a child back for a year is completely up to each parent, but I personally don't believe that children should be held back just to "be the best at sports" or to "be the biggest kid in the class" or "get their driver's license before their peers". These are all things that I was told when I worried about my son not being able to start kindergarten when he turned 5. Parents should make that decision based on their child's academic ability and social skills.
If you haven't guessed- this was a big issue for my family this past year.
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We're overseas and the department of defense (American public school) is seriously overcrowded. There are no transferring school districts- you go to the school you are residentially zoned for. The age cut-off is beginning of September and there are no waivers to start kindergarten even if the birthday is one day later.
While I think it stinks, I can see why the schools here do that. The problem is that there are very limited preschool options here unless your child is developmentally delayed or you want to shell out $600 a month for 8 hours a week.
I think if a child isn't socially ready for kindergarten, I see no reason why they need to be rushed into kindergarten. Thankfully my boys qualify for the developmental preschool (speech delays) and they go to the NAEYC accredited childcare center I work at so they're getting the fundamentals ready. If they weren't getting these, I could totally see them maybe not being ready socially for kindergarten right when they turn 5.Comment
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The cut-off here is December 31st I think. So we have a little more leeway. We also have junior kindergarten for 4 year olds. So my daughter could start JK the month before she turns 4. It's not mandatory, you don't need to start until grade one (6).
I don't think wanting your child to be the best at sports us a good reason to keep them out, I'm surprised people would do that at such a young age.Comment
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We were just talking about this at a party last night. Two of the parents have red shirted - not for sports but because their kids (both boys) had October birthdays and they felt the extra year would help their maturity. One of the parents had another child (also a boy) with a July birthday that they had sent "on time" and have regretted it ever since.
Kindergarten here is not centers and play and nap time, it's full day academics. Our cutoff is December 1 - and our schools start the Wednesday or Thursday after Labor Day in September. That means there could be four year olds in Kindergarten because they make the cut off
Most people forget that children do not have to start school until 6. Honestly, I've never heard of a parent regretting NOT sending their child the first year they could, but I have heard of many who regretted sending them.
I admire parents who red shirt for the right reasons - to give their kids another year to grow, mature, just be a kid - rather than send them too early because they don't want to pay for full time day care.Comment
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My son has a July birthday and, in hindsight, should have been held back for kindergarten. He was neither academically nor socially ready, and we had a very hard time for the first couple of years of school. Our youngest will be an even younger 5, so we'll have a hard decision to make when it's his turn.
Every child is different, though, and I think parents should definitely consider their own child's strengths and weaknesses.
I was alarmed that one of the criteria mentioned in the article was whether or not a parent is "ready to let their child go". How selfish! Do parents actually hold back their developmentally ready children from starting kindergarten because they don't want to be without them yet?Comment
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From what I understood, there's a difference between holding a child back because they were truly not ready and "redshirting".
Kids who are "redshirted" are mostly boys, who are held back purposely, whether they were mature enough or not, so they would have a competitive edge over the other children who started at the traditional age. The parents want their kids to be bigger, better at sports and more advanced academically. If they weren't that way naturally, the parents see no problem with giving them an artificial boost.
I recommended all but one of my kids for regular kindergarten next year. Even the one with the September birthday. The only problem I see they may face is the overly academic-ness of kindergarten these days vs. the more play-based structure of Pre-K. But I dont see how another year of Pre-K will remedy that. The only child I'm advising against going to K still has multiple potty accidents, cannot remember simple directions long enough to carry them out, and is still inappropriately impulsive IMO.
From what I can tell, what many kindergarten teachers have run into as far as "not ready" is kids not being able to sit quietly for more than a couple minutes, not being used to doing things for themselves and not being able to manage toileting yet. Not so much being unable to handle the academic work.
I don't know. Sometimes its truly beneficial and others its just what you do to keep up with the fads.Comment
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I'm also not sure how that would work here, I'm pretty sure if you enrolled at 6 you would still be put in Grade 1, even if you didn't do kindergarten, because its not required.Comment
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I have a problem both with the term "red-shirting" and with the term "holding back" because I don't think they describe all of the reasons why a parent might choose to wait an extra year to send their child to kindergarten.
My son has a late summer birthday, and although he's nowhere near kindergarten age yet, I know that we will have a careful decision to make when it's time to enroll him.
We probably will wait to enroll him until he is 6, or I will home school him for kindergarten.
Here, kindergarten is a full day of desk work and test prep. Recess is only 20 minutes long. I have serious concerns about sending a very young 5 year old to that environment. As smart as any child may be, it is the rare 5 year old who can handle all of that and still come out excited and motivated about school.
I don't like "red-shirt" because I'm not trying to give my son a competitive edge. I don't like "holding back," because it carries a stigma, and I don't want him to hear he was "held back" and believe it was because he was unintelligent.
I just don't want to burn out a child so early in such an intense environment. I don't think the way K is done here is best for young kids. I'd rather see him in a play-based half-day kindergarten with a nice, long recess.Comment
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We actually had to make this choice with our youngest. He started full-day kindy in CA and the cutoff was in December. His birthday is in October so he was 4 when he started. Because my husband is in the military we knew it was only a matter of time before we moved somewhere else where he would have not even been able to start school when he did and would be much younger than the other kids. We spent time talking with the kindy teacher our second child had. She did an assessment on him and really encouraged us to go ahead and start him at 4. Academically he already exceeded everything they would need to learn in kindy. Socially he is a bit young, but it is absolutely his personality rather than his age. He loves being the little boy clown and he honestly does not care when other people think he is even younger than he is. He is doomed to be short forever. He is always the shortest boy and usually only 1 or maybe 2 girls are shorter. At 5 when he started first grade he was reading on a 3rd grade level (and has just gone up) and was doing multiplication at home.
We aren't worried about his size. His dad was always the small kid and he is now a Marine who can take guys twice his size and 10 years younger any day of the week (and loves to show off by doing it). We aren't worried about him being socially younger since that is just his personality and being held back wouldn't have changed it.
We also had to consider this for our 2nd child who has a summer birthday and learning disabilities. The best advice I ever got from a teacher is that when worried academically for a child, it is better to start them on time which allows more options for repeating an early grade if necessary for academic reasons without impacting the child socially. We came very close to having her repeat 1st grade, but luckily with special ed, OT, speech, and other support from the school she is now doing very well in 3rd grade.
I say each situation and each child is unique and there is no black and white answer. I can't imagine ever holding back my child simply to gain a size advantage, however.Comment
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I think it all depends on the rules for where you live - in my town a child is required to be 5 by August 1st to start Kindergarten. My son was not 5 until the 10th so we followed the rules. He was really ready academically so technically he could have gone (although it was agains the rules but if we had a choice he could have); however, I believe it helped him a ton socially by not being in K right after he turned 5. As a result he is now a straight A 5th grader who is in advanced Math (takes 6th grade math). Would it have happened if he entered K a year earlier? I don't know, possibly but "sitting" it out definitely didn't harm him!
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I know someone that's been a Kindergarten teacher for 25+ years. She highly recommends it for boys. She has never seen a parent regret it.
My personal opinion is that at 5, a 6 month age difference can be huge as far as maturity levels. If you have a summer or early fall baby, you might consider holding him/her back until the next year.
It does totally depend on the child. Firsties tend to be less mature than 2nd and 3rd children.Comment
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