That seems to advocate holding kids back a year before they start kindergarten. My son is almost 2.5 years old. He will be three right smack in the middle of April. In Illinois, you need to be five before you can start kindergarten so little Lochdale would be 5 plus a few months when he would be eligible to start kindergarten. If we were to wait a year then he would be over six which seems like a good idea to me.
We are already working on early intervention with the state of Illinois due to a speech delay.
So, does it make sense to wait a year before a child goes to proper school? Does anyone have experience with “redshirting” a child? What are the pros and cons?
We did it for our daughter – sort of. She was born in November, and we knew by the time the date rolled around that her learning style was to wait until the last minute to learn something – and then do it very well (for instance, she didn’t learn to climb upstairs until she could climb down; kids usually learn up and take a while later to go in the other direction). We were planning to keep her out a year.
Unfortunately, she had to take speech therapy. While they had preschool therapy, you couldn’t stay there if you were old enough to go to kindergarten.
But we got lucky. The teacher noticed her abilities and the school had a “pre-first” program. We pushed to get her into it (most parents took it as an insult) and she was accepted. The extra year helped and instead of struggling all the time, she was able to graduate with a good GPA and get into American University.
One funny thing: they had an orientation for parents for the pre-first program. Most parents came looking very glum about it, but we were enthusing about how glad we were about the program and how much we thought it would help our daughter.
Alas, pre-first is out of fashion and doesn’t seem to be offered. That’s a shame. It may be due to parents wanting to push to get ahead, but kids mature differently and I’m sure there are many who would also do better if they took an extra year. I can’t know if your case is the same or different, but if there’s an education professional who can do an assessment, have that done.
My brother is twenty-two months younger than I, and we were born on opposite sides of the cut-off date for the local schools. Meaning that I was one of the oldest kids in my class, and my brother could have been one of the youngest in the very next class, except that my mother declared that he would be redshirted.
He went to pre-school twice–and his only real days of unhappiness were when he figured out that all the first bunch of classmates were going to kindergarden and he wasn’t.
He matured a LOT during that second round of preschool-- especially emotionally.
This was the case with both of my kids. They are both near the oldest in their respective classes. I don’t know if I would call it “redshirting”, but they both needed the additional time in pre-school to mature. Both of them are doing great in Jr high and HS at this point, have always been strong performers, grade-wise, and they are both in advanced classes.
Neighbors, who have kids nearly the same age, but on the other side of the cut-offs pushed their kids in ASAP (their kids are nearly the youngest in their respective classes), and they, well, have not had as good results. Not saying they did anything wrong, as there really is not a “right” answer here, as each kid and each family is unique.
I do take small umbrage at people congratulating me for “holding back” my kids. I remind them that we did no such thing, we simply looked at the guidelines and started them when we thought it was best, based on their development stage at that time.
Here in the bay area they just moved the cut off from January 1 to September so no child will be under five when starting kindgarten. This doesn’t really fix anyting. Someone is always going to be 11 months younger than the oldest kids in class. Unless there is a specific reason to hold a kid back (redshirting is a horrible term for this*), you shouldn’t do it. The more parents do this, the more older kids there in a class and the worse it will be. So instead of your kid bing 5 and 3 months in class with kids who are 5 an 11 months, they will be 6 and 3 months. But if other parents are doing that, there will be kids who are 6 and 11 months. When do you start seeing kids held back two years?
*This sports term betrays the inherit competition that is driving the trend. Too many parents are using it not get their kid in a group of similarly developed kids, but to get them an advantage.
Redshirt implies that it is a game for advantage, Held Back implies there is something wrong - no victory in the terminology.
We started our older kid later than normal. It was a great decision, especially since they give out homework packs for Kindergarten around here. Our local schools now treat Kindergarten like we used to treat 1st grade, so I have no problem with having my son start later.
No real sports advantage, since his sport was tracked based on calendar age, and not based on school year (soccer, where club play is more important than high school).
I think CA has changed the cut off to September 1st. Of course since most of the schools in my area start in August, we will always have some who are still 4 yrs old, a long with some who will turn 6 soon or already are 6 when they start.
I think parents just need to really think about their reasons and know their kids. I don’t have a problem with people holding their kids back or sending them a little early. There isn’t a magic age that means all kids are ready for school. We probably shouldn’t talk in terms of starting late or early, but starting when ready.
…I am probably betraying exactly how geeky I am, but when I saw the term “redshirt” I totally thought it meant redshirts from Star Trek, and was wondering if this was the new euphemism for bullying or something…
Ahem. Back to the actual subject. We’re worrying about this with our daughter right now; she’ll probably fall near the cutoff, but I definitely want her to take that extra year. She’s more than ready intellectually, but I can tell that socially she could really use that extra year.
My younger brother’s birthday is in December. But he was smart, so they started him in kindergarten at 4. And for all his life he was smaller and less mature emotionally than the other kids. As he got older he could do the work academically but lacked motivation. I’m pretty sure pushing him to start kindergarten early was a big mistake.
On the other hand, my birthday is in October and I started kindergarten at 4 too, and I turned out OK.
I can’t say anything to advance the OP, but will note that in South Carolina, the cutoff was November 1 until the mid 80s, then it was changed to September 1. That is, to start first grade, you now have to be six years old by September 1.
I’ve read quite a few posts on metafilter about redshirting. The community there is largely against it, I think because there are some very vocal people who were redshirted as children and wish they hadn’t been. Waiting an extra year won’t add emotional maturity for every redshirted kid, but it *will *put every redshirted kid behind a year in terms of schooling and lifetime earnings. Doesn’t mean much when you’re comparing 5 year olds versus 6 year olds, but it does when comparing a 22 year old college graduate to a 21 year old.
Personally, I was redshirted by the system. As a G&T kid (tested above a 12th grade reading level in 6th grade, 99th percentile on most of my test scores) who just missed the cutoff with my early September birthday, I turned 6 in the first week of kindergarten. And I really wish I could have started a year earlier, because I was bored in school *every year *until I hit 9th grade. And I was 18 for my entire senior year, but still stuck living at home (with the thread of being kicked out for “misbehavior” hanging over my head, unlike my sister who was born in April). It would have been nice to get that extra year out of the way at the beginning, instead of being stuck for an extra year at the end.
So I say, don’t do it *unless *your child has a documented learning disability. In which case an extra year of development could be the difference between a relatively-normal childhood and inability to complete the material/outright peer torment.
The twins’ birthday was in late September, so we could’ve pushed and gotten them to into kindergarten just before their 5th birthdays. We held them back and have never once regretted it. And unlike Rachellelogram’s experience, they enjoyed being the oldest in their classes.
However, the OP’s child will be only 5 plus a few months when kindergarten rolls around, so unless there’s a developmental issue, he’ll probably be just fine.
I started kindergarten at 4 because I passed the test to get in early and my formerly SAH mom was going to grad school. I had no problems because I was emotionally mature and, although I am the shortest in my family now at 5’10", I was the tallest in my class until the boys hit puberty. Everyone was surprised when they found my age.
My younger brother, however, greatly benefited from not starting until he was 6.
My older brother also started at 4 and it was terrible for him. He was behind the emotional maturity curve until he joined the Navy at 19. He was smart enough, we was Navy Nuke, but he had trouble fitting in and dating in middle school and high school. After the Navy he found a career he loves and a wife he also loves.
Just anecdotal evidence that girls do well starting early or on time and boys do fine starting on time or late.
I think this is the case. To throw out some personal anecdotes, I have several friends whose birthdays are a few months ahead of mine- July and August, and mine’s in mid-September.
We’re all within 2 months of each other, but the two of them were a grade ahead.
It made a world of difference. Neither of them is particularly big to begin with, so being the youngest kids in their class also meant that they were some of the very smallest. Plus they were kind of immature starting school.
I was lucky enough to not be small to begin with, and I was always one of the older kids.
I think I enjoyed school a lot more- I wasn’t getting picked on, I didn’t feel inferior, and as I got older, I didn’t have a chip on my shoulder like they did about being a grade ahead of the rest of us.
I’m going to “redshirt” my son for sure; his birthday is in late July.
And the lifetime earnings thing is silly. Most people don’t graduate on time from college anyway, and beyond that, the earning potential, etc… all evens out pretty quickly out of school. I’m not competing with the college class of 1995 anymore; it’s the classes of probably 1980 through probably 2002 or so. Graduating a year earlier or later doesn’t matter anymore.
Most kids who have summer birthdays in Atlanta are “given the benefit of an extra year.” We talked to a lot of professionals, and couldn’t find a single person who thought it was a bad idea. We waited a year, and have absolutely no regrets at this point.
(Technically, his last year of preschool was in an accredited kindergarten class, but it was only for 4 hours a day.)
My daughter’s birthday is after the cut-off date, so she’ll be one of the oldest regardless. She’ll start kindergarten at 5 years 7 months.
I was a little surprised when I was pregnant how many people asked me my due date, and then immediately said how lucky I was to have her after the cut-off. Like the first thing they said! At that point, I didn’t even know how the system worked and someone had to explain it to me, along with the perceived benefits of being in the older end of the class.
If this trend continues (although the article said the rates have remained steady, it seems like maybe we’re poised to have an uptick), I wonder if any school districts will have to introduce an upper limit as well. I would find it a little odd if my kid’s late birthday resulted in her being in the younger end anyway. I do worry about the disparity of lower income families not having the option to pay for another year of childcare in lieu of free kindergarten.
Our cutoff is September 1st, My son’s birthday is August 28th. So I figured I wouldn’t be the only parent holding back a “just turned five year old”- and he’s the oldest kid in his class. I understand this is really common other places, but it isn’t common here at all, where people push to have their four year olds in kindergarten (I think both for the bragging rights of ‘my kid is so smart’ as well as all day kindergarten lowers your child care costs dramatically.)
I’m happy I did it - three days - he gained a lot of maturity and the ability to think in that year - but you are talking several months. If your kid is several months older than all the other kids when he is a teen, than might be an issue. My daughter has one - a kid who transferred in from a part of the country where its more common, and I get the feeling he is a pretty average kid - but the kids don’t understand that he didn’t fail a grade - I’ve heard several times from my daughter’s friends that “I hear he failed kindergarten!”
I was the youngest kid in my class and I wouldn’t recommend that either.
When I was old enough to start kindergarten, one could start when you were four years old, if you would be five before January 1 of the school year. My birthday is December 31, so I would have been the youngest in the class. My parents decided to start me the next year, which was okay, either choice was allowable. A year at that age means more than later on, to social skills, physical coordination, and learning ability.
To me, it’s a question of whether it’s a parent here and there doing it for the occasional kid who is clearly not ready for kindergarten*, or whether lots of parents whose kids are born in the month or two before the cutoff are doing it because it’s seen as a generally good idea for their kid not to be the youngest.
If the former, I’ve got no problem with it. If the latter, though, the effect is to semi-sorta shift the cutoff (and someone has to be the youngest, after all), and widen the age range of kids in a given class. So if you’ve got a September 1 cutoff, the July and August kids whose parents missed the memo that everybody’s redshirting their kids, aren’t in a class with kids up to a year older than them; they’re in a class with kids up to 14 months older than them. So under those circumstances, it’s a game of hot-potato where the losers are even more at a disadvantage than before.
There’s also the flip side of the equation. The Firebug has a late July birthday, and we’ve got the September 1 cutoff. More than one relative made the well-meaning suggestion that we redshirt him, but we knew he’d be bored shitless with another year in the four year old class at day care, and long-term boredom leads to behavior problems. (It was hard enough on him in kindergarten to have to be patient while the teacher covered a lot of ground in the first part of the year that he had already known for a long time.)
One of his close friends has a September birthday. Unlike the Firebug, she did have to repeat the four year old class; they wouldn’t let her start kindergarten with the kids who’d been born just a few weeks earlier. And she was bored shitless for a year, like the Firebug would have been. ‘Holding her back’ - in this case, not being flexible in the other direction at the cutoff (not letting her be greenshirted?) - didn’t do anyone any favors.
So I’d say one big question for a parent thinking about redshirting would be: is your kid going to be more challenged, or more bored, by doing an extra year of whatever your kid is currently doing as a four year old? Do you really want your kid to spend a year being bored at that age?
*Gotta admit, though: other than being markedly less able than other kids in his/her peer group to sit still for a decent length of time, or having a learning disability, I’m not sure what “not ready for kindergarten” at age 5 would mean; around here, the purposes of kindergarten seem to be (a) to get everyone on the same footing going into first grade (i.e. they assume everyone knows zilch coming into kindergarten), and (b) getting them used to the routine of the school day.