opposite of red shirting - your thoughts (long) (fixed dates in OP)

[Kindra178]

I would not accelerate her. My DS is in kindergarten now and he is one of the youngest kids in his class. Socially I think he shows his age. That said. He is also one of the brightest. Last year in K4 he was the only kid in his school who started K4 reading. He is bright, and yet he does not seem bored in class. There is a lot more to kindergarten than just academics. I just glanced at DS class birthday list and socially the oldest kids are noticeably the most skilled socially and the most self assured kids. It is easy to see the age differences in the kids if you watch them interact.

My DD misses the cut off for our school by weeks. While I was so done being pregnant, I was quite relieved when she wasn't born before the cut off. She will likely be the oldest kid in her grade. I think that will give her a distinct advantage.

If you feel the need to challenge her than you should homeschool her. You can supplement the kindergarten curriculum with additional material at home. That is what we do for our DS. We have to work to find reading material that is appropriate for him. What is appropriate for his reading ability is not where his maturity is at. He is still reading above grade level, but eventually his friends will catch up. I personally don't feel knowing ABC, 123 and reading are the best predictors of academic success. While some kids are accelerated and do well, I think socially being younger causes many kids to struggle. I don't want to watch my DS and DD struggle with those issues and I do think that social immaturity can also influence academic performance.

Completely agree with this. One thing I have recently learned - early reading means nothing! It just means your child is an early reader. K teachers used to be prevented from teaching reading, even if kids showed readiness, citing studies that it was not developmentally appropriate for a k'er to read. K should be about social maturity. I, too, was happy when my twins were born in September. No need to make choices about sending or holding.

[justlearning]

I haven't read any responses but here's mine--I don't think starting her early would be a good idea. My brother turned 5 in Dec. the year that he was in K, and he always hated being the youngest in his class. He was fine academically but somewhat awkward socially.

Many schools in our area are implementing earlier cutoff dates, e.g., having to be 5 by June 1st in the year that you start K. So DS1 whose birthday is the end of May has always been the youngest in his class. Their reasoning is that kids do better when they are more mature when they start K.

My DS2's birthday is in Dec. and he's very advanced academically. Although he would do fine right now with 1st (and perhaps even 2nd) grade work, I would not want for him to suffer socially so we're keeping him in K and not having him skip a grade. His teacher has been great at giving him supplemental projects (e.g., today he taught the class about Groundhog's Day, reading them a book, describing the tradition, and asking/answering the students' questions). So perhaps your DD's K teacher could do the same.

[MommyAllison]

We considered it for DD1, whose birthday is the first week of November. I was one of the youngest in my grade (just made the cutoff by 4 days) and am very glad my parents didn't hold me back. I was bored a lot of the time in school anyway. It was lame to get my driver's license so much later than most of my classmates (particularly the redshirted boys!), but there were no real issues for me.

We ended up starting DD1 on time rather than early, for many of the reasons PP have mentioned. We homeschool, so it doesn't affect her nearly as much as a public/private school student, but we still didn't want her to be in high school youth group a year early, be the last to hit puberty, or be the youngest/smallest child in dance/sports/whatever trying to keep up with older kids. Thankfully homeschooling offers plenty of flexibility curriculum wise, so she is working on some 1st grade materials, though she is actually just in K. We're happy with our choice.