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

[pinkmomagain]

I would think very carefully about this, purely for social reasons. Girls have very sophisticated personalities...I would not want to push my daughter to be the youngest in the class.

I have two dds that fall towards the cut off, not past the cut off (one is a sept baby, one an oct baby...our district cut off is 12/1). They are on the "younger" side socially...they do fine, I think, because there are plenty of others also on that end of the scale - still within cutoff - so a pool of others who might be on their "level." But I wouldn't want them to be off the map, you know? In fact, there is one particular girl in dd1's grade whose mom lied about her dec birthdate, and she does struggle socially.

[sste]

Just to bring up another perspective, I would never do this because I selfishly want my kids in the house with me as long as possible. I know everyone claims they can't wait to offload their teen but I really don't want to miss a single one of my school cut-off allotted years with them. Not one! DD is a matter of days past the cut-off and I won't start her early even though DD, at least to date in her toddler development, appears to an extremely quick learner. Also I love our preschool and I am not thrilled with how pressurized kindy appears to have become so I have no big drive to rush her in.

[scrooks]

Just to bring up another perspective, I would never do this because I selfishly want my kids in the house with me as long as possible. I know everyone claims they can't wait to offload their teen but I really don't want to miss a single one of my school cut-off allotted years with them. Not one! DD is a matter of days past the cut-off and I won't start her early even though DD, at least to date in her toddler development, appears to an extremely quick learner. Also I love our preschool and I am not thrilled with how pressurized kindy appears to have become so I have no big drive to rush her in.

I completely agree with this perspective too!

[MontrealMum]

I'm a bit confused. You're considering enrolling her for Kindy in Fall 2012 in a district with a Sept. 1 cutoff? And her b-day is Dec. 2008 (according to your siggy)? That's not 1 year early, it's 2. Or maybe I'm misreading your post? I mean, technically it's 1 year and 3 months, but in terms of when she's supposed to be enrolled, it's 2 years. Fall 2012 is for kids born in 2006/2007. The year she should be enrolled according to your district cutoff and her b-day is 2014. So, 1 year early would be 2013.

[smilequeen]

My MIL was a HS teacher and she said in HS is where the problems tend to show up for the younger kids. Our DD has a summer birthday and we have decided to hold her basically for social reasons. I am second guessing the decision a bit but with the prevalence of red shirting I don't want her to be in a class with kids a lot older than her. Bullying is such an issue these days I don't want to make her a target.

My mom is also a HS teacher and she says this isn't really true. All kids mature at different rates. Period. And the research really does show that younger kids do do better, are more likely to be at the top of the class, etc.

ALL kids have struggles. MS and HS pretty much suck. Whether you were or were not redshirted really isn't going to make a difference. Your personality might. And the fact is, your kid is going to struggle with stuff. You just can't make all of that go away by waiting an extra year for school. You can help teach them to deal with it and they'll be better off in the long run.

BUT...that refers to kids within the realm of the normal age group. It's an argument against redshirting. It's not an argument for pushing ahead. I would not push ahead a child that far from the cut off.

[smilequeen]

I'm a bit confused. You're considering enrolling her for Kindy in Fall 2012 in a district with a Sept. 1 cutoff? And her b-day is Dec. 2008 (according to your siggy)? That's not 1 year early, it's 2. Or maybe I'm misreading your post? I mean, technically it's 1 year and 3 months, but in terms of when she's supposed to be enrolled, it's 2 years. Fall 2012 is for kids born in 2006/2007. The year she should be enrolled according to your district cutoff and her b-day is 2014. So, 1 year early would be 2013.

I think she just has her years off...new year confusion and all. She says it's time to enroll for fall 2011, so I think she's just off on the years.

[wendmatt]

Good timing! We discussed this over dinner tonight. DD is in 3rd grade and is exceptionally bright. You can test out to skip a grade and I have no doubt with covering some of the 4th grade material with dd she could pass it. BUT, she is a skinny, shy little thing and we would not want her to be going into middle school too early, basically throwing her to the lions. Social aspects are so important and as pp said, I don't want her going off to college at 17. Nephew in law was a year younger and struggled with all the social stuff, not driving etc and going to college at a young age. For us it's a def no, once she gets to middle school and does ap classes she'll be fine academically too.

[vludmilla]

I am not a fan of red shirting but I don't think I would do it. I think being much younger for grade can be just as much a problem as red shirting.

[hillview]

I'd check with her teachers. Unless they were strong advocated I wouldn't.
/hillary

[maestramommy]

I'm a Dec baby, and wasn't held back, but wish I had been. I always seemed to have trouble socially. I ended up repeating freshman year of college when I changed schools and majors. You'd not think it would make a difference starting college at 18 vs. 17, but boy it sure did.