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Are you coming to Texas? We have a Sept. 1 cutoff date and many many parents hold back their kids born in April, May, June, July and August, especially in the more affluent suburbs. The Sept, Oct, Nov babies aren't the oldest, it's the ones who were held back. And because of the high stakes TAKS test in Texas, kindergarten is a lot more academic than it used to be.
Yes its Texas. I heard that some people hold their boys back in Texas so they can be bigger for football in high school. I hope that is just a rumor.
My daughter said she would like to do kindergarten again. I think when I get there, I'll check out Montessori and the public school. Talk to the teachers and see what the curriculum is for first grade and kindergarten. I wish there was an easy answer for this one.
In this particular case of the OP, it isn't a matter of holding a child back so they will be older than everyone else. This girl started a private Kindergarten at 4, because they allowed a later cutoff date than where they are moving. The new area has an earlier cut off date so she would be scheduled for K this year. That would make her be the same age as most of the kids in the class instead of younger than most.
The issue was whether to do Kindergarten again and be with a closer age grouping, or move her up since she's done a K curriculum and have her be younger than most all in the class.
Your argument of the 'redshirting' doesn't apply to the OP's case. Some will argue that the OP wanting to put her daughter in 1st grade is the exact opposite....pushing them ahead of schedule, when all it really is, is a difference of cut off dates from one place to another.
If you read the thread, you will see that I have responded to the OP previously and am well aware of the issue at hand, but thanks for the recap in such a condescending tone, it was really not appreciated.
I was responding the the post directly above mine, please read it and then edit your post so you don't look quite so silly.
Our age cut-off is January 1, the child must be 5 by January 1 in order to start kindergarten. It's common for parents to hold back their kids a year here, if their birthdays are late in the year. It's not because parents want their children to be brilliant or better than any other children, it's just common-sense thinking. Our oldest, now 18 1/2, is a senior in high school. His birthday fell late in the year, so we waited a year before starting him in kindergarten. It was a great decision, no regrets whatsoever. He'll be starting college this fall, had we not held him back that one year he would have been starting college at 17. His friends with late birthdays were all held back as well, and I've never heard a parent to regret their decision. Just another perspective, good luck to the OP!
The only thing that is common sense is to base it upon your child's developmental level and maturity level. Giving all this credence to calendar age is a fairly recent development and quite silly IMO. Why else would some states have a cutoff in early Sept and others in early Jan?
Yes its Texas. I heard that some people hold their boys back in Texas so they can be bigger for football in high school. I hope that is just a rumor.
My daughter said she would like to do kindergarten again. I think when I get there, I'll check out Montessori and the public school. Talk to the teachers and see what the curriculum is for first grade and kindergarten. I wish there was an easy answer for this one.
My friend suggested this to me as well - keep my son out an additional year so he will be bigger for sports. It really sickens me to see what some parents in America deem appropriate ways to raise their children. By gaming the system, effectively cheating, they are hoping to give their kids a leg up on the "competititon". How sick is that? It's right up there with the competition for private school admission in NYC.
Basically the upper class has decided that the extra year will afford their kids a leg up when it comes to sports, academics, leadership, and ultimately an Ivy League School. I like to think my child's superior intellect and interpersonal skills will carry him far no matter what age he starts school. How can so much emphasis be placed on being the "best" when what is best for one child is seriously different than for another.
I would put her in Kindergarten again. My daughter is 13 and in 8th grade. When she started school our states cut off for kindergarten was Dec.1. She is an October b-day. We moved to a state that had a cut off of Sept. 1 and now she is almost a whole year younger than her classmates. When things really got hard was when she was in 4th and 5th grade. She still wanted to play with dolls and play house etc. Her friends were leaving the dolls behind and getting into hair, make up and boys. I really felt that she was peer pressured into growing up and especially in middle school when she was the last one to start wearing a bra, and to get her period. She also misses the cut off for her sports teams so she is always playing with kids in the grade below hers. If I had it to do over again I would have held her back and waited until the following year to have her start kindergarten so that she would be the same age as all her friends.
Our state, Colorado, has a Sept. 30 cut-off. My daughter has a friend whose bday is Oct. 15. Our district discontinued the testing it used to do for kids with Oct, Nov and Dec birthdays and said no-one could start kindy early. What they do is evaluate the child and move them up mid-year. My daughter's friend was moved up, and at first it worked out well. But by middle school, she was beginning to say she felt "dumb". She started high school at 13, and trying to be one of the gang got in with a fast crowd, drinking, sex, etc. She is now working in a bakery, planning to go to college next year. By her graduation year, she should be a sophomore in college. By age, she should be a freshman. That is only one story, but I doubt atypical, particularly the feeling dumb around kids a year or more older. At middle school age, kids move from a concrete reasoning to more critical thinking, and it can be tough to be youger at that point. The mom of another kid we know who was started early (when they still did testing) told me that she could see a difference between her daughter and the older kids in terms of insight come middle school.
I would vote for kindy, especially since the child has expressed that preference.
The only thing that is common sense is to base it upon your child's developmental level and maturity level. Giving all this credence to calendar age is a fairly recent development and quite silly IMO. ?
Then, there wouldn't be any cut off level. Maybe that's how it should be-based on the child's developmental level and maturity level. Then we would have to develop some sort of test and guidelines to see which children qualify to enter kindergarten based on their development and maturity. Maybe that will prevent all of the kindergarteners who enter and aren't ready: still biting other children like children do in daycare, peeing themselves everyday, crying every single second because they don't have their mommy...then we have the parents who still treat them like they're 3 and walk them into the classroom holding their hand, unpack their bag, get their lunch money and homework folder out...while the other children are doing all of this independently after they waved good bye to their parents outside of the classroom. Perhaps some kids wouldn't start kindergarten until they were about 7!!!
I wish it would be like that, but unforunately...that will never happen.
What is really to be gained by pushing her ahead? I would send her to the public kindergarten, so all my "chicks" would be in one basket.
It's a fresh school and a fresh kindergarten, it's not as if she'd be repeating the same exact class. She'll also start building the friendships with the other kids she'll go through school with.
Yes its Texas. I heard that some people hold their boys back in Texas so they can be bigger for football in high school. I hope that is just a rumor.
My daughter said she would like to do kindergarten again. I think when I get there, I'll check out Montessori and the public school. Talk to the teachers and see what the curriculum is for first grade and kindergarten. I wish there was an easy answer for this one.
Oh, sure, parents hold back boys for sports purposes too. Absolutely. But, if you read any books about boys development, most say that girls brains are a year ahead of the boys' brains and the real cut off dates should be kinder at age 5 for girls and age 6 for boys.
With the TAKS testing though, if your child doesn't do well on the benchmark testing - which starts in kindergarten - then the first thing they want to do is hold the child back.
But, it's not just TAKS, the private schools also encourage holding kids back (private school kids don't take TAKS). My son's friend went to a Catholic school that tested the kids during the PK4 year and then told the parents if they would accept the child this year or the next year and even then they made 15 or so kinders repeat kindergarten every year. It's just very academically competitive here especially among the affluent families who don't have money issues about paying for another year of preschool or daycare. My son's private school handles it a different way. They have a primer grade between kinder and 1st grade. So you go to kinder and then the school decides if your next year is primer or 1st. Then the primer kids go to 1st the next year (so they have 3 years of school with kinder, primer, 1st grade instead of two years, kinder- 1st).
It is my opinon that kids should be started at the legal age. I feel there is no more to gain by holding a child back than by starting them early. There is some research that kids that are held back have a higher high school dropout rate.
I personally think that if there is any question you should err on the side of holding them back. In this particular case it isn't an issue of whether or not her daughter will be older or younger. THe child is going to be the same age as everyone else in her state's kindgergarten.
Kindergarten and 1st grade are not a good measure of how "bright" or "gifted" a child might be. Even in the most competative private school, kindergarten and first grade is still relatively easy stuff. 10 years down the road could be a totally different matter.
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I hope that is just a rumor. 
