Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

If your DC is born near your school cut off, are you sending them to Kindergarten or holding them back this fall? How close to the cut off is your DC? What made you decide to send them/hold them back?

If you answer other what is that?

Message edited 3/4/2012 9:52:47 PM.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

I voted other since my DS was born on 12/21 and our cutoff is 12/1.

Otherwise, i would send him if i felt he was ready..

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

My birthday is 12/7 and my parents put me in Kindergarden at 4 years old, I was ready.

DS's birthday is 10/6. If he is ready, he goes. Either way we live in NYC and I think the cutoff is December something so I may not have to option even if I felt he was not ready.

Right now my BFF's DD is 14 months & it seems NUTS that she and DS (5 months) will be in the same grade, but I am sure that will change as DS gets older.

ETA: I work with kids and in MS/HS there is no difference between a Jan birthday and a Dec birthday, meaning there are not more Jan babies in honors or anything. I would imagine in Kindergarten the teacher can spot the oct/nov/dec babies but I think thereafter it levels out.

Message edited 3/4/2012 10:26:32 PM.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

it depends on the child...BUT if my DD was born very close to the cut off i would hold back..i work in an elementary school and with K students and can easily tell who some of the younger kids are..or when there is a class that has A LOT of kids with late birthdays. it's a lot harder for them and for the teacher. some of them are still so immature and baby-ish as compared to the kids who are only 9 months older or so. but again it depends on the child too. just b.c it's a late bday doesn't mean they can't catch up or aren't ready. i'm just basing it on my work-experience.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

DD's bday is 9 days from the cutoff.

I'm sending her because I feel she's ready. Her teacher says she is 6 months ahead of her age. She picks things up quickly. If it were my DS, I might think twice about it. But she's good to go.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

I have over a year to worry about it but we'll be sending DD to Kindergarten when she is *technically* 4, although she will be turning 5 within the first 2-3 weeks of school. (Her bday is 9/19)

She will be a little young for her grade but I can already tell at 3.5, she will be just fine in Kindergarten. In our case, waiting until she's 6 would be a mistake.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

Both my kids have early-in-the-year birthdays, so this is purely rhetorical for me. But my answer is-- if it were my DS I would have totally redshirted him. He was very early with "academic" skills such as letters, counting, pre-reading, etc... I'm not sure his attention skills and social skills would have been mature enough to start kindergarten at younger than 5 yrs old.

I would absolutely not redshirt my DD though. They're just different kids-- at 3 yrs old she is far more emotionally/behaviorally mature than my DS was at that age. Ironically her "academic" skills are not as good as what my DS's were at 3 yrs old, but I feel that's much less important when considering redshirting... it's something that can be more easily caught up, if you know what I mean.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

My son is born early December and just missed the Dec. 1 cut off. He is smart, and could probably keep up with the older kids, but he has delays, including social, attention, and fine motor. So if he made the cut off I would do my best to hold him back (I say do my best because our SD insists children receiving services start on schedule).

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

My son is a late October Birthday. we will be sending him.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

Depends on the child, but my son who is the youngest of his classmates is very immature in comparison, and i feel like they forget that he is so young when they are handling him.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

I don't have to decide until 2013, but I'm on the fence. Waiting to see how he does in pre-k next year. I'm very conflicted about it and hope it's easier to figure out once he is in a school setting.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

Message edited 3/5/2012 9:29:36 AM.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

Message edited 3/5/2012 4:28:30 PM.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

Message edited 3/5/2012 10:59:27 AM.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

I debated this a lot for many reasons.

Short answer, is no, I'm not holding my DD (whose bday is 12/1) back. Cut off where I am is January 1.

My bday is 11/29. I was never behind academically, or even socially, really. I was shy, but I believe that was just my personality.

I thought about holding my DD back because of all the recommendations, but truth is it is not what she needs and would not be good for her. She is in preschool with kids starting kindergarten this fall, who are already 4 turning 5, and she is doing great. She just turned 3 in sept. i cannot imagine waiting another year.

we may even try to move my second daughter ahead. she misses the cutoff by 8 days. i cannot imagine waiting until she is almost 6 to start. i just think she will be ready sooner.

i think parents and preschool teachers are in the best position to decide when you are talking about a few days/weeks near a cut off. one date is so random, and a little judgment in either direction is needed.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

Ds will start kindy at 4 yo. I'm not holding him back, feel like it would be sending him a terrible message. As you can tell from my other post I'm very against this

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

DD was born mid November. No way, no how will I "redshirt" her.

As a teacher, I don't believe in it at all. I only believe in keeping your child out for maturity reasons, and a birthday isn't a valid reason in my book. It tends to be pretty easy to tell if a child is extremely immature for their age.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

I have a while yet to decide since DS#1 will just be starting preschool this coming September, he will be 3 turning 4, he has a November birthday. But it definitely has been a topic of conversation as of lately ever since we registered for preschool since a lot of the schools asked me this. He is bright for his age but we will have to see how he is maturity wise once he is in school. The maturity factor would be the only reason we would keep him an extra year in preschool. In my opinion there is a huge difference between a 4 almost 5 year old and a 6 year old. I myself have a late October birthday and started kindergarten at 4 and excelled in school but I think it all really depends on the child. In middle school and high school there were only a handful of us that had fall birthdays and were among the youngest (last to get license and youngest to go off to college etc.).

Message edited 3/5/2012 9:53:40 PM.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

Dd will be 4, technically, but her birthday is 9-23. I know she is ready academically. I can't imagine holding her back until next year. She's going to be one of the younger kids, but I know she can do the work.

And with her birthday being when it is, I don't really see it as sending her too soon, kwim?

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

My DS was 4 when he started- his bday is 10/26. He was probably a little immature when he started, but he has come such a long way since September. I have been in the classroom quite a few times, and you would never know my DS is one of the youngest. He is doing beautifully socially and academically.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

The cutoff in our district is 12/1. DS just started Kindergarten this past September and his birthday is 11/27.
ETA: He was 4 when he started.

Message edited 3/6/2012 5:33:54 AM.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

DS's birthday is late September and cut off is December 1st. I will not be redshirting. He is more than ready, accademically. Socially, he is well on his way to being prepared. I've seen a huge difference in him from September until now. In addition He started another Prek program at the elementary school (12 weeks, 2 days/week), in addition to his regular one. They sit at tables and are being taught how to raise hands, take turns, write, etc ... He loves it and calls it his big boy school because it is not'play-based' like his other school.
I don't agree with redshirting unless it is really close to the cutoff (i.e. 11/25 birthday) and the child is socially not ready or has not experienced prior schooling.

My friend lives in a town in Westchester and almost everyone redshirts their children. Her son's birthday is October and most of his kindergarden classmates were 6 before he even turned 5. I think it's grossly unfair. There is a cutoff for a reason and if you are 4 months before the cutoff, there is really no reason to not be in that class (again, unless special circumstances are there).

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

My daughter was born mid-november. Cut-off for our district was Dec 1. We sent her.

She is in 1st grade now and is, again, at the head of her class (according to her teacher)

I knew she was ready as she was very mature and asking to go to school more than the three days she went to pre-k. Her pre-k teachers also said she was more than ready!

I was a late November baby and did fine!

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

I am not holding DS back. He looks very young but he's doing well academically and he socializes with kids of all ages. I wish I did not have this decision to make.

Message edited 3/7/2012 11:03:53 PM.

Re: Are you redshirting your 4 or 5 year old DC for kindergarten?

My DS's bday is 10/14 but he was born 7 weeks early (due date 12/2) the cut off for our district is 12/1. I have already said (even though DS is only 17 months right now) that if I feel that he is not ready then I want to keep him back a year.

When my brother was younger (early 90's) my mom expressed to the school that she felt he should be held back because of his ADHD and behavior issues and the district ignored her. Unfortunately when he hit middle school he was left back and it hit him very hard. Then in high school he had to be pulled out and put in an alternative BOCES high school because of his behavior. His bday is 10/4. Things back then weren't the same as they are now though.