"Redshirting" Kindergarten

Kid will never reach full potential because they will be older than their peers. Should have kids starting early instead so that competition is higher.

I know births are manipulated in Canada for hockey. But for maturity? Yeah ok. How mature do you need to be for kindergarten?

Disko Eric wrote:

I know births are manipulated in Canada for hockey. But for maturity? Yeah ok. How mature do you need to be for kindergarten?

He's just a tad behind where the typical kid going into Kindergarten is regarding certain milestones. That's not uncommon at all. Some parents decide it's not a big deal. He and his wife decided they want to wait a year. No harm in doing that.

I know a few couples who did the same. Kids don't mature at the same rates physically, cognitively or emotionally. Relative to their peers my son born in January (among the oldest in his class) was always more mature than my son born in Autumn (among the youngest in his class).

The gap decreases in HS but if a parent believes holding back a kid will be good for his self esteem let them have the option.

It seemed to work out well for the kids I know.

This has been a "thing" for at least the last decade from what I have read.

I was actually 4 for a few weeks when I started Kindergarten, but many if not most parents are delaying the start

of traditional schooling because they think it will confer an advantage.

If @ 5 he would have been "one of the youngest" that really is a major change from what was customary back

in the "baby boomer" era. 5 was "standard" for Kindergarten" , so things have slipped backward by one full grade.

Based upon what I've seen in the last ten years or so, it's probably safe to say that it's not a good idea.

coach wrote:

I know a few couples who did the same. Kids don't mature at the same rates physically, cognitively or emotionally. Relative to their peers my son born in January (among the oldest in his class) was always more mature than my son born in Autumn (among the youngest in his class).

The gap decreases in HS but if a parent believes holding back a kid will be good for his self esteem let them have the option.

It seemed to work out well for the kids I know.

But, did the people you know start them later for ATHLETIC REASONS? I've never heard of that before. Social reasons yes, Kid much smaller than his peers, yes. Kid not knowing enough alphabet letters or not talking as well as most about to enter kindergarten, yes, but I have never heard that someone held their kid out for one more year because they hoped it would give them an advantage athletically. That seems beyond the pale to me.

This is nothing new, same thing was done 20 years ago when my daughter was starting kindergarten. Bunch of parents in my daughter's "play group" decided not to send their kids and they admitted being bigger/faster/stronger in sports a factor.

Oh, but wait til these kids become a 16 yo HS Freshman. LRC will turn on them in a split second.

800 critic3 wrote:

Oh, but wait til these kids become a 16 yo HS Freshman. LRC will turn on them in a split second.

Dam strait, bro!

jimmy jack wrote:

This is nothing new, same thing was done 20 years ago when my daughter was starting kindergarten. Bunch of parents in my daughter's "play group" decided not to send their kids and they admitted being bigger/faster/stronger in sports a factor.

Agreed. This is something I've been aware of for 10+ years. It's not new at all in this area. Usually the football families where school sports rule. In most other club dominated sports they are all age based and not grade based so it's less of an issue.

ncaa dude wrote:

Kid will never reach full potential because they will be older than their peers. Should have kids starting early instead so that competition is higher.

maybe, but then again, maybe all the kids will look to him as their leader, and he'll benefit from that.

sort of like being the older brother makes you more responsible (sometimes).

Sorry flagpole I misnderstood. The couples I know did not do it for athletic reasons.

Seems ridiculous to me too but it works.

When I was younger almost all HS seniors were 17 or recently turned 18. Recently as a coach I've seen so many 18 year old and 19 year old seniors. Some started kindergarten late and others repeated grades in elementary school. Since many were immigrants the rationale was that they needed an extra year to catch up on their English but it certainly gave these kids an advantage on the track and athletic fields.

I didnt realize so many Americans would do this for athletic reasons.

jimmy jack wrote:

This is nothing new, same thing was done 20 years ago when my daughter was starting kindergarten. Bunch of parents in my daughter's "play group" decided not to send their kids and they admitted being bigger/faster/stronger in sports a factor.

Ok. Wow, that seems crazy. I had never heard of that.

Maybe it's new where you live but in upper middle class neighborhoods in big coastal cities it's been going on for a long time. My son was in kindergarten in a private school about 20 years ago and 3 or 4 of his male classmates had been held back a year by their parents before starting. It was only something parents did with boys. Also, if the kids were a little more mature they had a better chance of passing the admission "interview".

This is common in Europe, as is getting kids to a repeat a school year in elementary if they're not ready. A lot of kids profit from this.

Sports are still tied to your year of birth, not your academic year - it would make sense if HS sports in North America tried that too. Intellectual development does not equal physical development and vice versa.

There is some discussion in soccer of changing age classes to the level of physical development (that can vary massively), but exactly how that would be done is unclear.

A year of developmental difference at that age is still pretty massive. It’s usually easy to pick the kids born in the fall (and thus older) from the kids born in the summer (and thus younger) in a class up through 3rd or 4th grade.

There have even been some studies showing summer birthday kids are even overrepresented in SPED diagnoses…this shouldn’t happen because those tests are normed to age rather than grade, but younger kids just end up referred for evaluation more because they are more likely to be underperforming compared to older kids in the class.