"Redshirting" Kindergarten

I am an educator and I have two kiddos with late summer birthdays. Knowing how academic kindergarten has become we waited with both of them. That is one more year of play and one more year of social development absent academic demands. I don't care about the athletic side of it although it is a significant disadvantage athletically to being the youngest in the grade, particularly for boys. There is definitely a mix where we live.

Not a new thing.

I was born in '80 with a summer birthday that was in the windows for two classes. My parents elected to hold me back due to a speech impediment that I was still working on. They said it was easier to explain to some people that they did it for athletics. That was the mid 80s.

Oddly enough, there was 3 other guys with the same bithdate as me that ran - one was in the grade above, and the other two started with me and then got held back at some point. The guy in the grade above was all state, I was solid and the other guys were JV. So if the parents did it for running; it was a pretty big fail.

I was in favor of holding our kids back a year when they were starting school, solely for athletic reasons, but was over ruled by my wife. They have summer birthdays and were premature, so really they should have been born in the next grade level. Research says the older kids do better academically and athletically. I saw a little of that when they were younger and when I was coaching. But most of those age developmental milestones are far in the past, and have been overcome by a superior work ethic. They are academically and athletically far ahead of most of their peers, even being the youngest in their class. USATF track and competitive soccer are all based on birth year, so they are not impacted.

phded wrote:

I am an educator and I have two kiddos with late summer birthdays. Knowing how academic kindergarten has become we waited with both of them. That is one more year of play and one more year of social development absent academic demands. I don't care about the athletic side of it although it is a significant disadvantage athletically to being the youngest in the grade, particularly for boys. There is definitely a mix where we live.

If you have a boy with a late summer birthday it's not even a question - you hold him back. Great points about another year of play and social development. Surprised so many of you have never heard of this.

It's just assumed now that boys with later summer birthdays will be held back until the next year. Also, love all the cheap azzes not wanting to pay for another year of daycare hahahahaha. So you can spend the $$ on vaporflys? WTF.

I'm pretty sure they have been doing this in Texas (and probably other football-centric states) for many years. If I recall, it was in the book, 'Friday Nigh Lights'. One year can make a huge difference once they hit puberty.

I started first grade (not kindergarten) when I was five years old. Moving ahead I was a freshman in college at 17. That meant competing as a senior in HS when I was 16-17. I made national junior olympics finals at 17 the summer before college. That was fun, but I really would have loved to have been 18 as a senior and done much better at district and state championships (my freshman college times). So redshirt... I vote yes.

That sounds like cheating, unless they had some serious social issues or a real learning disability.

Life isn’t fair. Best for kids to come to that conclusion before adulthood. Adversity will make them tougher and more resourceful.

I started early in K, so was young when I went to college and ran a 4:07 before the holidays even started. No social media or whatever to spread the word ...

phded wrote:

I am an educator and I have two kiddos with late summer birthdays. Knowing how academic kindergarten has become we waited with both of them. That is one more year of play and one more year of social development absent academic demands. I don't care about the athletic side of it although it is a significant disadvantage athletically to being the youngest in the grade, particularly for boys. There is definitely a mix where we live.

Your handle says PhD. and you are an educator. I find it fascinating that some of my friends with advanced degrees who entered kindergarten at age 4 are keeping their kids out of kindergarten until age 6. When parents say they are keeping their kids out of school an extra year, they will not start their kids in kindergarten until age 6. You did not say whether or not you have an educated spouse at home with kids to take kids to museums during the day. A parent has to find a lot of stimulating activities for kids to justify keeping a child out of kindergarten to age 6. Learning to socialize with others is the biggest thing one learns in kindergarten. You are delaying the social developmental skills keeping kids out of kindergarten to age six. The only way I can find justification for keeping kids out of school to age six is if a child by age three is in gymnastics, club swimming or dance (or another structured activity by age 3).

Your kids will have temporary athletic advantages of kids who start kindergarten at age 4. I played Pop Warner Football, before over/under 125 pounds. Pop Warner Football in my era strictly went by grade, not age and not weight. I was on the field with boys 75 plus pounds heavier than I was. My daughter who began kindergarten at age 4 was too afraid of playing co-ed soccer after awhile since they went by grade and many of the kids were huge compared to my daughter, boys and girls who were held back. She became a focused club swimmer. She had her own lane. The size of her peers did not matter, S&D. Those age advantages all go away. If two high school juniors are 10.45 F.A.T. 100m sprinters, one is 16 and one is 19, colleges know which one has the upside.

Kids held back can never win an informal debate amongst peers. As soon as debate gets heated, those who started kindergarten at age 6 will be called: Slow Big Dummy.

my husband and I wish we would have done this.

Our only child daughter was right on the line, barely old enough to qualify for kindergarten. We decided to send her instead of waiting a year. This was due to high costs of occaisional day care (we both work), she wanted to go, and we wanted her to become more socialized (we live in a remote area, not many other kids around).

In hindsight, we should have waited a year. She struggled academically, physically and socially all through high school, Any type of "success" was hard to come by, and she thus had difficulty developing self-confidence. We put in lots of extra time helping her learn, and had to hire tutors to get her to pass. As a social outcast, she was bullied and began associating with a few other kids with bad reputations. This led to some bad decisions and an arrest in HS. Sports did not go well, barely making JV teams or not making the cut .

We thought about holding her back a year, but the stigma and concerns with that come with other problems.

We believe that only now at 23 after 5 years of college is she catching up.

Every child is different, but this is a big decision

This ^

I wanted to add that my daughter, who was academically years ahead because of a lot of parental attention at an early age, was accelerated a year at a school that was already doing things a year ahead, and maybe that avoided some problems at the time but entering high school a year ahead of others and taking a lot of classes that were two years ahead was not good for her confidence because she was physically way behind her classmates, who were already half grown up and she had trouble relating. A year has made an enormous difference in her growth and confidence, so she would have been much better off had we not skipped her.

First, the "stimulating activity" is called pre-school. The choice isn't go to kindergarten or stay home. Second, if your child is calling another child a "Slow Big Dummy" then...yikes. Wonder where they learned that from? Finally, if you have noticed a pattern of extremely educated people opting to send their child to kindergarten "late", then perhaps that speaks to the volume of research around what is best for 4 and 5 year olds (i.e., more play! less rigid academics). The answer certainly isn't to put your 3 year old in more structured activities, that isn't at all supported by early childhood development research. Where I live you would have to get an exemption to send a 4 year old to kindergarten because it is quite clear that 4 year olds are more likely to struggle socially and academically. You seem to have some baggage related to having the youngest child in class. I am really sorry that was so difficult for you and your daughter.

Smarter than a high schooler wrote:

Top 5k Americans with birth month. All were on the young end of their grade. It always pays off in the long run to be pushed at younger ages. If starting school late, an athlete is unlikely to reach full potential.

Houlihan - February

Schweizer - May

Rowbury - September (Started school at age 4)

Huddle - August (graduated at 17)

Flanagan - July

Just to make a correction. Shalane Flanagan was a 2000 high school grad. So, she would have been among (if not, "the") oldest in her class. She turned 19 before her freshman year of college.

That said, there are a variety of reasons why parents choose to wait to send their children to school if they have summer birthdays. I did that with my oldest and it had nothing to do with sports. It was the right decision for my kid.