FWIW, I was a mid-October birthday and started early. Youngest in my class by months. For what I may have lost in athletic upside (from a pure size perspective), I never felt my education was jeopardized and was way ahead of my peers five years post-graduation. Even today, I'm younger than most of my colleagues at my level and credit my age discrepency through school. Regardless, seems to me if there is a pure rationale for holding a summer kid back (academically behind), then I would support. Otherwise, I'm with Gladwell....

High school basketball coach here. You can tell which kids have been held back and which have not. The physical difference is noticeable but the maturity is also very noticeable.

We have 5-6 kids in our program that repeated the 8th grade which I think is taking it too far. Simply start them a year late, don't make them repeat a grade that late unnecessarily. That's embarrassing and ridiculous.

My birthday is at the end of July so I started Kinder a few weeks after I turned 5. I'm glad my parents didn't red shirt me because I was Advanced academically and would have been even moreso had I been red shirted. It did kind of suck though when everyone was 18 and I was 17 and 21 while I was 20.

My wife is a Kindergarten teacher starting her 17th year. She would tell you to give the kid a Kindergarten readiness test (the school requires it). If they are ready for K, go for it. Borderline or below... wait a year. By the way, those who are borderline or below and go ahead and start tend to struggle academically starting in elementary school. It can be very stressful for the family.

Those are just her experiences after 17 years...

Wes '87

My daughters birthday is August 3rd and she's starting kindergarten next week. She'll be youngest in her class by a few weeks.

Our ISD doesn't leave much leeway for this decision to the parent. If the kid is 5 years old by August 10th, they very strongly encourage starting K that year. If they will be 6 years old before the school year starts, they'll just put them into 1st grade.

So much depends upon your child and the schooling available to them. Typically, parents know their child best and if able to look at the situation objectively can assess the readiness of the child, especially if the child has already been in preschool ( if the preschool has teacher conferences).

As others have mentioned, you have mental, social and physical maturity and it is the lucky parent who has a child who has balance between all three at just the right time.

Anecdote- one of my children is a summer birthday and was academically very strong. She attended a parochial preschool and kindergarten because the teacher/student ratio was quite small and it helped her hone her social skills. Upon entering public school for first grade, we encountered a problem: she was reading at high school level and her math was intermediate school level and they had no gifted accommodation for students like that (small city of about 23,000). They wanted to put her, a 6 year old, in 3rd grade. Many third graders are 9, with the red-shirted students turning 10. We said 'No way!' and they ended up doing a pullout for her where she spent a few hours with the older students and everything else on grade level. We moved after that year, and things were much improved. We wanted her to continue to enjoy learning and there is such a fine line between challenge and futile stuggle because the young brain has simply not got the maturity to understand the context.

That doesn't delve into the physical side of redshirting, which can be an issue for both genders, but probably moreso for boys. All of my children started at their age appropriate grade level, and with our family being late bloomers physically, I can see how it affected them in athletics but frankly, I am never going to put sports over academics. Sports are great and a marvelous opportunity to learn, but in our family a sport isn't going to put food on the table.

Best of luck with your decision. The fact that you are thinking about what will be best for your children and their education already puts them on the right path.

Read Outliers by Gladwell.
I held 2 of my 4 back for sports mostly....
my oldest is a freshman and it's been great. My youngest will be repeating K this year at a different school. We are calling it super kindergarten.
Wish we would have held #3 back also.

Did your ISD ask if they had already gone through kinder? Would they insist on putting them in 1st?

We went to a pre school year event last night. You could tell that redshirting seems common. My twins looked like babies compared to some of their (possible) class mates.

Gotta make a decision soon. Like this week.

I have an early October birthday, and my parents waited to put me into 1st grade (they said there was a September 15 cutoff). I then repeated my freshman year when I transferred to a private school. I graduated at 19 years old, and turned 20 two months into my Freshman year at A&M. I turned 21 two months into my sophomore year. Certainly had its perks.

Your situation (being 19/20 your freshman year) was much better than mine. My birthday is late July, and as soon as I graduated high school, I moved to school and started college while still 17. While I thought it was cool, and thought I was getting ahead . . . I was NOT ready. I intend to get my kids a little more seasoning before they head off to school.

Don't repeat a grade and start them late. Older kids have more confidence early on, which will carry through. Making them repeat a grade will have a negative effect on that confidence. If they're smart enough they can skip a grade later, I almost did but my parents thought it was better for me to be one of the oldest in the class. I still would've been one of the biggest kids in class had I skipped a grade, which is something to consider.

Nope...oldest graduated at 17.... 4yr varsity baseball... all state honors... on to college to play ball and graduate in 4yrs magna..... high school coach routinely criticized us for not holding back.

FYI, we redshirted the twins and we are very happy with the decision. They are too!

Held mine back twice so he'll graduate kindergarten when he's 8. Lookin forward to that partial juco baseball scholly!

I was born in mid August. I excelled academically but suffered from shyness and low social confidence, also was a late bloomer. Holding me back a year may have helped but impossible to say for sure.

jokershady said:

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Hell yes!

Got 2 boys with August birthdays. Hold em back that year and don't even think twice about it

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I was a 9/2 birthday. My parents paid tuition and started me and I wish they'd held me back a year. I hated school from the get-go. My mom told me that early in the first grade I came in with a forlorn look on my face and asked, " how many years do I have to go to school?" But I think I wasn't mature enough to absorb what I was being taught.

My youngest has a July 12 birthday. She could be a 2nd grader now but we delayed her start a year so now she's the oldest in her class. My oldest has a June birthday and graduated HS at 17. An extra year off would have been more beneficial.

Coming up on this decision ourselves…

Oldest just turned 3 and is in TK. His Bday is 8/10

Sister turns 2 in a week 9/10…

Both are very tall, smart and social for their age based on others feedback.

We want to hold oldest back but then they would be in the same grade unless we also hold the younger sister back.

It feels weird to have two kids same grade but 13 months apart.

Have another 2 years to figure it out thankfully.

August birthday. I was always the youngest and smallest in my class.

It was semi-routine in Belton to hold boys back a year in 6th grade for football.

My daughter is late August, and her school started PreK for the first time when she was 4. Well, PreK was free, and daycare was not, so we decided "let's find out what happens." Never missed a beat.

Mostly concerned about the future, as that puts her and her brother 1 grade apart, and I can only imagine what all comes with that.

My oldest has an August 25th birthday. He went to Kindergarten at 4 years old, then did an extra "T-1" grade before going to 1st Grade. It was mainly to catch up on his reading skills. So yes, I guess we did.

I was a reverse red-shirt. My birthday is February. On elementary school I would finish my work and then talk to all my classmates. The school decided I wasn't challenged enough so I went from 2nd to 4th grade. Academically I was fine. My only regrets were that I got my ass kicked in junior high football and quit. Our coach thought it was a good idea to scrimmage the 8th grade against the 7th grade. Some of the 8th graders were 9th grade in age, and I was 6th grade in age. That kind of made a difference. The second regret was that all my friends got their driver's licenses a year (sometimes two) before I did.

I didn't turn 18 until the spring semester of my freshman year at A&M. None of that stopped me from illicitly drinking beer.

jokershady said:

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Hell yes!

Got 2 boys with August birthdays. Hold em back that year and don't even think twice about it

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Agree. Why not give them an advantage?

I was born in August and held back. I could drive my entire Sophomore year.

I was both redshirted and then bumped up later. My parents waited until I was 6 years old to start kindergarten. Then I was labeled as "gifted" and bumped up from 3rd to 4th grade halfway through the year. I turned 18 shortly after graduating high school.

My girls are late May and July. But they're big and smart for their age.

Ragoo said:

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leakypipes said:

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My birthday is August 31st, started kindergarten I was still 4 years old. Graduated at 17.

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perfect example for the redshirt

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Aug 26 birthday here…..enrolled into A&M when 17, started classes just having turned 18 fish year….

Come Out Roll said:

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Ragoo said:

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leakypipes said:

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My birthday is August 31st, started kindergarten I was still 4 years old. Graduated at 17.

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perfect example for the redshirt

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Aug 26 birthday here…..enrolled into A&M when 17, started classes just having turned 18 fish year….

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nice bump. Today is my bday so I was forced to redshirt by the state. Started kindergarten just before my 6th bday.