I am not picking on anyone here but if I hear one more time, "well boys don't do as well" I am going to scream! I think kids in general respond to the limitations we as parents put on them. I absolutely cannot stand the argument that little boys aren't capable. Having boys and girls I do not agree at all. Sorry for my rant. It just drives me nuts.
I completely agree with this!! My son's birthday is August 4th and though he's only 2yo, the mere thought of having him start kindy at 6yo is distressing to me. One school in our area even has different cutoff dates for boys vs. girls! Can you believe that!?! Boys have to turn 4yo by June 1st for pre-k and girls by August 1st. That is seriously ridiculous. We live inside DC, so public schools here aren't an option and I am actively seeking out schools that will allow my August birthday son to start school at 5yo.
Oh, and the reason I agree with you is that I also have one of each gender. Though my son is just 2yo, he appears to be very, very smart. He's known the alphabet and could could to twelve for months, can spell his name and even write the 1st letter, knows all shapes, colors, body parts, full name, birthday, etc. My daughter, otoh, will be 5yo next month and at 2yo was nowhere near my son's level. And maturity wise? Well, he's 2yo, so he's obviously non-stop activity, but he's much easier to get on task than my daughter, even now at nearly 5yo. He's an absolute social butterfly, has no issue with kids of any age, and loves preschool. My daughter was the exact opposite-not a shy kid by any means, but she was very reticient in her classroom for years, cried at preschool dropoff for months, etc.
But fwiw, she just started 'kindy' in January, so 2 full months before turning 5yo. The other kids in her class are already 5yo (all birthdays between August 18th and December 19th). She's in a Montessori school so she'll actually have 1.5 years of kindy, but all those other kids mentioned in her class will be in '1st grade' at her school next year (in quotes only cause it's called Lower Elementary in Montessori, encompassing grades 1-3, but they will all be in the 1st year of that, none will be back in Primary). Their cutoff is that you must be within 3 months of your birthday. So my daughter was technically eligible for kindy on November 26th, but with Thanksgiving, our trip to WDW, and then Christmas break, we thought January made more sense.
So even though I don't think she's ready in the same sense that I think my son will be, we obviously opted to put her where age appropriate and so far she is thriving. Only been a month but her reading has really taken off and she's moving along nicely with addition and multiplication, so it seems to have been appropriate.
And regarding how these red-shirted kids feel about it, having had several friends more than a year older than me in high school, I can tell you they did not like it. Yes, they liked getting their licenses first, but it also meant they became the school valets, which I don't want for my kid. They were also ridiculed about their age often. One girl was 16 months older than me (her birthday February, mine June of the following year) and her nickname was 'grandma' cause she was 17 and driving as a sophomore. We also had a kid born in December of my year so she was nearly 2 years older than him (and the several others born in December in our grade).
As for redshirting making them do better in school, nope, not always. My best friend was exactly a year older than me, but in my grade. He struggled throughout school, until we graduated high school. He had ADD and was on medication for it since he was 7yo, a year older than the majority of kids in our grade, and still was a poor student and poor athlete. All the redshirting got him was ridicule, such as "You're such an idiot cause I'm a year younger than you and in better classes." (Not said by me of course, as I said, he was and still is my best friend, but other kids were harsh.) He's now married and has already told his wife that unless there is a legitimate reason to hold their kids back, they are starting kindy at 5yo cause he will not have them go through what he did. His mom regretting her decision and sent his younger sister on time (8 year age difference), but nothing she could do about him as skipping a grade wasn't an option.
And would he have done worse a year earlier? He doesn't think so. In college he went on to do very well and is now successful in his career and he attributes that to not feeling as though something were wrong with him for being so much older than his classmates. Once he got to college he was in classes with students of all ages, so he never felt like the odd man out, with his June birthday and being more than a year older than many kids from k-12. He felt he was seen as more of an equal then and it made him want to perform better. Who knows what would have actually happened, but since he went through it and is now a functioning, successful 29yo, I'll take his word on the situation over any of my own guesses.
In Ontario, the cut off for Jr. Kindergarten is Dec 31. So DD is starting school at age 3 in the fall (will be 5 within a few days of starting school). At this time it is a whole day everyother day. When my youngest starts Jr.K. it will be the whole day every day. She will be 3 (almost 4 ) when she starts as well.
