Do you think there should be some rules parents have to follow as to when they start their kids in school? I have a summer birthday boy and started him in school when he was 5, the age when he was supposed to start. As I'm sure most of you have seen the trend is to hold summer and now spring birthday kids back and start in school later. But it has reached an absurd level. Further, why is it strictly the parents choice? Shouldn't there be a test or petition if you want your child to wait to start school or repeat a grade? There are kids 2 yrs older than my child in his class! This of course spills over into sports. So my child is competing and being compared to older children everywhere we go. And of course a barely 9 yr old is a completely different creature than an 11 yr old. Why do we even have grade levels if you can start your kid in school anytime? Maybe iclassrooms should be based on progress instead of age. What do you think?
How do we get schools and sports organizations to creat birthday ranges for classroom, grade levels and leagues?
I should add in Texas you can hold child back or start school anytime after age 5. My niece is in highschool and has boys that are 19 in school with her! Those aren't boys those are men. I think there should be sometimes otherwise parents can completely do what they want with school startig age.
If you don't agree with the policies, you can always go to private school. Some sports ages are based soley on birth certificate maybe you would prefer to gravitate towards those sports.
Even if kids are the same age, many times several in the class will mature much faster. At least that was what happened in my life, and that of my daughters. In fact, at age 12 my oldest daughter passed for 17. As for sports, I believe the weight and height of a child should be a determining factor, not just age. We held our middle daughter out a year because she just wasn't mature enough to deal with kindergarten. She was very ready the next year and did well throughout her school years. Our youngest started to school right after her 5th birthday and also did extremely well. You just never know until you get to that point if the time is right or not. I begged my sister to hold her late August child out an extra year, but she didn't. Her child did okay, just okay in kindergarten, but it all fell apart in first grade and they ended up having her repeat first grade. That affected her to the point she never believed she was smart enough to go to college, so she didn't. Maturity really is a serious factor in a child's learning. Being smart and the state-required age may not be enough. Only the parent is in a position to know that for sure.
My daughter has an august 30th birthday. That means she is supposed to start kindergarten when she is four and finish high school at 17. When she was first born we planned to start her as usual. But as she has gotten older, we have decided to hold her back. She is the second child and her personality is that of a follower. She is also very tiny in stature, wearing size 12 months at three years old. Academically she would probably be fine, but emotionally and socially we fear she would struggle, especially in high school. It would also put her one grade behind her older sister, holding her back would give her two grades separation. At this point I'm not thinking about or worrying about sports.
The funny thing about cutoff dates is that my daughter was two weeks early. If she had been born on time, it would be a mute point!
I think everyone has to make the best choice for their child. Even if kids start at the right time, you are going to have a year age difference, at least. Some kids will be naturally bigger anyway, some small even for their age. And then you group a few grades together for a sport and you are going to have some major differences. Life, kids & sports teams are not all cookie cutter, the same size. There is always gong to be someone bigger, faster, smarter, richer, more experienced. The best thing we can teach our kids is how to learn from them.
Kids have started late and been held back forever. It's the world we live in. When I went to school it was the exception - maybe one or two kids were held back. I was one of the youngest with a July birthday but it didn't stop me. It's just something you're going to have to deal with. Put on your big girl shorts and help you child be the best instead of complaining about it.
Most sports, wether rec league or select, go by birthday not grade level. Baseball could care less what grade you are in, it is by your age on May 1. If you will be 9 on mat 1 then you will play 9U, or you can choose yo play up to 10U but never down. I'm not sure what sport your son is playing or who it is through but I would find another league if I were you. I've never heard of anyone around here strictly going by grade level.
I completely agree... I have three daughters and have no desire to have them start 9th grade when they are 14 while there are Senior boys there turning 19 and some even 20! As it is right now, my 7th grader (12 yr old) rides the bus that picks up Middle and High School.
I don't know how to change it, but I believe they should go by AGE and not GRADE.
I have a child with a June birthday that I did not hold back. I don't agree with the whole idea of keeping kids back so they have an edge over the other children. It is obviously a trend these days especially in more affluent areas. I believe there are exceptions but it should not be the norm. When I was a kid growing up in NY the opposite was the norm. Start early and graduate HS at barely 17. I thought that was nuts, even though it happened to me. My thoughts remain that the school work was created for the age group it was intended for. So many things get out of balance when we mess around with it. I understand the frustration.
You might find some interesting answers looking into Montessori and Waldorf as well as Summerhill type schools. Just some other things out there that cover your questions in a bit different ways
They have to be enrolled in school by the time they are 6. My daughter wasn't able to start school when she was 5 because her birthday was after the cut off date set of Sept. 1, if I remember correctly. So, if she fails or needs to be held back i'm not going to push her through because she is too old. My youngest daughter started school when she was 5 but had hearing problems and didn't catch on to anything learned in kinder. We elected, after speaking with her teacher, to hold her back so she had a solid foundation before trying to move on. She is now 9 and in the 3rd grade where most of her friends are only 8.
Sports maybe should look at other factors involving kids size and ability maybe, but for schools some kids just aren't ready at 5 or other factors keep them from starting at 5. When a child fails he will repeat the same grade and they will be older I don't know what can be done about that.
I think it is regulated to some degree, kids should be 5 when they start Kindergarten...then they are 17 and turn 18 their senior year. That gives them a little time to be an adult while still in a protected environment. They get to make adult selections but still have that protection of mom and dad helping them out of a fix.
Parents that hold their kids back until they are 6 are kind of sad to me, why do they expect their kids to fail with out even giving them a chance to succeed. That's just sad for the kids.
That's life. Your son has an advantage over mine because he has an April birthday. The cut off for baseball is May 1. When he started playing at 4 yrs old, he was playing with kids who were 5&6. Those kids moved up the two seasons later and he was put on another team with older boys. The expectations were higher for him and he had to work harder. He also learned a lot from the older boys. This past summer, for the first time, he was the oldest kid on the team. It was great for his confidence but he didn't learn much because all but 2 others hadn't played much, or were too immature to care one way or the other about playing as a team. It was frustrating for him.
This season he is finally on a team that just moved up to the next level, like him and half of the boys are his age. He has played 10 seasons altogether ( fall, spring and a couple summers) and this is the FIRST time he has played on a team where lots of the kids are his age. Our team has gotten its tail kicked by teams with kids who have May and summer birthdays!!
There will ALWAYS be someone who is upset about the cutoffs and age differences in sports and in the classroom even if the dates or requirements change.
I think K should be 5 by May 1st. Then take it from there.
I have a son with a mid July birthday. If he was my first and immature for his age or just not ready, I would wait a year. He will be ready to start next year so I will send him on to kindergarten. I do understand parents waiting with a child with a birthday in the later summer months if they are just not ready. Trust me kindergarten teachers would want you to wait if you have an immature child who just turned 5 the week before school starts. I don't get those who hold kids back with birthdays earlier than June or July. You're right, as far as sports goes, it's not fair. Hadn't thought about it. It really isn't great for the older and, in some cases, bigger child either. Everyone will always question why they're so much older than everyone else(Did they fail? Held back? etc) Look forward to reading responses.
My daughter has a late summer birthday and she goes to a school where some kids don't turn her age until December while others are already a year older. It is an international school and the Europeans go by calendar year. I worried she might get behind but she was one of the top students in her class. I think the major age differences in her grade level gives her a chance to be challenged by the older kids while helping to challenge the kids younger than she. She did a basketball camp with older girls last summer and they rarely shared the ball so I can see how age could be a factor in sports but depending on the child, it could also motivate him/her to try harder. Guess it offers some teachable moments to prepare for life as they get older?
