Don't make decisions for your DD based on what you think about middle or high school. Do what's developmentally appropriate for her NOW. You never know what the future holds in store. High school is 9 years away!
I was one of the youngest when I started K (Sept. 4 b-day, not yet 5 on 1st day of school), then repeated kindergarten because I couldn't stay awake on the bus ride home so they didn't think I was ready for full-day 1st grade. So I was one of the oldest in the class.
Then we moved from Idaho to Tx, where they did the cutoff dates differently, and I was one of the youngest in my 3rd grade classroom. I was put in private school in 5th where it didn't matter a whit because it was a very small, self-paced, individualized-curriculum school. When I made the transition back to public 3 years later, I went ahead and skipped 8th grade, making me by far the youngest kid in the school at the start of 9th.
I got a bit of teasing my freshman year, being told to go back to jr. high. Usually in the hallways by the same people who wanted to copy off my paper in class.
Despite being the youngest in my class, most of my friends were at least 1 grade level ahead of me. By my senior year they'd all graduated and I wound up hanging out with my younger sisters' friends.
My sisters, by contrast, have a January birthday, got held back, and both "dropped out" of high school. However, for maturity level they were right on par with their class-peers, despite calendar dates a bit older. Indeed, they both were physically late bloomers and a bit on the immature side emotionally. One decided to quite HS and get her GED after failing most of her junior year, because it meant she wasn't going to graduate until she was 20 (this was also on the tail end of my parents' divorce drama). The other dropped out her senior year (age 19), 3 months before graduation, and got pregnant. She went back and got her diploma after she had her DD.
I was one of the youngest when I started K (Sept. 4 b-day, not yet 5 on 1st day of school), then repeated kindergarten because I couldn't stay awake on the bus ride home so they didn't think I was ready for full-day 1st grade. So I was one of the oldest in the class.
Then we moved from Idaho to Tx, where they did the cutoff dates differently, and I was one of the youngest in my 3rd grade classroom. I was put in private school in 5th where it didn't matter a whit because it was a very small, self-paced, individualized-curriculum school. When I made the transition back to public 3 years later, I went ahead and skipped 8th grade, making me by far the youngest kid in the school at the start of 9th.
I got a bit of teasing my freshman year, being told to go back to jr. high. Usually in the hallways by the same people who wanted to copy off my paper in class.
Despite being the youngest in my class, most of my friends were at least 1 grade level ahead of me. By my senior year they'd all graduated and I wound up hanging out with my younger sisters' friends.
My sisters, by contrast, have a January birthday, got held back, and both "dropped out" of high school. However, for maturity level they were right on par with their class-peers, despite calendar dates a bit older. Indeed, they both were physically late bloomers and a bit on the immature side emotionally. One decided to quite HS and get her GED after failing most of her junior year, because it meant she wasn't going to graduate until she was 20 (this was also on the tail end of my parents' divorce drama). The other dropped out her senior year (age 19), 3 months before graduation, and got pregnant. She went back and got her diploma after she had her DD.
