Quote:
Originally Posted by RainCoastMama 
Thoughts?
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ooh. . . where do I begin?
The practice of holding age-eligible kids back from entering school is called "academic redshirting". There is a lot of contradicting opinions about whether this is beneficial or not. Here's one of many websites you will find that seems to have some good detailed information on the topic:
http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/poptopics/redshirting.html
Moving on to personal stories:
I and my two sisters have birthdays in January and February, and were schooled in a province with a December 31st cut-off. Our parents were able to have us assessed and we all started school "a year early". I really discourage that description of it, though. We (collective) are always quick to talk about "customizing to the needs of the child" if it means holding a kid back, or modifying a curriculum. But suddenly that sentiment dries up if anyone talks about putting kids in school "early". Too many people seem to take it as a personal afront that you are trying to say your child is smarter than their child.
My sisters both did just fine in school. . . average or better-than average marks, socially well-adjusted. I was a painfully shy child and didn't really start to get out of that until junior high. In spite of this, starting Kindergarten when I was just over 4.5-years-old was probably
the most important decision that got made in my childhood - to my great benefit. I excelled as a student. I was a smart, kinda' geekie kid that never really fit in with a lot of my classmates. In spite of being a year younger than some of them, I found them immature and didn't come into my own with friendships and such until college.
Literally, I might have
died in a school career in my "age-appropriate" grade. The tendency of public schools to pace instruction according to the "lowest common denominator" seems to be pretty-widely practiced.
My daughter is now completing Grade One. She is in the same situation I was as a child, although her birthday is in the beginning of April. It was a real struggle to get policy exemption to get her into school. It has really helped her blossom, she is doing extremely well socially and academically. Her teacher admitted early fears that she wouldn't adjust because her personality is to sit back a bit and assess a situation before leaping in (appears as shyness). Teacher worried that our daughter would be a drain on resources in a busy class of 24 kids. She told us with relief that all those doubts dissolved within the first few weeks of school.
I don't know that my daughter is "gifted", persay, as we haven't had her tested. But you can read lots about gifted kids and early schooling, which may help you decide about your daughter.
Hoagies is a great site with lots of good links. From what we researched, kids who are ready and are held back, run the risk of having their enthusiasm for learning diminished or extinguished. There is also strong indication that if a gifted child enters school early, the "gap" between that child's abilities and the abilities of an average student only
increase over the years. Hence, parents of gifted kids are usually urged to work toward schooling solutions that aren't assessed on short-term outcomes. While all kids develop at individual rates, gifted kids are particularly asynchronous in their development.
Now I know that's all about
spring babies, but I'll take a further minute to share my the experiences my sister-in-law had with her
fall babies.
DD#1 was born in October. Went to school in the "normal" year. Struggled (Also in this time was some moves with single mom, settling into new marriage, etc so that may have influenced things). DD#1 repeated Grade 1. Continued on fine, average student.
DD#3 was born in early November. This daughter seemed quite "mommy-dependent" in the spring prior to school eligibility. Mom thought "Aha! I have learned how this works with fall babies". Held DD#3 back a year. DD#3 attended Kindergarten and Grade 1. The "mommy-dependency" seemed to have been a phase that lasted only several months. Daughter was continually bored in school. Daughter never really seemed to form solid friendships in her own classes, but ended up being friends with her same-age peers in the grade above her. In her Grade 2 year, she was in a split-class of Grade 2 and Grade 3 students. Her parents pursued having her complete both years' work at the same time. She has taken on this extra work very well. Next fall, she will join her same-age peers and enter Grade 4. This puts her back where she would have been if her mother had sent her to Kindergarten the first year she was eligible to attend. Mom just shakes her head at the whole situation and how different these two daughters could be.
I don't want him to be bored and start acting out.
My own research so far is mixed...more tilted towards postphoning, with a few 'girls mature faster than boys anyway so it's a moot point' stories.
