When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten?

Interesting article from the New York Times on age variations in kindergarten. It especially offers some insight on "redshirting" where you hold back your child and start them a year later. We did this with our daughter who has an August birthday and it was the best thing we have done for her in terms of maturity and social responsibility. We should have done the same thing with our oldest son, who has a June birthday. Although, gifted and intelligent, his immaturity from the time he was young has been a burden to him and to us. Even now, as a young adult, he struggles to put the past behind him and move on with his life. I think I can safely say that although my oldest son and daughter are different in many ways they have the same personality traits; the difference in maturity, besides the male/female differences, I can attest to holding her back a year.

So my advice to you, if you have young children, is to consider holding them back, especially if they will be one of the youngest in their class. If you hold them back one year, in turn, they will become one of the oldest in a class and hopefully, that small change will make a world of difference. Notice I said consider, as usual your mileage may vary!

Standarized Testing - Education - Schools - Test Scores - New York Times