Re: study of red****rting (late entrance to kndergarten)

Nikki wrote:
> Banty wrote:
>
>> Red****rting and retention is forever.  Parents think of their big
>> boys having a leg up on somewhat younger boys in the s****ts field or
>> the playground; teachers think of the slightly misfit kid in an
>> early grade fixing himself in and extra year then assume he'd be
>> flying along swimmingly the next decade or so.  But what's really
>> happening is that little 5 to 7 year old turns into a bearded and
>> bored junior high and high schooler out of step with his younger
>> grade peers. And a 19 or even 20 year old in his senior year when
>> all this peers are in college or have jobs, and the pull of the real
>> world is pretty strong.
>
> While I agree with you I want to point out (defensively, lol) that not
> all, probably not even most, parents have such superficial reasons for
> considering red-****rting.
>
> It is an extremely difficult decision.  I did it with both of my boys.
> Well - one repeated a grade and the other was red-****rted.
>
> They are both still really young.  The jury is still out on #1 on if
> it was the right choice.  He repeated.  I already know it was a
> mistake for #2.  It was one of those parenting mistakes where you get
> scared because you've already made mistakes, don't know what to do
> anymore, listen to other people, and make even more mistakes.
>
> I have two more.  Wonder if I can ever get it right.

We didn't red-****rt our 7 year old and we still wonder if we should have.
He 
turned 5 the week before the school year started and he's kind of an 
airy-fairy artistic kid who dwells in his inner world a whole lot even 2.5

years later. But I think he always will and so that's how he'll relate to 
his environment. He's happy and settled at what is a very nurturing school

for him so we're all (teachers and us) letting him lead his education 
himself to a certain extent at this point.

His older sister was still 4 when she started school and although also a 
quiet child she was more interested and more focussed on what she was
there 
for. One of her oldest friends and classmates is the same age as her older

brother and so there is 20 months between them and some of the children in

her younger brother's class are almost that much older than him.

Following on from Banty's observations it was interesting to see my
daughter 
and her older friend grow apart around grade 8 when their development
stages 
were very different. As well as being young and small, my daughter was
late 
to reach menarche by today's expectations. (Mind you, she's sixteen and
all 
caught up again now.)

But second-guessing our parenting decisions seems to be mandatory,
whatever 
personalities our children have and the choices we make!