When should boys start school?
- Thread starter simply1
- Start date
Two. We're considering the redshirt year for both. Luckily we have time to make a decision, but the 3 yr old really did advance quickly when the older kids cleared out of his class.
To redshirt them both puts us on the hook for at least $36k without any tuition increases.
I'm also an older parent. Without sounding too dark, having them graduate from college before I expire isn't off of the radar either.
I do recommend the K prep or whatever others call it. It would be a bridge between and ours was half days so the 18 could drop probably 6-9k pending the situation.
Whatever. I’m not advocating a position. People can do what they want. Choices either way have potential consequences. I held mine back but I don’t give a **** what someone else chooses. Sorry I pointed this out.
Jan 21 is a really excellent day to be born.
As for my boys -
Older son was late December. He started on time, was 18 when he graduated.
Younger son was end of July. He started on time, was 17 when he graduated.
I don't regret starting the younger one when I did - both boys were in excellent preschools and knew all their letters and numbers. They were capable of simple addition (1+1=2...) and could read the "**** & Jane" type books before entering kindergarten.
Younger son was faster to mature physically but slower emotionally. However, he was ahead of his class in learning and not challenged at all by his schoolwork...didn't do homework but aced his tests, not a good combination. If I had held him back, he would have been even more bored.
Edit:
It's incredibly annoying that this platform censors "D... and Jane".
It's interesting to see that late in the article, it notes that even when boys were "redshirted", the girls still did better academically. So, holding the boys back a year didn't seem to accomplish much, by the boy:girl maturity measure.Just curious what CF parents have decided. Thinking about it a bit early but will have this decision.
I'm old enough that pre-school wasn't a thing, and being held back" was a very negative stigma. I have a spring birthday, so that alone wouldn't be a reason for a delayed start today. Academically, AP classes weren't available, graduating "early" wasn't allowed, and I was bored a great deal of the time and especially as a HS Senior. On occasions I was allowed to "work ahead", BUT then had to take the same classwork a second time with the rest of the class. The point of that is, my study habits were negatively affected, and that became a problem early in my college career when academics stepped up in difficulty, along with opportunities to be distracted by the freedoms of collegiate life. Today, observing your child in pre-school objectively should give you a good indication of whether he's sufficiently mature to do well academically.
And what's the objective of academics: preparation for life, or score-keeping with other parents? It's a small sample, but every individual that I hired fresh from college, a number with Masters, all stated that they learned more from 6 months of employment than in their 4 to 7 years of college. It's extremely important to get an education, but that's a means, not an end, For most people, excluding professional students.
On the flip side, physically our family is a group of "late growers": I was the smallest male in my HS class as a Junior, above average height at graduation, and when finished growing after my soph year in college I was one of the tallest in any room. If you have hopes that your child will be an athletic star, and your fam,ily genes similarly suggest growing later than average, maybe "red shirting" is the way to go.
BUT, "red shirting" was extremely common for alleged athletic advantages by the time our children entered school, a well-respected metro school in a community with household incomes well above median. In each child's class, ONE individual got a DI scholarship, and none were due to the alleged advantage from red-shirting. Some did better when younger, but classmates caught up and they went from junior high star to meh, at that wasn't a good thing for many.
Look at the ISU athletes, or DI overall, do the math: pretty low odds of winning the golden ticket, vs getting through school and on with life.
After all, isn't that the point of parenting, successfully transitioning your child to self-sufficient adulthood?
Parenting is tough: do-overs generally aren't allowed. Do what YOU think is best, be loving and supportive while allowing for some personal failure for its teaching moments, and I'm betting on your success.
The boy/girl speed of academics……. I remember seeing a video that talked about how men and women conceptualize things differently. One project was, they have a few trials of each where they had someone open a trunk and take a look at it for like 30 seconds. They then left and the trunk was unloaded. The person was brought back and they had so many minutes to reload the trunk. It was full and packed pretty tight so it was going to take work. Men performed the task nearly every time better than the woman that they competed with.
They then changed it one way and the women routinely out performed the men.
Now, with most of the elementary teachers I know being female, are processes and procedures formed and written that would be more conducive to women learning as that is what their mostly female teachers deem as the logical ways to attack the process? No idea, just spitballing.
They then changed it one way and the women routinely out performed the men.
Now, with most of the elementary teachers I know being female, are processes and procedures formed and written that would be more conducive to women learning as that is what their mostly female teachers deem as the logical ways to attack the process? No idea, just spitballing.
Wrap care, yes. We don't pay for the 2.5 hrs of 4k time but that varies even by district as to who offers it free or not.
While reading your post, I remembered Sages interview with Georges on Iowa everywhere. He was redshirted. I believe he said it was somewhat common in the New England area. No idea why it made me remember it, but it did.
Still having an impact today???
Finally caught up maturity wise as a sophomore, sort of.
My oldest two were in a daycare center until kid three came along and it was financially better to just stay home with them. All five thrived in school so not sure there is a big difference within our small sample. They all were reading simple books before they started K.
School would’ve been a breeze for me if I started a year earlier but I didn’t hit my growth spurt years until 17-20 and can’t imagine being even shorter in school some of those years if parents had started me a year earlier. Freshman year of hs I think I was 4’8” and I’m 5’11” as adult.
