Mulling it over - red-shirting a September birthday

[jplain]

I did do a search and didn't find anything recent.  My apologies if this is a re-tread!

 

My 12yo daughter has a late September birthday.  In many states she'd be a 6th grader now, but in our state she'd be a 7th grader.  Based on his own experiences, my husband feels strongly that she shouldn't start college until she's 18 (almost 19).  I agree that it's generally not great to start college as one of the youngest students on campus.  But I also can't see into the future and predict what she'll be like as a 17yo.  Given that she's currently considered a 7th grader, waiting until she's already 18 to begin college will either mean taking a gap year or planning an extra year of schooling.

 

I don't have any objection to a gap year.  But I also think it could serve her well to start her high school years (transcript-wise) a year later than our current schedule.  It would allow her more time to pursue more advanced coursework and explore personal interests.  In any case, I don't think I want to make a firm decision before 10th grade.

 

At the moment, the only situation I can see it mattering for is the PSAT.  I would like her to do some practice runs, perhaps starting as early as next year, but I don't want her stated grade level on the practice runs to influence her eligibility for NM when we decide she's officially in 11th grade.  Does anyone know how this would work?

 

Socially I don't think it'll be an issue either way.  At the moment she's less wordly (less jaded?) than other 12yo girls.  Though she's tall, she often looks young when she's with other 12yo girls, because her body language is less self-conscious.  On her swim team, she swims mostly with 10 year olds, because swim groups are based on times, not age.  This doesn't bother her at all.

 

Are there any other things I should be considering?  Any other thoughts, based on either experience or opinion (humble or not)?  Thanks!

[wapiti]

IMO your inclination to wait and decide later is a good plan.  I think it's silly to try to predict right now.  I'd wait as long as possible to decide and then evaluate based on her goals for college applications as compared to her schedule of coursework, i.e., if she is aiming very high, the advanced coursework might be helpful.  There's nothing inherently wrong about not turning 18 until after the start of college.  The best decision will depend on the individual.

 

My dd14, who when she was 12 used to worry about leaving home in the future, now only two years later can't wait to go away to college, see the world, etc.  (And this will sound pathetic, but I only recently realized that my dh didn't turn 18 until November of his freshman year of college... he graduated in the top group of students from a service academy.)

[regentrude]

The beauty of homeschooling is that you don't have to decide anything now. You have until 11th grade to decide that she is a junior when the PSAT counts.

So, for now, just keep her learning at her pace at whatever level is appropriate. Keep good records, and write up the transcript whenever she is close to applying to colleges. There is no reason a 12 year old can't work on "high school level" work - that's a stupid category anyway. If she's ready for that, maybe when she is 16 she is working on "college level" coursework - so what. That can go on the transcript as well.

Just keep educating her appropriately and do not worry about labels and transcripts.

 

My DD took her first college class at age 13. We decided after that year to name it 9th grade instead of 8th. A large part of her high school coursework was college courses taken locally while living at home. She had no trouble on campus and was tutoring on campus at age 15. She graduated hs at 17 with 30+ college credits on her high school transcript.

At 12, you cannot predict how she will develop in the coming years.

[fourisenough]

No BTDT wisdom, but I'm in a similar situation. My DD10 will turn 11 on October 25th. In our state, kids of her birth year were the last to have a 12/1 kindergarten cut-off. It was subsequently moved up to 11/1, then 10/1, and just this year is now set at 9/1. So, she would have made the cut-off her year, but not the next and definitely not now. She is particularly bright & mature, so she would be just fine as a 6th grader this year, but I don't know of anyone in our area who sent their October babies to school as 4-year olds, so she would be VERY young for her class. I am waiting to make the decision for another year or two, but she will likely attend our very good neighborhood PS or the fantastic all-IB high school in our county. I think being older could be an advantage at the latter.

 

I'm curious to hear what responses you get.

[Arctic Bunny]

I'm a late September birthday, and turned 18 at university. I survived just fine... My DH is a December birthday and his parents held him back from K, so he turned 19 his first year of university. He also survived just fine.

[Tsuga]

My daughter would be in fourth in several states but in ours she's in third. I considered getting an exemption but in the end we weren't in the US on time. I feel your pain.

 

I think for most kids it won't matter: the pros and cons even out. But for those who need to move on earlier or need more time, that will be clear as they get further along. Good luck with your decision.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I'd like to know about the SAT as well.  We're always waffling on whether DS, a mid-July b-day, is 8th or 9th.  If we had continued to live in our home state (we've moved back temporarily) he'd be in 8th.  If we had stayed in Florida, where he started K, he'd be in 9th.  We've always used the higher determination but with his learning disabilities we are always open to the lower so that he can have a chance to do better.  The PSAT, which I'd like for him to take as often as possible, is the sticking point.

[regentrude]

I'd like to know about the SAT as well.  We're always waffling on whether DS a mid-July b-day is 8th or 9th.  If we had continued to live in our home state (we've moved back temporarily) he'd be in 8th.  If we had stayed in Florida, where he started K, he'd be in 9th.  We've always used the higher determination but with his learning disabilities we are always open to the lower so that he can have a chance to do better.  The PSAT, which I'd like for him to take as often as possible, is the sticking point.

 

you can take the SAT as early and as often as you want, so I do not understand your question.

My DD took the SAT in 7th grade and then again in 11th for NM.

The only point in time when grade assignment becomes important is for a student who aims at National Merit; he needs to make sure to take it in whatever his 11th grade year is for it to count. For a student who does not have NM potential, you can declare 11th grade in retrospect. I guess you should know by the beginning of "12th" whether it is actually the last year or not.

 

 

[foxbridgeacademy]

Right, I did wonder if I put DS down as 9th grade if that locked us into that grade designation. So the next year if he took again can I say he's still 9th grade?  This is not a pressing question, we'll wait until next year to start taking PSAT.  

[GThomas]

We have decided to have our dd14 do a "gap" year, this year. She is a late Sep baby and when she started school in California, the cut off used to be mid-Dec. So she started kindergarten at age 4. (seemed like a good idea back then but now it seems so young!)

 

Here are our reasons for it:

• I'm a late Sep baby too and did fine but there is so much more the kids have to learn in school nowadays and college entrance competition is greater than when I went to college.
• Additionally, I was told that only 3 states in the US had a mid-Dec cut off back when she started school. Most of the other states were earlier. This tells me that when my dd hits college, the majority of her peers will be 18-19, not 17.
• Even though our dd is slightly gifted and does fine academically, her executive functioning skills need more time to mature and improve. I don't think she will be as ready to tackle college at age 17 as her peers. Yes, she may "turn a corner" and surprise me halfway through high school but we'd rather err on the conservative side and mostly don't feel a need to race ahead and add on unnecessary stress. 

We use Clonlara as our umbrella school and we worked this out with our advisor. Dd will do high school over 5 years. So not really a "gap" year where she takes the year off. This will allow her to add in some high interest classes that are not related to her high school curriculum plan based on career aspirations (equine vet) and some of her classes this year (World History and Latin) will be spread out over two years. This eases her into high school a bit.

 

From a college entrance viewpoint, it may look like she started high school early, which is not bad. But as long as we have an explanation of why we are doing this and how she overcame obstacles, I think it will be fine. 

 

Good luck in your decision! I had been thinking about it for years and finally felt a sense of relief once the decision was made!

[J-rap]

There are lots of different options, and as others have said, I don't think you need to decide right now.  You can kind of see how it goes the next few years.

 

We did it a few ways with our kids, each having its pros and cons.

 

Our son had a very late summer birthday, so we just held off a year before starting school.  For many years that worked out really well.  The pros are that we got to have him home longer, which I think was helpful for an unusual reason.  He was a real adventurer early on, and his plan was to bike across Europe solo immediately upon graduation.  Given that he was a year older when he graduated (so 18.5), we were more comfortable with that idea.  The down side was that he was a bright kid and very tall too, and I think he easily could have started a year earlier and then he could have gone on with his life after high school, which he was eager to do, a year earlier.  Who knows, maybe his path would have been completely different because it was on that bike ride that year that he met his future wife!  :)

 

We did the same with one of our daughters, and with her, I actually think it was a mistake.  She was also bright with big goals and she really got bored and lost interest in high school.  In hind site, I think we should have speeded her up at that time and graduated her a year early, at 17.

 

Another daughter had a very early school year birthday.  She was the first one to turn a year older in her class.  But we still started her that year, and for her it was great.  She actually ended up skipping a year of high school too, so she graduated when she was about 16.  She did take a year off after that to study French in France, and began college just as she was turning 18.  It worked out really well for her.  She would have been bored to do it differently.  She was also our #3, so maybe we were better at knowing what to do.

 

I don't know if this offers any helpful information, except for the fact that we had three kind of borderline birthdays and handled them each a little differently with different results.

 

Anything you decide though, you will just make it work and it will be fine.

[jplain]

Thanks for all of your thoughts!  They're very helpful.  I'll plan to revisit the issue a couple times a year to figure out the best strategy for this kid.

[jplain]

Oops, duplicate. :blushing: 

[Mom22ns]

Thanks for all of your thoughts!  They're very helpful.  I'll plan to revisit the issue a couple times a year to figure out the best strategy for this kid.

 

I'd revisit it a lot less than that :). My 16 yo decided last spring, she'd like to graduate this year. She has the credits. We totally missed the PSAT. She started taking the ACT in the summer after what we now refer to as her junior year. It really isn't something you have to spend that much time stressing over. Let her grow. Keep challenging her academically. Don't think twice about it before high school. Make sure you keep records on everything that you think of as a high school course and when she (and your dh) are ready, put it all together.

[Janeway]

State her grade as the lower one on the test runs. I actually checked this one with PSAT. I called them. They said students can jump forward a grade, but not back. So, she could say she is 8th, 9th, 11th grade, but she cannot say she is 9th, 10th, 10th, 11th grade. I even saw previously (you will have to look for it) that the test has to be taken for official reasons no later than 3rd year of high school. You can technically use the 10th grade scores for official scores, you just have to declare it ahead of time. But then it is final. You cannot change that the very next year. They don't get 2 official runs at the test.

[jplain]

State her grade as the lower one on the test runs. I actually checked this one with PSAT. I called them. They said students can jump forward a grade, but not back. So, she could say she is 8th, 9th, 11th grade, but she cannot say she is 9th, 10th, 10th, 11th grade.

Very helpful, thank you!