Also, there's new data indicating that holding kids back is detrimental on the academic side as well. (The short summary: the earlier you get into a school/academic setting the better it is for stimulating your li'l puddin' brains.)

A recent study in Australia found that being redshirted helps in early primary, but that reverses by high school, and it's the younger kids who do better (and study better, apparently). Another study I've seen found a small positive effect in Norwegian military IQ tests from starting early, and a persistent advantage in future earnings. However, IIRC none of these studies found any effects that outweighed the impact of just whatever age you are now, regardless of when you started school. i.e. starting early or late might have some small impact on average, but overall kids develop how they develop.

Of course, there'll be individual cases that do notably better one way or another. I basically skipped kinder, and was the youngest in my class throughout primary and much of high school (and got put up another grade for maths for one term). I did fine academically, was somewhat immature for my class at the start but caught up by school end, and was always ill-favoured sportswise. My youngest brother was held back. He wasn't ready, developmentally (having three pretty strong-willed older brothers close to him in age had hampered his interpersonal skills). He now holds a PhD. Our disparate schooling tempos worked well for each of us.

Ryan was born bang on the Victorian cutoff date, so this is something Wallybe and I are considering carefully. In effect, he could start school in the year he turns five or the year he turns six, and he wouldn't be out of place. (I favour an earlier start; he's bright, inquisitive, emotionally grounded and big for his age. I think he'll do well even if he's relatively young.)

Furhter evidence of Ryan's readiness: [link] Clearly he scoffs at anything school might throw at him.

David - is the cutoff in California Sept 30?

They're slowly marching it back from December 1st to September 1st. Every year they move it back a month as a transition. I think they're up to October.

billy, it is unpossible for your spawn to be anywhere close to the age for going to school. He is a wee little sprogling who only arrived last week.

billy, it is unpossible for your spawn to be anywhere close to the age for going to school. He is a wee little sprogling who only arrived last week.

Good point! And yet, he's already gone from this: [link] to this: [link] He's plotting further growth too, I can just feel it. Cheeky boy.

I did mean Sept 1. I was thinking of Em's birthday. Der.

He's plotting further growth too, I can just feel it. Cheeky boy.

I, for one, welcome our new Overlord of Insane Adorability.

I was on the young end (late October b-day), but bright and generally mature for my age and I don't think it would have been beneficial for me to have waited - I think I might have felt more out of place.

Where it would have been beneficial would have been post high school. I remember my mother floating the idea (or maybe saying in retrospect) that I could have used another year before going off to uni. But that was the kind of thing that would have been so unheard of my then social/neighborhood circle that I'm not sure how I'd have reacted.

Yeah, I have a September birthday, so I started early and was the youngest and smallest all the time, but I didn't much care. Academically, I still was ahead enough to skip my junior year to graduate early. And it wasn't a moment too soon, because college was great.

Well, and then I fell in love and bailed, but you know.

Socially? I'm sure some of my struggle was related to age, but given my personality and how adulthood shook out, I think I would have been socially awkward at any age. And I made it through. Moving helped. I reinvented myself, worked my way up the social ladder, decided it was insipid at the top, so I gave up.

I spent the last year with my small group of misfits and criminals who were smart and funny and I was much happier.

With both soccer and baseball we've noticed that even a 6 month difference is HUGE in terms of behavior.

It's definitely a big deal in LL baseball.

Just to be perfectly clear, the only mixed age groups that Noah is in is sports. I meant it more as the kids who are already 5 are way different in terms of focus and behavior than Noah and Andrew, the two boys who are still 4.

Also, there's new data indicating that holding kids back is detrimental on the academic side as well. (The short summary: the earlier you get into a school/academic setting the better it is for stimulating your li'l puddin' brains.)

But the studies looked at kids who aren't in any preschool environment vs. kids who were placed into kindergarten. I think a kid who is in a pre-k program already has a very different experience. At Noah's school classes are divided by age (3s, 4s, and 5s). The 5s are kids who could conceivably be in K already but aren't for a variety of reasons (like California moving the start date back) and they are not lacking for stimulation. Most of those kids will enter kinder already reading, which given both the California State Standards and the Common Core Standards that most states have adopted, actually does matter.