Our son starts kindergarten in less than 2 weeks and he is 6 years old. Yes, our son is one of the older kids starting. Sure. Go ahead and say it. He is being redshirted. I brought this up because I was browsing the blogosphere and came across a couple posts on this very topic on the same day that I was thinking about it. How weird or not so weird really since alot of parents have the same worries that I do.

The reasoning behind our redshirting was not to give our son an academic or athletic advantage. He simply was not ready to go to kindergarten last year at the age of 5 and so we were able to keep him at home. I know he was not ready because I am his Mother. All children are different. Emotionally our son was not ready to go out in the world alone mainly because he had no previous daycare or preschool experience. Sure, he could have done well with the academic curriculum last year but the academic aspect of kindergarten was not why we kept him out an additional year. It was the social/emotional/mommy knows best thing! I’m happy that our son didn’t have to go to preschool or daycare but I’m sure some of you think it is the worst thing in the world for a child to not be pre-schooled. I also understand that some of you have no choice but to send your children on to school even if they are not ready.

This past year we spent alot of time preparing our son for kindergarten. We unofficially homeschooled, we participated in lots of sports, traveled, and had all the fun that we could because once school starts sadly most of the fun is over. I wish that weren’t true but in most schools (from what I’ve heard and read anyway) kindergarten isn’t like it used to be and teachers are more concerned about testing thany anything else. I tell my son that school is going to be fun and learning is fun but in all reality the way things are today in schools, this just isn’t true anymore.

Anyway, as this school year comes near I am much more confident in my 6 year old son’s readiness and so is he. I think most people who redshirt can sense that their child is not ready and ultimately we know our children best. Sure, there is going to be an age gap there but too me it’s not a big deal. I’d rather see my son do well in school. And, if school doesn’t work out to our expectations we always have homeschool to fall back on. We are absolutely NOT afraid of pulling our son out of school and homeschooling if our school ends up being a POS.

All in all I don’t see it as a big deal if my son goes to school at age 5 or 6. The only ones who has to deal with it is our family. So what if my kid is older than yours. You’d never know it unless you asked.