[*Cyndee*]

Just curious to know how you fell in age range with your peers in school. The other thread mentioned advantages to being older in your grade, but I don't really think it's relevant in the big picture.

My birthday is in early August, so I was 17 when I graduated and didn't turn 18 until the summer after graduating and starting College. I did not skip or miss any grades.

[horseradishmayo]

i was 18 when i graduated. my birthday is in October so i was one of the older kids in my class. i think the best part about that was having my driver's license before most of my friends.

[Mommy2_2.5]

January birthday here so I was 18 and the oldest! Had to drive everyone around and also bought liquor. I really loved being older!

[WineKeepsMeSane]

18. High school at the time, if you wanted to go to university (instead of college) was 5 years. I was one of the youngest in my class.

Personally I think 17 is way too young to send kids off to school with zero supervision. Way too immature.

[.Michelle.]

I was 17 and always one of the youngest in my class. My birthday is at the end of July.

[TheMommyProject]

I was 18 and the youngest in my class. We went to grade 13 then, so most of my friends were 19.

[bostoncreampie]

My birthday is May, to be honest I can't remember if I was 17 or 18. I think I had just turned 18.

I thought this article was interesting while on the topic, Redshirting: Holding your child back for the better? - CBS News

[mylene169]

I turned 18 on our last day of school. I was among the youngest, but the youngest in our class had a late November birthday. I also had friends in my class that were a full year+ older than I was. My school district had a Transition 1 and Transition 2 class. The first was between kindy and 1st grade, second was between 1st and 2nd. They were in place instead of holding kids back. I'm pretty sure no one was sent to both and "held back" twice.

FWIW, my sister was Valedictorian and was 17 when she graduated. She turned 18 that October. She went on to graduate near the top of her class at college in only 3.5 years. She also killed it at law school while working full-time the first 1.5 years. So while I'm sure age is a factor for some kids, maturity should also be considered. My sister is definitely an exception to most rules (really any and all rules, she's one of a kind! )

[GirliMumi]

I was 18 (march birthday) and one of the oldest as well. Like others mentioned, first to drive etc. No missed or skipped grades here either.

[LisaMarie!]

I was 18 but was held back in kindergarten for not knowing how to talk. I was youngest when started but since i was held back i was the oldest. I turned 19 right after graduation

[*~~Shannon~~*]

My 18th birthday was a week before graduation. I was one of the youngest in my class and that never bothered me.

[mommy2lilman]

I graduated when I was 18. My birthday is the very end of August. (28th)

[OceanGirl]

I was 17 when I graduated, the youngest of my friends, and I can't imagine being any older. I think that in my case, being younger gave me an advantage. I graduated at the top of my class and was active in sports, music, volunteering, journalism, and leadership roles. I don't really see how holding me back a year would have been beneficial. Actually, when I was younger, they wanted to bump me up a couple grades and my mom said no for the social factor. I've always kinda wondered what it would have been like if I could have graduated a year or two sooner. Overall, I think that graduating young was right for me.

I could see how starting a kid young could create major problems though. Kindergarten really lays the foundation for the rest of education, so if a child goes in and doesn't know their letter sounds or numbers, they will start off at a major disadvantage. I worked as a classroom assistant for a kindergarten classroom during college and I saw a huge difference in the abilities of the children. Some were reading and writing fluently while others had no exposure to the alphabet. Obviously, these things should be taken into consideration when making a decision. It's not fair to put a child in kindergarten young just because you want to push them ahead, but I also don't think it's fair to make a child wait when they are ready to excel.

[TheMommyProject]

ITA w/you Kristin in that the foundation at kindergarten level is very important. I understand that cutoff dates are needed to average out the age in classes/grades, but, I also think level setting when they're 4 or 5 will set a child up for more success in grade school. So, if you have a kid in kindy that is obviously further ahead with reading, math, etc..., then bump them and conversely, if a kid is slower and further behind, then giving it an extra year will bring that same kid back in line with his/her peers. Unfortunately, that's not so easy to do in schools today and cutoff dates are hard and fast rules and policies to not hold any kids back just sets kids up for future failure. I have a friend whose son is in SK right now and she wants him to repeat the year because he knows he's not ready for grade 1 and that he would benefit from staying back a year and she's fighting hard for it and the school is just not budging on it. Yet, if he'd been born 2 months later, he'd be a year later in school anyway, so what's the diff really? It's very frustrating for parents.

[QueenCrafty]

I was 17 when I graduated and started college (Aug 31st birthday) and did just fine. I was a fairly mature 17 year old and had no real desire to do anything other than go to my classes like I was supposed to.

[spicymustard]

I was 18. May birthday so I was right in the middle. Dh missed the cutoff day by one day. His bay is dec 6 and cutoff is the 5th. They let him in anyways and he ended up repeating the grade.

Maturity does have a lot to do with it but so does all the help the kids get at home. A large percentage of the kids here have no vocabulary, are never read to, no books at home, don't know any numbers or letters, etc. a lot of the kids here don't speak English at home but when starting kinder it's all English too so that's a factor in my area.

[kimmiejo]

I was 18, turned 18 the Jan before I graduated, I think I was pretty average. My DH graduated when he was 17, he didn't turn 18 until the October of his freshman year of college, he attended college for 5 yrs mostly due to being in athletics in college, it gave him an extra year, academically he is a smart guy, I don't think age mattered as far as that goes. My niece and nephew both turned 5 in the summer prior to kindy and my sister opted to hold them back and start them at age 6, in the grand scheme of things I don't think it really mattered much, in being around them and their friends the 1 yr age difference didn't seem to matter all that much at all IMO from personal experience.

I was 18. Turned 18 a month before graduation.

I talked with my mom about this when we were discussing what we were going to do for Eva with school. My mom said she was the youngest in her class and it didn't affect her until about 7th grade. Then, she believed that the peer pressure got to her more than it would have if she was a year older. She was less mature and was more willing to follow peer pressure and got into trouble that she thinks she might have been able to avoid if she was a little more mature.

[P*to*the*ORTIA]

I was 17. My birthday is in July, so I was one of the youngest in my class.

[WendyBird]

I was 17. I was 1 day short of being the youngest. My birthday is Dec 30th. I started K a year early. There were times I hated it. I couldn't date until I was 16, so I couldn't date or drive for a whole year after my peers. However, I was very active in my church youth group, and that was organized by age, not by grade. So they were all my friends and were in the grade below me. So I didn't really have friends in my grade. But academically, I had no problems.