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Opinions??

Making them repeat a grade just for the purpose of playing sports?
Sounds like a horrible idea to me from a scholastic point of view.

I battled my wife over this three years ago when our son started Kindergarten. I begged her to let me hold him back because his birthday is August 13 and he will always be the youngest in his class. Hes doing well in school but lacks maturity in sports that other kids have around him. He plays tournament baseball with four other kids that were held back and should be a year ahead of him. It makes a big difference in my opinion.

Holding back in Kindergarten is different than holding back in 8th grade. Besides the educational factors, it will be difficult on the social side of things.

If he was about to start kindergarden I would hold him back, if he is in eighth grade just let him finish. No need to punish him by holding him back, he will be embarrased that all his friends continued and he didnt. If he is really good at sports, then he will overcome it in the next couple of years anyway or not.

I am seeing more and more of it. Our son is the same way, he has a late june birthday so he is 9 months to a year younger than most kids on the teams that he plays on. Physically it would work out for him to stay back a year but academically/socially it would crush him. What I have seen a trend in is not really holding them back but putting them in home school for 7th grade and letting them do the 7th grade level work then putting them back into the 7th grade the next year in the school system so they are already prepared for the course work. The ones that I am seeing do this are very talented kids with late birthdays and the kids end up making the choice to do it not the parents. We talked to our son about it before he started the 6th grade and he was very much against it so we dropped it. Turns out that he is starting to catch up size and ability level with the other kids so its working itself out. If I had to do it all over again I would have not started him in K-5 early. I believe there is an MSHAA rule of some sort that tells you that if you are going to hold them back for sports then it has to be either before the start the 8th grade but maybe 9th grade. I'm probably all wrong about this rule but a dad who actually let his son do this was telling me about it.

People seriously hold kids back for sports??? I can see doing that for a kid going in kindergarten with an August birthday but for sports??? Do parents not realize the odds of their kid being a professional athlete is so small it hardly registers? And the odds of them getting an athletic scholarship isn't much better either. What do you really gain from that? Not bashing just wondering.

No...

Make the decision in kindergarten and let them go from there. Sports is no reason to hold a kid back after that in my opinion. Doing a quick pro/con list I come up with one pro(and that is relative) and long list of cons.

Its not for pro sports it for college. Everyone will have an opinion on this but it is done quite often......most public schools will not let you but private will. *th Grade is the last grade you can do it in. I think that is the parents and the childs decision......but if you have a kid that excels in a sport, this gives them the opportunity for another year in high school to get where they may need to be. Its like getting a redshirt. I see no issue with it and have seen many kids do it....the great QB that Brandon had who just graduated did it

Really? Wow.

seems to me that the parents who hold kids back for sports, either in kindergarten or in 8th grade, are doing it for themselves and not for the kid. never one time in my life have i ever heard a kid say, "i sure wish mama and daddy held me back so i could be better than the rest of the kids on my team", or "i could have played in college if mama and daddy had just held me back in 8th grade or let me start kindergarten a year later."

i also appreciate the fact that there is a big difference between holding a kid back in kindergarten because the kid is not quite academically/socially/behaviorally ready, and holding a kid back so that he/she would be better in sports later on.

Might not be the best thing to admit now but guess I was that odd kid that said "wished I had been held back a year" for athletic reasons. I started school early, parents did what they thought was best and I don't regret it. I have Sept birthday so waiting a year to start school I believe would have been beneficial for me athletically, I even said so when I was in high school. I would not have wanted to be held back once I was in middle school though, think that would have been tough.

If holding child back is something one is considering be sure to check your state high school athletic association rules. Not sure what state you are from but in TN a student's athletic clock starts in 7th grade in regards to being held back. Once you're in 7th grade you have 6 years of potential eligible high school athletic participation.

8th grade is very tough socially for a child. They have already been with the same group and if held back, they will be the new kid on the block. They may take a liking to doing things just to try and fit in with the new crowd. I would agree in that hold them back in K instead of 8th grade. Granted in this case, it is way past 8th grade. That said, I wouldn't hold them back. In my book, grades and social skills are far more important than sports.