I can somewhat relate to your dilemma because my oldest daughter has a September birthday and my son's birthday falls in October. My daughter will be in 2nd grade in fall, but I remember when she was going into kindergarten. We had the option of sending her to school half days, full days or a combination of full and half days. I thought that she would probably do OK going to school all day every day, but I was sort of thinking of doing a mix of half and full days, at least for the first half of the school year. When I asked her what she thought, she was insistent on going to school all day every day. It was a good choice for her. She did so well...no regrets.
My son will be starting 4-year-old kindergarten in fall. He is a very bright child. He loves numbers and can add 2- and 3-digit numbers in his head with near-perfect accuracy. He has also started to read a little bit, though some of that is due to "tutoring" from his older sister. I am concerned that he will be bored in school. Maybe not this year or even the next, but I worry that in first grade, when they do more stuff at their desks, his potential boredom will make him prone to cause trouble and be disruptive. I fully plan to discuss my concerns with his teacher at the start of the school year, but I wonder about the possibility of having him skip a grade. Honestly, I think he would do OK academically, but I have concerns about his maturity...or lack thereof.
As for what you should do, have you asked your daughter what she might like to do? Since she is so shy, it might be good for her to repeat kindergarten so she can gain more confidence in the social aspect of school. Also, since she's going to go to a different school, she'll be around a whole new set of kids.
Do you know if the school she will be attending has a gifted & talented program? If that's something she would qualify for, that might help prevent boredom issues in the classroom. Would she be able to move up to 1st grade later in the year if kindergarten proved to be too easy for her?
Whatever you decide, just remember that you're doing it with your daughter's best interest in mind. Good luck!

If I was in your situation I would repeat K.

I had the opportunity to graduate a year ahead of all my friends, and I was already younger then them. I did not want to be a 16 year old graduating with 18 year olds. I was also given the option to skip grade 3 and grade 7 but both times my mum chose no and I am very grateful for that. I enjoyed doing school with kids my own age and I knew that I would feel out of place amongst the older kids. Kids can be cruel and my mums main concern was bullying from older kids.

My daughter is almost 4 (I joined this group because she is more like a 5 year old) and she can write almost all her letters, she can write several words...some of them quite long like Grandma and computer...and I have wondered if she will be bored in K. Since it seems that's where they learn letters and such now. But I will still make her do the grades in proper order so she can be with kids her age. Her birthday is August thought so I she will be just turned 5 when she starts school.

It's a hard choice, and you could maybe see if the K teacher would be willing to have a few assignments that are a bit more difficult for your daughter to do to keep her entertained and challenged. Or see if the school is willing to do K in the mornings and grade 1 in the afternoons.

Good luck!

Sorry some of that was garbled! My phone has a mind of it's own at times!

Thanks so much for your input! Actually, I did leave out a few details as I thought it would be way too long of an explanation, but the K program she would be going in to, would be a dual language program (which would be a totally new thing to her). She would be instructed in English half the day and Spanish the other half. We do speak Spanish at home, so it wouldn't be THAT difficult for her, but she will be learning to read and write in spanish, which she does not know. On top of that, they are looking to place the more of the higher incoming kindergartners in that class to begin with becuase they feel that the language program would be more successful with children that already have a good grasp of academic in English. In other words, I do not believe that there are going to be any Kindergartners in that class that still do not know all their letter names and sounds. They will pretty much all be considered beginning readers at the very least! Similarly, if I were to place her in the 1st grade dual language program, they are looking for incoming 1st graders that are atleast at a mid 1st grade level. My daughter happens to be at a mid 1st grade level, so she does qualify, but she would more than likely be in the bottom quarter of her class. And then on top of ALL that she would be the youngest by far and very shy! So given all that additional information, I think it's probably a no brainer right!!?? What do you think?

OH- And yes aside from the dual language program they have, they also have a gifted program. The only problem is they do not have a gifted program in K. It starts in 1st. So worst case scenario, if she does K again and I'm not too happy about the dual language program, I can always pull her out of that and place her in the 1st grade gifted class for the following year, after she does K again. So I basically do have a alot of options.

From the additional details you've provided, it sounds like having your daughter go through K again would be a good thing. It sounds like the school she'll be attending will be academically challenging, so that should prevent any serious boredom issues. Hopefully, keeping her with kids will help her get past some of her shyness. Good luck!

My son has a late summer birthday and we had to make the decision to send him to K last year or wait until this year. I had a hard time making the decision but a year has gone by and now I am glad that I decided to wait to send him to K as a 6 year. The deciding factor for me was that when he reaches the age where friends are a major influence, I did not want him to be the youngest. I would rather him be the first student to drive instead of him being a year behind his friends and driving in their cars. If he was the youngest he would also be influenced by older boys going through puberty before him. I looked to the future and saw my younger son driving in a car with older boys talking about girls. I would rather set him up to be the oldest student in his grade. Looking back on my younger days I wasn't in any hurry to get through school, go to college and get a job. In my decision to send him at age 6 instead of 5 I didn't see any negatives only advantages but when I looked at sending him at an early age of 5 I came up with many disadvantages.

I'm sure you will make the right decision for your daughter and good luck. Mothers intuition is always the way to go!!!

robyn

I had to make a similar decision with my son in pre-k. His teacher really encouraged me to send him through even though he would be the youngest in his class, but my gut did not agree. Academically and socially he was ready, but I still had a feeling in my gut. I am so thankful that I trusted my gut. My son has become a leader within his class and he is very confident. I also kept thinking when the junior high level comes that one year would make a great deal of difference more so then than it would currently. I also did not want to rush my little guy into growing too fast, probably for my own selfish reasons. In conclusion, I would trust your gut. I did, and it was a decision that I do not regret at all. The pros outweighed the cons by far.

Amber

my son is 6 years old and he should have been in grade one starting september 2014. I held him back to repeat sk again because he is a late december baby (kids in ontario canada can start jk when they are still 3 as long as they turn 4 before december 31st), and he has significant speech, sitting still and hearing issues.

it was the best thing i could have done for him, giving him the extra year in sk has allowed him to catch up a bit

I'm in the opposite boat. We have a child with a summer birthday (only child boy) and his preschool strongly suggested doing another year of preschool (fine motor skills not remotely on track). Fast forward to now, we just finished Kindergarten being the oldest and I hate it. I've had to endure the other parent's complaints and comments to him about how big he is "oh because he is older". He is a big kid no matter where you put him. We are in an affluent district where parents are very competitive (we are not so "high end"). There are quite a few kids in his class who have summer birthdays but were not held back. I think being with the older kids is best but I was always the youngest in school with my birthday and hated being the last to be able to do anything, etc. It is a very personal decision that is extremely difficult to make. However, since your child is after the deadline th could easily do this. No one ?s the September "legitimate" birthdays. It is the summer kids who are in limbo.

I think you should put her in first grade. She will be the youngest yes, but it is better to challenge her in school than it is for her to be bored.