Oh, and I should add, the concept of the cutoff date being in winter is strange for me. In the places I have lived here in the states, the cutoff is 5 years old by Sept.1 or Oct 1st at the latest.
My birthday is Oct 4th and I was able to get a waiver for the Oct. 1 requirement at my small town grade school as a child. It worked fine for me; I was a really smart kid and usually had math class with the next grade or by myself. No idea how I have turned into such a slacker after a promising start!
Being the youngest in my grade my whole life, I will echo what others have said... It's often not even the academic differences that occur, but the social / athletics related stuff. I remember being in grade school and not being in little league the same year as classmates, or having to wait until my junior year of high school before I could drive. And while things like that seems silly to base a decision on, they do impact people emotionally and psychologically. Unfortunately, I doubt its even possible to identify kids that might be more or less susceptible to such impacts when they are just entering kindergarten.
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