I can totally relate. My husband and I are dealing with the exact same issue with our 6 year old / first grader. Our son's birthday is at the very end of August and he is by far the youngest child in his class. Like you, we had him tested for kindergarten readiness. He passed with flying colors so off he went to full day kindergarten. He moved on to first grade without an issue. Halfway through the school year we moved to another district and he started a new school. Unfortunately, one month into his new school he was hospitalized and diagnosed with a life-altering illness. We learned that the poor child was living with this disease for a few months (and he felt awful) without knowing. During a conference with his teacher this Spring, it was mentioned that we may want to hold him back due to all that he has gone through this year. Additionally, they mentioned that he was "immature" and socially not as advanced as his peers. I work with my son every night, over and above what is provided by his teacher. His penmanship is wonderful, he conceptually understands symmetry and fractions, and he is doing well in math. The teachers have admitted that he is trying very hard and is showing much improvement academically. Like you, my son is very reserved and shy. My husband and I completely disagree with holding him back. We believe that it will completely destroy his self confidence and will blame it on his disease (which he needs to live with for the rest of his life). Our son is such a loving, sweet boy. The last thing we want to do is destroy him emotionally by holding him back. Especially where we believe if he is held back that he will be bored to tears--which creates a whole new myriad of problems. Best of luck with the outcome

My son was allowed into Kindergarten "early" because of his academic ability. His birthday is not until the end of December. It has been very difficult because he continues to have immature behavior. However, he actually was in the Kindergarten class for a few weeks and the tolerance level there for immature behavior was almost non-existent. If he is not consistently stimulated by engaging material, his mind will wander off. Currently he is just turned six in First grade. Curiously enough, he is very tall for his age wearing (boys) size 8 and some 10's at six years of age. I have found that people, even those in education look more at size than age as an indicator of maturity. I wish that I could home school, but it is not an option. I can't hold him back because he is just too smart.

As the parent of a child with a June birthday, I completely disagree with the advice in this column. Not only can it help your child socially to be with children closer to their age rather than always being the youngest, it can help them tremendously in sports. I wish 10,000 times over that I would have held my son back in Kindergarten.