MumofThree
Our middle kid repeated 2nd grade after she moved from a private school with end of calendar year cutoff date to the public school with a September cutoff date. The public school was fine with her going into 3rd grade - the testing said she was ready - but let us make the decision for social reasons.
She was likely bored for a couple of years, though she is quiet in school and didn't complain. She is now in 9th grade and doing well. I should note that when she was young, we didn't think she was an academics type - when she was four, I said she was not college material.
We were wrong about not only the academics, but also the athletics. At age 11 or 12, we said she would never play middle or high school sports (just not very athletic). This year as a 9th grader she played a fall sport and the coaches for her spring sport are already talking to her about winter workouts (even though tryouts don't take place until spring). I think that she would not have played sports in school if we hadn't had her repeat 2nd grade. She was a small kid, but eventually did grow though she will always be a lightweight(now 5'-4" and almost 100 lbs).
In the end, she was probably better off with the repeat, though it is tough to know what is right at the time. It does help to know that our school district has some challenging HS courses and a bunch of bright kids (24 National Merit Semifinalists, or 8 percent of the class this year).
