I'm a compulsive planner, so please forgive me if I seem to be obsessing over this....I probably am.
Anyway, I'm thinking of asking at the end of the year to skip my son to third grade. He's already taking a second grade math class (and does well, even though the class schedules don't line up and he frequently misses it), and today his interim report listed that he was "above grade level" in reading - which is a nonspecific way of saying he is at least a year ahead, but doesn't really say how far ahead. I gave him previous standardized tests for second grade and although I'm not sure how they score them, it looks like he did very well. His writing is "on grade level" at school, but it seems that he is only following directions - if he is told to write four sentences, that's what he'll do. At home, he wrote a 29 page book (with illustrations) about a really smart dog who saved the world. So I tossed that in the folder of stuff to take with me when I meet with the administrators.
So....for those of you who have done this before, is there anything else I should do? I've heard a lot of people talk about IQ tests, and I'll do that if I have to, but I would prefer not to. When I was in school, my IQ scores did nothing but give people an excuse to have no tolerance if I had trouble grasping something, and I'm hoping to avoid making my son go through that. I want to be adequately prepared to counter any argument they may have against the skip - so what should I expect?
Other things I have considered:
He's always been small for his age, so being smaller than the other kids won't make much difference.
His birthday is in October, so he's not even much younger than them.
I know which teacher I would prefer for him
He already has friends who will be in his grade
He was the first to tell ME he was bored, not vice versa
I threw in two articles about the importance of "exercising" the brain for children, in case they think I'm crazy.
Anything else?
