No idea whether we are doing the right thing or not, but it feels good to have the decision off the table.
DS is in third and accelerated once (early entry). His tester (FSIQ of 154) recommended another acceleration, either immediately into fourth or at the end of the year into the gifted program starting in fifth grade in middle school. In our end of semester conference, his third grade teacher felt he was placed just right with SSA in math (going to the fourth grade classroom) - not that he couldn't do all the third grade stuff in LA and science either, but she felt that he needed the exposure in LA in order not to have gaps. Being the youngest in class he is not as advanced in LA as some of the bright/possibly MG girls (very high SES school). He enjoyed science very much due to the research project they had for the first semester. Now that that's over, I need to pressure DH (math and physics teacher in the middle/high school next door) into volunteering a project. Also, holy communion is quite a Time commitment till after Easter, and he is signed up for programming and mind storms workshops on the weekends. So, we can probably keep him busy for the rest of third grade.

We went to the gifted programs open house (starts in fifth grade) last week and he was adamant afterwards that he did NOT want to skip into fifth grade, telling me it was bad enough to lose his friends next year, he did not want to lose them this year (he is currently encountering some rejection in his class, possibly to do with the first "real" report card being out, which I think is contributing to his anxiety there.) He liked the math session though Pascal's triangle was nothing new for him but was unhappy about the LA session (apparently they did odd little competitions and he scored lowest among all the fourth graders). I would have had to sign him up Monday so that's it. And I am rather relieved we do not have to figure out logistics with getting an 8 year old into middle school at the other side of town and that he has another year to work on his weaknesses in executive function. But he'll have to sit out fourth grade now and we will have to think of how to tweak things.

I do sense a trend with the discrepancy in math/science and LA, so we will have to think about ways to keep him accelerated in the former. Maybe we can arrange something with DHs middle school but it will be hard, especially as he will not be going there for fifth grade. Maybe DH can offer a continuous science project as our family's contribution (I'd much prefer that one to the boring reading workshop and library service). I'm sure I can keep him busy in after hours and on the weekend with stuff like programming workshops,music and judo. It's the school hours I'm worried about. Any thoughts?


Last edited by Tigerle; 03/01/15 07:08 AM.