My son skipped Kindergarten and has always been the youngest in his grade. He's a bit taller than average for his age so he's never stuck out size-wise, though I suspect there will be a year in middle school when others will shoot up ahead of him and he'll be "short" for awile. His being "young" for his grade has only been a problem when it's a problem in his teacher's head. He had 2 teachers in first who were job-sharing, and one of them was hugely angsty about him all year, and the other thought everything was fine. In 2nd and 3rd, he had male teachers who were positive about him and felt he was placed very well. In 4th and 5th, he had the same teacher who continually mentions how YOUNG he is, even though in 5th he was in the middle grade of a 3-grade split and about a quarter of the class was younger, but she had it firmly in her head that he was YOUNG and was going to hold onto that idea like a bulldog with a stick. (This is one of the reasons I've taken advantage of the pandemic to request to transfer him to an online program in our neighboring district -- otherwise he'll likely have the same teacher for the 3rd year in a row!)

My daughter was accelerated from 7th grade up to high school, where she was placed into 2 classes filled mostly with 10th graders. She is quite short for her age and she's Autistic, so she is NOT socially adept and not really mature for her age. But in many ways the high school was socially easier for her. The 10th graders were less resentful of someone who was obviously an outlier than her age-peers were. She got along with her honors chem lab group and the other chem students seemed to like her well enough. Several times she came home with random things she'd been gifted by some other high school kid in chem, like a funny t-shirt that is exactly the sort of thing you'd buy her if you knew her. The only social complaint she voiced was that other students in chem always wanted to know her test score after every chapter test and she couldn't figure out how to politely not tell them. I think it's helpful that because she's young, and Autistic, and the only kid moving between schools, the school was careful to place her with teachers who had a good attitude about having a young student. Her Chinese class has also been a spectcular experience with a teacher who was willing to take a chance on her (DD entered Chinese midway through the school year into a class that was already overflowing but the teacher was excited to have a student who was "seeking challenge"). We did ELA outside the public school last year because the high school english teacher had a lousy attitude about having her, and imo teacher attitude is everything.

Last edited by Aufilia; 07/31/20 11:31 PM.