Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Acceleration to middle school from elementary scho

Marieg,


Sounds like you have a great school.

My acceleration from 4th into 6th was my 2d acceleration. I started out in 6th for reading and then math and then just went into 6th after the break. It was the smoothest of all my accelerations. Even then I was bored and was often left to read on my own in all periods once I had done my work in about the first 10 minutes of each period.

Something to keep in mind - I would assume from your DD scores, that her situation is close to mine in that she will still not be deeply challenged with a +1 jump. It was not until I jumped 3 grades ( 7th to 10th ) when I was a bit older that I really got traction. So, you may be looking at another jump in the future.

She is probably equally gifted at math, but has not had the depth of exposure that she has on the verbal side. I did not receive much in the way of math until my 4th grade year and just leapt forward once it was presented to me - and then coupled with the jump, I found it interesting and dove right in. The teacher gave me extra stuff to work on and then books to read. Something to consider.

As for friends, I was athletic and made friends easily during pickup games during lunch, so that may not be representative of your DD situation. Sports kept me anchored to both my age and class peers though I shared little else in common. ( During my jump from 7th to 10th, I did athletics at the jr high, then went over to the HS for class. )

The hardest part at the beginning was getting used to the new routine and the size difference. But, once the first skip occurs, the next ones are easier to adjust to. I never suffered any issues from older classmates when I skipped.

Edit:

I just wanted to add that once I got my first taste of older company, I lost a lot of interest in being with my age peers socially and wanted to be with kids 2-5 years older than I was or even adults. I joined local astronomy, computing, and reading clubs and was planning my day trips and activities without my parents being directly involved other than letting them know where I was going. I am glad my mom did not think I had to have age-peers.