An 11-year-old 9th grader would be in an environment where half the kids are at least five years older. That's a big difference. And a student who's +3 accelerated will be two years away from the beginning of puberty in a place where pretty much everyone is well into it. Maybe I'm way out of line here, but I just don't think that a high IQ can compensate for that socially. They're completely different things.
That
is the situation that my DD finds herself in.
Now, because of a virtual environment, that
still works okay. Her interests, fortunately, run along "geek" lines, so she makes friends pretty easily with the boys in her classes. She simply keeps some of her OTHER interests (the 11-12 yo ones) to herself with her schoolmates, and saves those for playmates closer to her own age. All that is fine and healthy.
There are issues with her
maturity not matching the expectations of high school students' executive skills, and we still don't have enough academic challenge in the mix, I know...
but truly, if it's this bad a fit now, with +3 grades and honors coursework that is hypothetically differentiated...
I can't even fathom what a chronological placement for her would be like.Yes, also, to Val's point about considering what this does to college options (and considering the family dynamics at that stage, too). DD isn't going to go to an Ivy as an undergraduate who is fourteen years old. Not happening. Partly that
is because of her age and our geographic location. We'd have to MOVE to wherever she went to college to make that feasible.
<shrug> It wasn't a big deal to us, but it was something we thought about. Will it eventually matter to DD that she's Ivy caliber and didn't have the option? Maybe. But I doubt it, knowing her personality.
