Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy preparing to ask for a skip?

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?

Search the forum and you'll find tons of posts about this. I don't want to repeat everything I've written in the past for lack of time right now, but the Iowa Acceleration Scale is a good place to start.

Don't wait until the end of the school year if you are planning this. They need time to make a decision and have all of the facotrs in place or they may simply deny your request due to lack of planning time.

Also look at the acceleration institute website.

Good luck!

definitely go to the school district site and find their policy (assuming this is a public school). I had to dig for a while to find ours but the wording is very supportive of skipping, actually.

Yes, I would not wait until the end of the year.

If you have more above grade level work from home, that might be very helpful to mention or show. For instance: does he play chess very well or obsess over legos, etc., examples of books he enjoys, examples of playing with math at home (workbooks or just his own games he makes up), does he do his own science experiments? - they don't have to work, just show an interest, does he build things? write stories (or tell stories)?
anecdotes like this can help paint a better picture for the school of a child who needs more challenge.
**On re-reading, I see you did mention he has written a big book, that is awesome!

Good luck!

Hmm...after a little digging, I found that all gifted students are supposed to have a differentiated education plan. He doesn't. Not sure if I should be angry because they are not doing their job, or happy that there may be another option other than skipping, which has not been addressed yet.