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    Joined: Jan 2011
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    Hi all -

    I've posted here a few times before. Amazingly, our current school has finally picked up on what we've been trying to communicate to them about our son for some time.

    After working with him, the city wide g/t coordinator has recommended a whole grade acceleration and would allow our son to work with the 4th/5th grade gifted pull-out program (once a week for 30 minutes).

    We are in a semi-urban school district in Connecticut that won't cluster high ability kids and embraces the idea that heterogeneous classrooms boost lowest scoring students performance and test scores (at the expense of isolating rapid learners). They also limit guided reading groups at 1 year past current year DRA score cap. Our new math curriculum goes more in depth and covers less each year -- i.e., 2nd grade will now spend 6 weeks on money. They could try to move our son into other grades for reading and math, but the scheduling problems are major and our son feels "weird" leaving for these subjects.

    We are really on the fence -- should we go ahead with the grade skip? We have no doubt that our son will still be one of the high flyers in the next grade. His winter MAP scores for first grade were 215 Math 219 Reading. He's been reading Harry Potter easily since summer between K & 1st, when we allowed him to read the book. His math comprehension is amazing -- he understands very advanced concepts with much instruction. If he needs instruction or explanation, it's only once. He might fit in better socially with the next grade -- even though he has a July birthday, he is mature and tall for his age.

    Unfortunately, I suspect he will be bored out of his mind even with the skip. Is it even worth it? Maybe we'd be better off moving or homeschooling? Does anyone know of any school districts in Connecticut that can handle kids who learn so much so quickly? My impression of other "better" districts is that while they have more children who are above average, they aren't necessary able to accommodate kids like my son. We have three other bright children and need to make a decision that includes them as well. We'd prefer a district that has the most options (languages, extra-curricular activities, different classes) to one with super high test scores.

    My husband really feels homeschooling is the way to go -- our kids grow enormously over the summer when they are left to read and learn about and do what interests them most.

    Any advice would be appreciated -- thank you in advance!


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    This is a difficult decision for anyone, but you have it a little easier since you have homeschool as a supported option. Have you investigated the local homeschool community? Is there a GT homeschool group nearby? For me, the idea of homeschooling becomes more appealing because I have heard great hings about the local GT homeschool community. the homeschooling parents here will have more info.

    Are ther any other schools within driving distance that you could visit? You might luck out and find a flexible school relatively nearby so you be able to stay put. I would not recommend moving somewhere to an unknown school situation, unless you've got other reasons to move too. It is hard to know if a school will be a good fit until your kid is there, unfortunately.

    As for the grade skip, I can say that my DS's skip into 2nd in our local school was much better than before the skip. The material wasn't challenging enough, but it was much closer to his level than before the skip. Also, he made friends with some of the GT kids in that grade, and he was grouped with them, making things better. He was still alone for some things, but it was better. We ended up tranfering him to an accelerated program though, and that has been a great fit for him. The downside is that it's a long commute. If we had remained in the local school, we probably would have had to do another skip at some point, and we didn't want to do that yet, especially if there was a better fit with kids closer to DS's age relatively nearby.

    Good luck. There is a lot to consider, but If you find bricks and mortar schools won't fit, homeschooling is a great option.

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    While we have not tried it ourselves a grade skip doesn't strike me as a likely long-term solution. Maybe a stopgap, but not something that will "solve" for learning pace (versus level).

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    Thanks so much for the comments - this has been such a difficult decision. I don't think the grade skip is going to be a long term solution either, though it might be a band-aid for the time being. Most people insist that there is something great about a child being in school -- that children MUST be with other children for 6.5 hours each day. I'm having a difficult time seeing how school has "helped" ours -- it's really just created so much stress and unhappiness in our house, but I'm still feeling uncertain about pulling them out. We are leaning toward homeschooling, unless I can find some concrete reason to leave the kids there in school.

    Thanks again,

    Alicia

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    A one year grade skip would definitely be a stop gap measure here, and DD would be bored out of her mind still. It would help socially, but probably not enough, which was our reason to decide to homeschool. DD has really connected well with some other homeschooled children in our community and has made some wonderful peer connection (she has a friend over right now playing who is a great fit socially for her and her friend is 3 years older) Good luck!


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    A 1 yr skip worked for a year for DD9. Ok, it didn't really work for the whole year, but with some pushing of the teacher we were able to make it work for a year. However, the pacing was still the issue and if your kid is anything like mine, it sometimes seems like simply sitting in a classroom increases their base knowledge of stuff that is not being taught - it is almost like osmosis - knowledge is in the air and she breathes it in. So the pace of things becomes more of an issue as the year goes on.
    We ended up homeschooling this year with radical acceleration to grade 6 and then she started part time in a school in gr 6 in January.Even this isn't where she needs to be, but she is a very social kid and needs the interactions with others, and we have not been able to find a homeschool group that she and DH fit in with.


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