Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Looking for feedback on multi-grade acceleration

Hi everyone,
I am new to posting on these forums but I am really at a loss and I'm hoping someone has some good positive feedback and a child that has skipped multiple grades that might be willing to share their story with my DYS (7). Currently he is seven and in third grade in public school. He entered school a year early so is one grade ahead of his chronological peers already. He is so advanced and such a fast learner, the district gave him the Iowa Acceleration Scale and are recommending we consider accelerating him another full grade so next year, he would be 8 years old entering Fifth grade. (Just fyi our school system has K-3 in one building, 4-6 in another, then 7-8 and then HS). I have mixed feelings for obvious reasons- he is still so young but needs it as he is losing his enthusiasm for learning. I was hoping someone could share a similar aged success story... thank you in advance!!!

My DD13 is a very successful and fairly well-adjusted high school junior this year.

She was homeschooled from ages 4-ish (well, we sort of followed her lead and interests and did a kind of Montessori-at-home thing) to six, when she began rebelling against what I asked her to do and refusing to work on relative weaknesses. At that point, we enrolled her in a brand new virtual charter school. As a third grader. Mid-year. Given that she had, at 6.5 yo, taken an out-of-level CAT-5 and performed at the ceilings in every area, this was viewed by all concerned as a relatively "conservative" acceleration.

She handily finished the entire year's curriculum in about 6 weeks. (This was Calvert's 3rd grade, incidentally.)

The following year, she completed both 4th and 5th grade even though she missed about 8 weeks of school due to medical concerns, and therefore at 8.2 yo, she entered 6th grade the year that the school began assembling a "gifted and talented" program.

Most recently, she "skipped" 10th grade entirely and went from 9th to 11th after last year-- this was fine since her credit accumulation from middle school was a year ahead of her graduation cohort anyway.

It's been a little nerve-wracking for us in that we've had nagging worries about executive function development-- most seriously in the 10 and 11yo ages, and easing some now.

So I'd say if your child clearly NEEDS acceleration, do it. BUT-- recognize what you're trading. Extracurriculars, my child is competing head-to-head with peers who are 3-5 years older than she is. Also realize that acceleration alone isn't going to solve the problems. My daughter has NEVER been fully challenged academically, and this has led to other problems like perfectionism and maladaptive coping (procrastination, etc.). It's a bit better this year because of her load of extracurriculars, community activities and AP coursework. But only "better." She regards AP Literature (which is crushing most of her academic peers) as one of her "easy" classes. She's enjoying it, but it's not really at the pace or level that she needs in order to really 'stretch' as a learner, if that makes sense. It would have been PERFECT for her about three years ago, but then again, there was a lack of life-experience then that would have made some of the analysis bit of things challenging.

It's just plain HARD to be this asynchronous, and there is no real way to make that part of things go away.

I think that it's important to realize that acceleration is not "the" answer, but it's part of a good answer, in a lot of instances.

My son is 11 and has skipped one year (2nd). We've thought about a second skip but have decided against it. Although he could easily do it academically, he's not mature enough and that "life experience" think HK mentioned is a big deal. Where we are, the school considers him two years skipped because he is a July birthday and most summer birthday boys don't go to Kindergarten until age 6. So, many of the other 7th graders are already 13. He also says he doesn't want to skip another grade.

On the other hand, we had not regretted the skip until this year. It just seems like the maturity and social skills are lagging and it might be very nice if he was a 5th grader instead. Especially when the other 11 year olds are out playing and he's got 7th grade homework.

You have to know your child and what you want to accomplish with a skip. And, don't dwell too much on the future but picture it a little. When he's 10 and in the 7th grade, how is that going to look? Will he be ready for that? Another thing that's been hard for us is the Middle school (where he is) gets out at 4 pm while the elementary gets out at 3 pm. So, for example, when he has baseball practice at 5:30 he doesn't have much time to get homework done. The other boys have had that extra hour.

I think it's probably easier to undo a skip in grade k - 6. Once you get into middle school, it's harder (not impossible) because if you repeat 7th grade, you have to repeat all your core classes. That would make my kiddo miserable.

I don't mean to scare you away from it. Just sharing some of our experiences to help you look at all facets of it. Maybe you could suggest subject acceleration for him?

ETA: I didn't mean to make it sound like we regret it now. Given the circumstances, we'd do it again. However, there has been some regret about it this year. It's been mostly good and this year it's been somewhat harder.

Our DS10 is now essentially double-skipped. He skipped Kindergarten, though with a birthday only a week from the cutoff, and this year he is doing 5th-6th-7th grades, but mostly 6th. He is still officially in 5th grade but he's only taking one class there, along with one 7th (math) and the rest 6th. Next year he will be a 7th grader with 8th math. Assuming no more skips, we're looking at starting his senior year at 15, which will be interesting, but we'll take it as it comes.

This second skip is working out really well so far. He's doing well in the middle school (which is 6-7-8 here), getting along fine with those kids, and the work is making him happier even though some of it is still too easy. We don't have any regrets as yet.

We have a bit of a different situation, because after one skip, we had the option and decided to commute 45 miles to a school for HG kids which is accelerated at least one year for all subjects. So our DS, who just turned 9, is in 4th grade doing 5th grade + work. We were lucky to have this option, since DS is small for his age to begin with, so we really didn't want to do another skip in our local district, even though that was necessary for academics. So instead we have an effectively twice-skipped kiddo. If you have any full-time GT or otherwise acceleration programs nearby, I think it's worth checking them out, especially if you are in a state where open enrollment across districts is a possibility.

That said, if the HG school weren't an option, we would have made a second skip work in our local district. The teachers and administration were willing to be flexible, which was great. I guess if you have a very flexible school, it might be worth considering subject accelerations, versus whole grade, so that your kiddo can stay with (closer to) agemates for things like phy ed. It may not be feasible with the way your school centers are set up, unless they are close together so you can commute.

How does your DS feel about another skip? When our DS skipped 1st grade, it meant a move to another school because of odd grade centers, so he was a little nervous, and then we moved him mid-year 2nd to a new school, which meant meeting all new people again. When he moved to 3rd grade in the same school with the same group of kids, he told us he was happy that he didn't have to move again. Depending on your kid, all the moving around can take a toll, but I think it's easier the younger they are. And the kids are overall happier when they are challenged and have more chances to be with kids with similar interests.

Thank you so much everyone for sharing your stories. Our DS is considering the grade skip. He is not opposed to it at this time, although at first he said no way as he didn't want to leave his friends. But the work is too easy, he is bored and he wants more of an academic challenge. He came to me after our initial discussion on his own and said he would be willing to consider it. This seems like a good year to do it as he will be going to a different school regardless of whether he skips or goes to fourth since the grades are broken out as K-3 in one building, 4-6 in another, 7-8 and then 9-12. His G&T director has facilitated a visit to the school in the upcoming weeks where he will meet with the school counselor, teachers, principal and some students to see what fifth grade is like. Right now it is too abstract, he needs to see something tangible. I will have a better sense of how is feeling after that, which in turn will determine how I'm feeling! I know it might not be the answer but I agree it might be part of the answer.

That said, I am open to considering all options including dual enrollment or subject acceleration or personalized curriculum... I am still learning about all that is available and what the possibilities might be. Last year he was subject accelerated two levels in vocab and spelling and it worked wonderfully, but the program changed this year and it doesn't seem to be working, but if it is done right, I am not opposed to considering that in the future.

With academics, I would never push but I also don't want to stifle, so as we all know, its a delicate balance.

And not that this is an important consideration at all, but I'm just wondering, how do you find other parents? I already ran into a mom who didn't know who I was and referred to my son by saying "oh you mean super smart genius boy who skipped a grade?"... I imagine it gets even more interesting...

Thanks again everyone!

I'm sure I read somewhere (I have been doing a lot of gifted reading) that while it is tempting to do a skip between say elementary and middle schools on the grounds they ate going to be changing schools anyway that is is in fact a bad time and skips should be done when there are no other stressful events occurring.

It is impossible to generalise though I would guess.

puffin - My wife and I heard that same sentiment, but I'm glad we accelerated our daughter out of elementary and into the second year of middle school. In our case she was aging out of her private elementary (K to 5 only, and no non-religious, 6+ private schools in our area), so she would be going into a new building and social situation whether she went into 6th or 7th. Add to that the private school had prepped her past the 6th grade material, so it was all in all best for her to do the skip between elementary and middle school.

For some it may be best to wait, but for us it made too much sense to accelerate when we did.

S.F.

Glad it worked out for you. I am probably going to be facing this issue soon enough. I would be pushing for a change of class this year if it weren't for the fact that he has bowel issues which result in toileting problems from time to time. As it is I think I am going to have to look at subject acceleration in maths. Our middle type schools only go for 2 years and from what I've heard skipping both of them would be good.