Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Grade skippers - how did you prepare them?

Dottie, I'm imagining you with a gun!

ROFL!

Maybe you can sneak a prison shank!

Okay, Dottie, what's AWK? I'm intrigued now ...

Nervous Chatter Alert:


DS11 is of the firm opinion that we adults should STAY OUT of kid slang. Gulp - I hope he never sees this -
AWK stands for

AWay from Keyboard

A terrible condition! Right now I'm At Work with Keyboard, but I'll be AWK for a week starting midday friday! I'll miss you all!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

My parents never told me. Suddenly I was in the group that was grade skipping. At least I don't remember them telling me. But it was a comment much like, wear rain boots today, probably, you are accelerating at school.

Didn't phase me but there were about 8 kids skipping. A natural part of grade 3.

Ren

MON,
Sorry that happened. I'm glad you spoke up. My son's skip was no bed of roses, but I still think it beat that alternative. Here's what happened to us.

1) We asked for a skip from 5th to 6th, during October.
2) The school evaluated him, including the Algebra Readiness test. He did well - he's great on 'aptitude' tests, but only 'pretty good' on measures of actual achievement!
3) The school offered a full skip plus a subject acceleration into the 'high' Math. We had the weekend to review the material.

So a kid who just finished 4th grade math, when straight into an honors class for 7th graders, which taught what was essentially an 8th grade class. Without any hothousing. And with missing half of his combine Language Arts/History class every day. And being one month late. And being rocketed into Middle School. And with an outgoing, verbal, attention-loving kid who was delighted to tell everyone who would listen that he was gradeskiped because he was so smart. ((LOL - not showing smart behavior in my book!))

Did it work? No.
3 months into it they firmly suggested a move back into 6th grade math, with twice a week pullout to deal with the bordom factor. Yes, he was never quite accepted by the new classmates in his very small school.

The good news:
A) He 'gets' that a person shouldn't act that way!
B) His behavior in Math was wonderful all year this year, when he took the same class again, with the same teacher, and the same book.
C) The gradeskip did help reverse a really bad attitude about all things academic. DS11 requested a 'science camp' this summer, and I've found two wonderful hands on science/engineering style day camps for him.
D) He's learned how to study, and do his homework!

I always thought that an early skip would have helped. Truth is- we aren't actually in control of this whole thing! Yuck!

Do you have a friend you has a kid in the 1st grade who can show you the homework? I think that's the best. I just don't know if hothousing will be needed. Best to ask if there are placement exams, etc.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

My son was offered a 2 to 4 skip for next year. We declined it in favor of a new school that groups kids by ability. He's very excited about this school. He's spent a couple days there and came home very excited about what he'd learned.

Even though we declined, the school was good about giving him 3rd grade books while he was in second grade. From what I could tell, no one got wound up about it or even commented on it.

A boy in his class this past year had skipped K to 2 and he was accepted pretty easily by the kids from what I saw. They're still very young at that age, which I think makes the grade skip easier.

I remember that a kid was held back in 4th grade when I was in school. He showed up in our line on the first day of school and we asked why he was standing with us. When he told us, everyone said "oh" and that was the end of it. No one ever teased him. Sometimes (not always) this stuff is a bigger deal for the adults.

If people are interested, I'll report occasionally on how well the ability-grouped school goes. Really, I think this is the way schools should be run: figure out what level each kid is at, and group them that way. It would work best for everyone.

Val

Sounds good Val,
Do keep us posted!
How do they figure out where a kid belongs, and what do they do with kids who are 'multilevel' within a single subject - for example 'Algebra idea ready' but slow with the multiplication facts. Or Reading at 10th grade, writing at 2nd grade?

Smiles,
Grinity

Here's how they explained it to me: they'll test him, and if reading is 10th grade, he'll do 10th grade reading. If writing is 2nd grade, he'll do 2nd grade writing. It's all subject-specific.

The mathematics is supposedly the same, but this will be more difficult. My son is doing algebra right now and isn't have any apparent trouble with it. My husband and I have been showing him about graphing lines and slopes, etc. and he gets it easily and has managed to work out some details on his own.

We skipped grades 6-8 maths but I go over various aspects of it with him as required. So, for example, algebra has a lot of crossover with grade 8 maths and sometimes he works problems in the grade 8 book.

He's learning a lot of the 6-8 stuff (which is not difficult conceptually) through applications in algebra. He's very happy with this arrangement. I have no idea how the school will handle it, though! It'll be a challenge to figure out. I'll report....

Please do! That kind of asynchronous stuff is what I'm dealing with, too, as a homeschooler. ANYTHING you can glean from the school's methods and share would be very much appreciated.

Thanks, Val!