Hi there! I am new here.... found the forum while searching for info online about this topic, and it seems like there are a ton of people here who can relate. I think that's what I need right now!

My daughter just turned 5 in September. She started K at the end of August. Before school started, I had mentioned to the teacher that my dd can read, so they started some testing once school began.

I had a meeting with the teacher, literacy specialist, principal, counselor and another literacy teacher on Wednesday. They are recommending skipping dd into first grade. According to her scores, she is reading on a 5th grade level. She is also ahead in math, but they are not sure to what extent. Apparently, they are still working on that. The path that we are taking is to have dd go to 1st grade for literacy groups, language arts and math and to re-evaluate in a month. They are leaning heavily towards acceleration, while I am not so sure.

Since Wednesday, I have been doing research pretty much non-stop. Everywhere I turn, there are differing opinions and people with different experiences. This decision will affect my daughter for the rest of her life and I feel shouldn't be taken lightly.

One thing that I have decided is that I want her tested further. I have asked them to do ability testing, rather than just achievement testing. We know she is extremely bright.... but is she actually gifted?

A lot of the articles I have seen are pro-acceleration, but I haven't found much that indicates it is a good idea at such a young age. I was wondering if anyone here could share their experiences with me. She would be a full two years younger than some of her classmates if she advanced, since she is already such a young 5.

Thanks in advance! Also, what does the acronym DYS stand for?

Jamie

Hi Jamie - Welcome! First, here's a link to information on the Iowa Acceleration Scale, which is a great tool for determining whether whole-grade acceleration is appropriate for a particular child. http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/iowa_accel_scale.htm

Second, if you DD5 (darling daughter, age 5) is reading at a 5th grade level, I'm willing to bet that she's gifted, if not highly gifted. Schools in general do not offer whole grade accelerations to children who are not quite gifted. That said, if the school is willing to do ability testing as well, go for it. Most gifted kids think the tests are fun. And it's great if your school will do it.

I personally would be thrilled if my DS5's school would offer to accelerate, but they have chosen to try to differentiate. You can look at the kindergarten 2009 thread and find stories about kids in K this year and also kids who have skipped K and are starting in 1st.

DYS is the Davidson Young Scholar program, and it provides assistance to profoundly gifted children and their families.

Hi Ivysmomma, For us kindergarten was fine because our K had a lot of free play time. Our DS7 (dear son age 7) is also a summer bday so young for the class. He did okay in K. It was first grade when he started to get really really bored. They repeat a lot in 1st grade. We ended up skipping 1/2 of first and going into 3rd in the following fall. If your DD is doing okay in K and they have a lot of play, I might suggest just asking for in class differentiation and skipping 1st. HOWEVER, it really depends on your DD and how well she is doing. I should also mention that DS7 was not wanting to write and his K teacher was really good with him. That also was part of the decision to leave him put for K.

HTH. Glad you found the forum.

Hi and welcome. I'm another Jamie

My DS turned 5 this week and also started K in August and if his school offered acceleration I'd jump at the chance. My son was in Pre-K last year and our school year was so bad. This year is getting better but started out the same. He's bored so he fidgets and jumps around and sings and gets into all kinds of trouble. Just this week they started letting him do one or two 1st grade worksheets in class and his days (for the most part) have gotten so much better.

Why would you and why would you not want to move her up?

Great timing. Tamara Fisher's latest post is on subject acceleration: Unwrapping the Gifted: Subject Acceleration

Thanks for all the responses!



The reason I would is her obvious brightness. I'm not sure what the name of the system they use for reading is, but she can read a level 50... the literacy specialist said she scored a 99% on a level 40 and could decode the level 50, but her comprehension was lower. There is not one other student in her class who can read. Not even a level one. I think she would enjoy actually LEARNING something, rather than just being there, you know?

As far as not doing it.... it's all the social and emotional aspects. She's very easily frustrated. For example, the 1st grade teacher sent home a packet of things the students have been doing, to give me an idea of what is going on. DD could spell every word on every spelling list they've had... but when we tried a worksheet that involved putting the spelling words into the correctly shaped boxes she started crying because she doesn't know how to make a lower case "u" yet (the school uses D'Neilian, I've taught her the stick and ball way. whoops) Do I want to put her in a situation that would frustrate her THAT much? She really seems to enjoy K and has made friends... do I want to take her away from that? I realize she would make new friends, but the way the school is set up, she wouldn't see her K friends. Also, I KNOW this is not a decision making factor, but she would be two years younger than a lot of her friends... two years makes a big difference at this age.

How have you all gone about getting your kids tested? Have your schools done it or have you had to do it privately? Does insurance cover that? Our school counselor has a call into the county, who does the testing, but she hasn't heard back. I recently found out our school is one of the lower income schools in the district, which I didn't know, but we also test the highest in the district, so I guess they are doing something right.

Oh, and there is a little boy in the other K class that they are also trying to accelerate. Apparently he is reading on a 1st grade level and slightly above the Kindergarteners in math. In other words, he is much lower than DD in reading, and math as well. I don't understand why they are pushing him, too. I am in no way saying that he isn't eligible... I really have no clue. I just find it weird that they haven't accelerated a K student in at least 8 years, so they don't have a lot of experience with it, and are pushing for it with two completely different students this year.

Wow... I obviously need to talk this out! This ended up a lot longer than I thought it would!

That's kind of what I am leaning towards.... keeping the enrichment up and going from there. Maybe skipping 1st, maybe enriching again next year. It seems like our district's enrichment program isn't fantastic, BUT the school itself seems to be really working with me. I think seeing how she does when she starts in 1st grade reading and math next week will help in the decision making, too.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Jamie

Very interesting article! Thanks for sharing!

About your other post -- I have suggested the Iowa Acceleration Scale to the counselor and she is looking into it. The school is so not prepared for this. The K teacher has been there for 8 years and has never dealt with acceleration.

Hi, ivysmomma!

We were in a similar situation 2 years ago. My DS has a November birthday and was the youngest student in his K class. After his reading was assessed as being above 2nd grade (they didn't test him further than that) he was offered a trial of first grade in the Spring. He would go to K in the morning (it was a half-day K) and then join the 1st grade class in the afternoons. Everything went smoothly, and we decided to move him fully into the 1st grade after 3 weeks.

He did well in 1st grade for the remainder of the year. The following year he started 2nd grade and stuggled a bit with writing and timed math fact tests, but he scored at Advanced on the state testing at the end of 2nd grade.

He is now in third grade, and doing even better than last year. He is making friends and writing is no longer such a struggle. There are still challenges, but challenges are part of the reason we decided to accelerate him... we want him to have the opportunity to learn to deal with challenges while he is young.

Our school has no gifted services for primary students, so in our case the choice was acceleration or nothing. I didn't want to burden him with afterschooling since he needs free time to play, and there is already so much homework (even in Kindergarten they had several pages a day!) The Kindergarten here is highly academic and he was not at all engaged with the curriculum or socially with the other students his age. Kids 1-2 two years older seem to be a better social fit.

Oh, I forgot to address your questions about testing. We had DS privately tested to help us in our decision. The psychologist was very supportive of accelerating him.

Acceleration has to be taken on a child by child basis. I agree with whoever told you to use the IAS manual in helping with the decision.

As far as the social part of it goes.... For most of these kids, the preference is toward older kids. They have nothing in common with their agemates and tend to find friends that are a few years older. In many ways, acceleration is much harder on the parents who are looking forward to macaroni pictures and kindergarten musicals.

I have DS6 currently powering through Greek Mythology and Pre-Algebra. For him this is "normal". I think that's the most important thing to think about. Define "normal" for your child. It doesn't make any sense for a child to go to school and not learn anything. While I sometimes think about how much easier life would be if my son followed the middle of the curve, I also would never have had the opportunity for 1001 other things that he's managed to surprise me with. Around here, "AHA" moments happen almost daily. It's an awesome thing to watch.

I can't fathom what my DS would be like if he were stuck in a 1st grade classroom all day. Have you asked your DD what she thinks? Willing to bet she'll have an answer...LOL

Jamie:

We were in your shoes four years & two months ago. Our son, still 4, was slated to begin K in the middle of August. Two or three days before school was to begin, we were approached by the various teachers & principal strongly recommending a grade skip.

He'd been reading fluently since 3.25 and by 3.5 he was reading @ 2nd+ grade level.

Honestly, we never thought anything about a skip. In fact, I told the teacher about a year earlier that I wouldn't dream of grade skipping... which is why they waited until they'd all spoken to each other and then they came to me as a team.

They reviewed the end-of-year K assessment, showing that he was beyond that. Then they showed me the end-of-year 1st grade assessment... and he was beyond that with the exception of a couple skip-counting skills.

I was floored. But what they shared made perfect sense.

I then turned to the internet for what seemed like 24 hours straight. I read so many forums, my eyes started to bleed. "Do it!" -- "Don't do it!" Back and forth I went.

What finally provided the answer was the report, "A Nation Deceived"
http://www.nationdeceived.org/

Reading through the report -- which summarized years of research on the issue of acceleration -- wiped away so many of my own misconceptions. And then reading the collection of stories from dozens & dozens of students, parents & teachers ultimately gave me what I needed to make my decision.

Start with the executive summary to get your feet wet, and then plow into the full report. You are able to download everything for free from the website.

Then read through the stories. You will likely see your child described in many of the anecdotes -- who knows, you might even see yourself in one or more also! I know I did.

The day before school was set to begin, I took our son to the Back-to-School night and introduced him to the 1st grade classroom and teacher. She asked him if he'd like to visit her class for the beginning of the year to see how he liked it. He said he was OK with that.

I was a nervous wreck for the first week or more, but then after the teachers got me to relax, I saw that my son was thriving. Although he was 1-2 years younger than anyone else, he jumped right in and did great.

We don't regret the decision one little bit.

-- -- --

Fast forward 4+ years. He just turned 8 and is in 4th grade, about to start 6th grade math and is off the charts for reading & language. We didn't have him tested until this summer, which really turned our lives upside down.

We're now faced with the possibility of another grade skip -- or more -- and it feels like we are revisiting many of the same concerns as before, but on a larger scale.

I'll tell you this... if we hadn't skipped K and started him in 1st, I suspect we'd be in a much more complicated situation now. Getting the one skip out of the way nice and early helped immeasurably. From what you describe, I bet you'll be faced with a similar decision in a handful of years... but don't let that prospect color your decision now. (Trust me, you'll drive yourself crazy with all the "What-ifs" by trying to telescope 4+ years into the future and might wind up making no decision at all.)

I wish I had discovered this group "back in the day," as there are many more people who are dealing with these situations, and many have also BTDT (Been There Done That) two or more times.

Good luck with your own decision making process.

Welcome, welcome... I'll just say 'ditto' to everything Dandy said I remember being filled with panic and doubt when we made the decision to accelerate our girls. It was a torturous time coz there just aint no quick come back to "what's going to happen when x wont get her driver's license at the same time as everyone else?" etc.

All I can say is focus on the here and now... Solve today's problems and spend less time anticipating problems that might occur 10 years down the track.

The torture/self-questioning/self-doubt you're going thru will probably be very short lived. We certainly haven't looked back. While some people sprout the pros and cons of accelerating, many don't appreciate the pros and cons of NOT accelerating. Each child is different, etc. but think about what is likely to happen if you don't grade skip (?) What's the fall out going to be? How will this impact your sons/daughter's behaviour? What's the likely effect on your child's learning habits/attitude to school, etc.

Good luck, jojo

Wolf turned 5 in late August and is in 1st this year. We chose to accelerate because we knew it would be needed eventually and this way it won't be a huge missing friends oh your that kid who skipped a grade thing later. Luckily we are in an Independent Study program so most classes are mixed grade anyway and it is easy to do additional subject acceleration.

He started Tiger Scouts (which you have to be 6 OR in 1st grade to join) and is TINY compared to the other boys, but it doesn't seem to bother him or them in the slightest.

The questions I feel you really need to answer for yourself are:

1. Who does she prefer to be around? If the answer is older kids that is a point towards being ok with a grade skip.

2. Is she mature for her age? If she isn't then that is a major factor to consider.

3. What do the people that know her think? (daycare, pediatrician, close friends, etc...) EVERYONE who knows Wolf said he should skip.

4. Is she physically ready for the school requirements for 1st graders? (longer days, more writing, longer attention span, etc...)

5. What does she think? Does she want more challenging work?

6. Would a half day K, half day 1st be better for her than a full skip?

The frustration issue could be a perfectionism thing which seems to be common in kids like ours and would be something you would have to deal with in any school situation eventually. Wolf doesn't have that problem, he's much more likely to just not pay attention and/or skip ahead and get things wrong because of that. Each kid has their own eccentricities!

Wolf has never been "officially" tested. He took a series of grade level assessment tests through a charter school which is how we found out what level he was actually at.

Hi! I don't know if this will help or not, but we had a similar situation. We've done both subject acceleration and a full-grade skip. There are pros and cons to each.

My DD8 has a September birthday and received early admittance to K, so she started K less than a week before her 5th birthday. Absolutely no problems there being the youngest since she was clearly at the top of the class academically and essentially the same age as most of her classmates, although there were a few that were a year or so older. She has always been a rule follower (able to sit still, raise her hand, do what she was told). 1st grade went well, too, but everything in class was easy for her. We started 2nd grade looking for a teacher who could differentiate, but we all ended up realizing she needed more than a 2nd grade teacher could give her. In November of 2nd grade she started going to 3rd grade in the mornings for reading, writing, math, art, and phy ed (because that was the best way for the schedule to work) and 2nd grade in the afternoon. The school was worried about her being so much younger that they didn't want to fully skip her. We figured she could handle it, but didn't push it since she had a ton of really good friends in 2nd, and this way she could have lunch and recess with them. But, she ended up making great friends in 3rd grade and really felt comfortable there as well. It ended up being a transition year. This year, with all of us in agreement, she is in 4th full time. It is going really really well. Sure, there is a boy in her class with the same birthday as hers and he is two years older than her, but truly you could look at the entire class and never know she was any different age-wise. She has great friends and is good with seeing her age-mate friends outside of school or even before and after school. School work is still easy for her, but a least she's learning new information and not sitting in a class full of kids learning things she already knows well.

In my DD8's case, the full-grade skip works really well, because all the subjects in elementary school are usually designed to be interactive (i.e., you do math when you're doing science, you practice writing when you're learning about social studies, etc.) Her 3rd grade teacher recommended that if she ever needs acceleration again that it be a full-grade skip for this very reason. Of course, this works in her case because the subject accelerations were for all of the core academic subjects, not just one of them. Also, while my DD didn't have any problems transitioning back and forth between the two grades, that could have been an issue. A full-grade acceleration, too, makes it a little less-obvious to the other kids. With a subject acceleration everyone sees your child coming and going from the classroom (although, honestly, young kids barely notice since lots of kids are pulled out for lots of things) and this can call attention to the fact that they are different. With a full-grade acceleration it's just not as obvious, although I'm sure eventually everyone will figure out the age difference.

My DS5.5 just skipped K and we did it now in part because we knew that this way he wouldn't eventually have to transition to a whole new group of friends. He has a November birthday, so there are kids who are already 7, but he's just a few months younger than most of the kids and, since he's very tall, you couldn't pick him out of the group either. He's a little bit more active than his sister was/is, but so are most boys in 1st grade. He still knows most of the academic stuff already, and he's had to learn some of the stuff that everyone else learned in K (the Pledge of Allegiance, where the bathroom is, etc.). He doesn't seem to have missed anything that a gifted kid can't pick up fairly quickly. Some other things we considered in his case were that he had a lot of friends who were in 1st grade so we knew he would fit in, and that he is generally even-tempered and easy going.

Which leads me to one other thing to consider, and this most certainly varies from school to school. In my kids' school there is a very wide range of ability and maturity given that there is also a huge socioeconomic range. We have a ton of ESL kids and a ton of middle class kids and a fair number of kids of highly educated parents. We have a fair number of kids who can't sit still for long even into 2nd grade and a fair number of kids who do exactly as they're told. But every school is different. So, before you make a decision, I would suggest you go into a few of the 1st grade classes into which you are considering moving your daughter and just watch for a while. See if you think your daughter is similar in maturity level. She if she would stick out socially or if she would blend in well enough. She what the routines of the class are. That alone could help a ton with your decision.

So, there are a lot of things to consider, as everyone else said, and only you know what's best for your child. Probably you already have a gut-feeling about it. And it is a big decision. But remember, that with these gifted kiddos, adjustments to their schooling always can -- and will probably have to -- be made and all you can do is do your best.

Even in my super-long post I forgot to mention that the school was very particular about finding out if my kids were ahead just because I was an attentive parent who taught my kids things or whether they truly were gifted and learned at a faster pace. They didn't want them ahead now but unable to keep up with the pace of the higher grade eventually. They administered aptitude and achievement tests, had my kids observed by the higher-grade teachers, and took entry and exit exams for the grades in which they were preparing to enter. The school believes that a whole grade skip is appropriate if no other lower-level of accomodations are enough and if the student is in the top 5-10% of the accepting grade.

I think the differing opinions you are reading come from each kid, family situation, and school options being different. This is just such an individual decision. I drove myself crazy trying to find the "right" information that would answer my questions -- I thought if I had enough test scores, advice, read enough, researched enough, then I'd figure it out. For us, it hasn't worked out that way. I'm still figuring it out .

I agree with many of the previous posters that your DD is likely gifted. I'd recommend ability testing to give you more information for future decisions, but see above for it not really helping much .

I think one grade skip would likely be handled socially fairly well and most people recommend doing them early. I'd like to support that with anecdotes, but they really run both ways. Things like Nation Deceived will support it, but I know a *lot* of skipped adults unhappy with their skips, so I don't find the research helps me much (and it's pretty limited anyway). My kids haven't grade skipped but it remains something discussed pretty much every year. My reasons for not wanting it early included that K was quite fun (three recess periods a day, sand boxes and playdoh in the rooms, lots of flexibility and differentiation). Reasons for not doing it afterwards included finding an HG school. We have done subject acceleration in both regular and HG school. For one kid, this broke up the day and made everything work easier -- more social opportunities, less time in any given activity, more recess time. For another, it seemed to add stress with running back and forth and increased responsibility for assignments from multiple teachers.

One of the things I agonized about was changing the social situation without gaining much for academics. At 5, it was harder for me to see whether I thought my kids would care about age based competitions, sports, etc., than it is in later years. The development differences can seem big at 5 too -- most kids were much more coordinated at 6 than my kids were at 5. My kids liked age peers and older kids, but I wasn't sure that would still be true a few years later. Really, though, the academic issues bothered me most. I couldn't see that a year or two would help the academic issues much. One kid doing subject accleration complains that it is more work for no significant benefit academically. For kids where one or two years would get to a great placement, it might be fabulous.

Even with all that . . without an accelerated school, I suspect my kids would be skipping, even with my reservations and worries.

G3's reply made me forget that there are other options sometimes. Are there any GT schools in your area? My ideal (for my kid) would be to with other kids his age, but who are also at his intellectual age. Don't have this option where we live now, but G3 is so right. Any decision you make will be based on what you think is best at the time, and you will possibly (probably?) have to make changes in the future.

And I forgot to answer the question about testing. To help us in our schooling decisions, we had our DS privately ability tested at age 4. The local public then did their own achievment testing last spring.

Ahh ... wouldn't this be nice!?

Hi Jamie, and welcome! I'll throw my seasoned experience on the table, for what it's worth. As others have said, there is unfortunately no "right" answer for many of these kids, but luckily that can often mean no "wrong" answer. Fine tuning is needed each step of the way, and making early decisions that will have delayed impact can be hard.

Here's my experience, and my lessons learned. Hopefully someone with a more radically experienced girl child will chime in, as I think their input would be significant.

I have three children, but only two are accelered. My oldest, newly 15 is similar in age to your daughter's current situation. She started K early, with a birthdate that just missed our local cut. She was/is not as advanced as your daughter, but does test MG/HG. Academically, the early start has been wonderful for her. Only a few years were really ill-placed "easy". Most years, she's had adequate challenge. Yay for us...but for you, the advice is challenging. Her 'young' age has never been a real issue, but it has been an issue. She has always been somewhat sensitive to being "younger". At her birthday party again this year, many parents assumed she was turning 16 instead of 15. She has always enjoyed turning the "normal" age even if a tad late. She would not like to be the younger age for too far into the year. Your daughter is her own person, but I think mine would just hate being that extra year younger, just for the social thing. That is probably your biggest 'unknown' at the moment. Academically she'll be fine.

Now...my son is more "radically" accelerated. He early started K and skipped another grade, and is presently still 10 in 7th grade. He's 2 full years, sometimes more younger than many of his classmates. He's less "social" than his sister, and more "who cares" in attitude, although I won't lie and say it's a complete non-issue. There's no doubt though that he's a novelty, and he can't blend and hide like his sister can with her "slight" youth.

I also have a lock-step age child, also gifted, and she is my "pace car". I do see differences in her academically and socially, just from those extra 6 months she has on her sister. Much of that could just be personality, and "2nd born-ness", but I do wonder at times how the different path might have gone with different choices.

I have no regrets at this stage of the game...just some "what ifs" in the back of my mind. If you can straddle the two grades for a bit, it might buy you some time.

Best wishes!

Hi JaimeIM! Welcome! So glad you are getting a chance to think through this with BTDT Parents - what a relief!

Basically, you do want your daughter in a challenging academic situation BECAUSE she doesn't handle frustration well. Sitting for hours in school where noting is ever the teensiest challenge is part of what makes kids so bad at handling challenge. And as for her 'big response' - that aspect of the personality is so common in gifted kids that we had to come up with our on phrase and around here we joke about 'rampant emotionalism' (Kid's, Our's, and Dear Partner's as well)

Here are some reasons not to accelerate:
1) There is a school that has a reasonable amount of kids her age who are near her in ability level. (Everyone would prefer this!)
2) Merit Scholarships are her ONLY ticket to college.
3) Athletic Competition is her passion
4) She hates older kids
5) She would be targeted by the other kids and STILL not be learning anything (my guess is that your DD is going to need subject accelerations or partial homeschooling in addition to her skip, not right away, but when she is ready.)
6) Academic Competitions are a strong possibility (National level Spelling Bee, Intel, etc.)
7) Kindy is half day and fun based, this is especially important for wiggly, non-rule following kids, and it doesn't mean never skip, just wait and skip 1st grade.

I would say that before you agree to anything, you must take a half day and spend time sitting in your DD's kindy classroom, and spend time sitting in her proposed new 1st grade classroom, and, if possible, a second grade classroom, just to see how the kids interact, what the teachers are like, and what level of work they are doing compared to where your daughter is at. This is much more important than any standardized test.

As for the friend issues, my son was denied a skip until 5th, and leaving friends at that age was really wrenching, so if you come to believe that a skip will be needed, then the sooner the better.

The last issue to consider is gender. With boys, and a few girls, they will complain about boredom and force your hand.

With most girls you have to be brave and take a pleasant, complying child and put them into a 'at least somewhat' challenging academic situation. I don't know if it is biology or culture, but at this moment in time, girls tend to 'make the best of things' to a point way beyond what is safe. Kids rely on us to know what is right for them and to do it, so if you don't skip her, you are sending her a powerful message about your values, that she will likely internalize.

Um, I guess I've made my opinion pretty clear, yes? There are reasons not to skip, but social/emotional just isn't one of them!

Smiles,
Grinity

Hi and welcome. I am usually someone who asks for advice as I don't feel that I have enough knowledge to give advice! We have just had to deal with the whole acceleration issue and our DS(7) has skipped two years and is currently in a class with children who are 9 turning 10. He still joins his age-mates for games, PE and Art and recess (as the school were not happy him playing soccer with the older children and he lost confidence to join them for recess). We are only 4 weeks into the year but our DS is the happiest he has ever been at school. He seems to take everything in his stride and has relished the additional responsibilities. He is enjoying the work so much more (although is starting to find Maths a bit repetitive!) and is enjoying being with the older children. They seem fairly accepting of him, although I have had some strange comments from parents.

My DH and I were so nervous about it, not helped by the fact that acceleration in the UK is a bit of an alien concept. The school have been great but also very nervous about it, but thankfully in our case it seems to have all worked out. The hard thing is that DS wants to do ALL subjects with the older children (Art etc) but the school don't want him to lose his links with his age-mates. DS can't see why it matters as they aren't the ones that he will be going off to the next school with, the older children are.

We were also able to let DS have a trial of some of the classes before he was accelerated so that he felt confident and already recognised some of the children. We also explained to him that it was something that we were going to trial to see if he enjoyed it (so that if it was a disaster he didn't feel that he had "failed").

I am not sure if this helps you at all, but as you can see from everyone's stories, all situations are different and there is no right or wrong answer. In our case it was trying to make the least wrong decision!

I'm late to this one, but DS won't be 6 until December. He was tested in August (he started K in August)and is in 1st now. He's doing SO much better all around and will start a gifted pullout in January. His school tested him using the Iowa Acceleration Scale, so it wasn't just based on his achievement tests. We did not pay for private testing.

And fyi, if your DD is "immature" with you, she may not be once she is in school AND in the right environment - I was shocked b/c DS's school said he was super mature, which he's not with me. He's made friends with ease and still plays with those he made in K as well (recess/after school when he's in ASP, etc).

Oh, and my brother was a Sept birthday. At the time in NJ, there was no birthday rule. When moving to GA, there was. So he was a whole year younger than most of his classmates and did fine.

Personally, for us, it was a must do now with DS - before he learned to take the easy route and stopped enjoying learning. We'll cross the middle school and high school issues when we get there.

And I think the birthday cutoff is a crock of (scuse my language). I think it itself is the one thing that causes so many issues with kids in K and 1st! My DD4 has to wait until August 2011 to be in K, yet she could've easily been in the state funded pre-K here this year and move to K next year (and we're pretty sure IF she is GT, it's very, very mildly - DS was academically far beyond where she is now at her age).

Anyway, I'm babbling in circles, so I will stop.

Good Luck!

Grinity, you nailed it here... and not to mention that girls will learn to accept this the rest of their lives, causing all sorts of issues, especially mental/emotional ones! I am living proof of that, and I know several other moms around here have similar stories that can be traced back to being bored in grade school...

I shouldn't have implied that all boys will complain - a few boys will go the 'internalize' route. I know them. They are real, but so few.

I really really believed my teachers when they told me that being bored wasn't a problem, and that I should try harder to like my agemates, and pay attention in class. Sometimes I think that my brain's amazing abiltiy to change channels at the drop of a hat is 'induced ADHD' that I trained myself not to dwell on any one topic for any length of time because I was trying not to brood. It wasn't until my son went to school that I finally had words for 'what was wrong with me' and that I finally finally understood that it wasn't all my fault. Where were the swans when I needed them? Even in college, I just assumed that all my interesting friends were much smarter than I was. Sigh. I am so grateful that my son was able to show me the way. He has no confusion whatsoever about deserving to be taught even in elementary school.

Smiles,
Grinity

So, so true. Been there, done that.

Same here. I've learned more about ME in the past almost 6 years than I had in the 30 beforehand. And funny about the induced ADHD... I actually take ADD meds, and was technically diagnosed with it, but as an adult. And now, though the meds help me focus, I realize that most of it is due to issues pertaining to my giftedness and education (or having it "easy") growing up!

We faced a similar issue with DS5. He missed state cutoff, and I opted to enroll him at an Independent School. He was already reading at 2nd grade+ before he started school, and this school allowed subject acceleration, so I thought it was a fine fit.

He was bored at this school even though they are more rigorous than other schools. He was placed at 2nd grade in every subject, while retaining his K "homeroom". But scheduling conflicts etc. resulted in his school proposing he skip to 1st grade. Having skipped grades myself, I didn't want to do it to him. After frantic search on this topic, we decided to go forward with it.

Even though he is smaller than others, he is doing much better now in 1st grade. He is still mostly doing 2nd grade work, but science/social studies are in 1st grade.

As one poster said, you address the current issues and deal with the later ones later. It was worth it for us.

Can someone explain to me why #2 above would be a reason not to accelerate? Why are merit scholarships a consdieration? I understand the rest, but not that one.

Thanks!

My guess is that before a gifted child is grade accelerated, he or she is often performing off-the-charts on academic testing when compared to agemates. Sometimes, with grade acceleration, said child is now being compared to kids several years older and, while they will still probably score very well and very favorably with the older now-grade-mates, they may not score as off-the-charts. And this, I would presume, might have consequences for some competitive merit scholarships.

If one is depending on being a big fish in a little pond in order to get to college then it might be better to go with keeping the child in school with agemates, and making them work their butts off at home. Theoretically the child would have more free time to pursue a academic competitions or Intel science. So much depends on the parenting style and on the child's personality. I believe the research says that children who get their needed gradeskip have more knowledge than if they stayed at their original grade, but if you have a very self-motivated kid, or are a bigtime charismatic leader in your home who's kid does everything you say the first time, and your kid has enough stamina to pass time in school AND do meaningful enrichment at home, then maybe it's better to leave them as standouts in their grade...our family definitely couldn't pull that off, but my son knew a very gifted child in his 6th grade class who was taking this approach. The father said: 'When the teacher assigns a 4 page paper - You Do and 8 page paper.' and the child did!

I think that the family did cultivate an 'us vs. them' mentality to justify why their kid had to do double what the other kids did - but I'm not knocking it - it was working!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Grinity, you always give such good explanations and thoughtful info! Greatly appreciated!

Thanks and more thanks!

((tipping hat))
Thanks for the compliment Mama22Gs!