Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Advice and experience on grade acceleration

I'm new here. I have a 5 yo son that I am fairly confident to say he is gifted, most likely he is highly or exceptionally gifted. He started phonetically reading at a little over 2.5 and he now can read anything he wants. He's enjoyed some chapter books, but mostly he likes poems and non fiction books about animals or places. He adds, subtracts, and multiplies double and triple digit numbers and has an incredible sense of numbers. His most recent love is geography and he has learned all of the states and their capitals, and knows all of the countries. He can place them all on the map and can tell you what countries border them and knows the languages that many of them speak as their primary language. He learned the countries within a couple of weeks of obsessive study. Anyways, we are highly considering skipping him next year out of kindergarten and into first grade. We have his evaluation with the school in a couple of weeks and I feel that after that is done and the school agrees that we will be able to make a firm decision. I'm so nervous about making this decision. While I can't even imagine him having to sit through kindergarten, I worry about the social consequences, especially later in life (high school sports, dating, driving, etc.) I also wish that he could get the kindergarten experience and have that year to transition into full time school. His fine motor skills are probably normal for his age, so I worry that he wont be able to write fast or as neatly as the other kids in first grade. Ugh... Well... I guess I'm just looking for experiences people have had with grade skipping or not. I've read the research that says that acceleration is the best route most of the time, but would he be ok if we chose not to skip? Of course, any and all advise is totally appreciated. Thanks.

Hi! Welcome to the board!

If your son at 5 can "He adds, subtracts, and multiplies double and triple digit numbers and has an incredible sense of numbers." then going into Gr. 1 will probably not meet his needs and allow him to "learn" something in Math. Check the curriculum and find out for yourself at what grade level the children learn single digit multiplication and division...

As he appears to be highly gifted he probably learns at a much faster rate and would not need any repetition (drills) like normal-average ability children would.

He may not be able to sit through K or Gr. 1.

Your son may have asynchronous development. His mind/ability will be able to learn so much but his output may not catch up. Google for gifted asynchronous development. He may need a scribe to help him output his thoughts. Get him started in learning to type.

It is great that you are here, keep learning more. What local gifted-talented resources are in your local area/state? Private/public magnet schools?

Consider subject acceleration for math ...

Gotta go
Best wishes!

Ok, so we really are talking about unusually gifted here, ok? An when one is an outlier to that extent, worrying about high school is just not useful. My son skipped 5th grade and repeated 9th grade - both were very good choices in our family circumstances. I've heard of kids who did community college for middle school and then started High School at the regular age. There are as many paths as there are kids who need unusual paths. Apply to Davidson Young Scholar's program. Listen to what the school has to say. Spend at least 30 minutes sitting quietly in a first grade classroom, kindy and 2nd grade. My guess is that will tell you all you need to know.

Some families do kindy and skip first, particularly if it's a half day kindy. If your son has done any preschool with agemates then you have a pretty good idea of his tolerance for agemates.

Don't expect to get everything perfect all at once, but don't accept any offers that are just plain silly.

It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Grinity

I agree with Grinity -- your son sounds much more than "regularly" gifted. No need to panic, but you should take some time to read some books on highly gifted kids. That will help you get a sense of roughly where your son lies on the gifted spectrum and will also expose you to the vocabulary surrounding giftedness and some of the educational options out there. To me and many of us here, this board has been invaluable in getting the "inside scoop" on what's out there.

There really are an endless variety of educational options based on your child's level of giftedness, his personality, your priorities for him, his school district, school personnel, and the size of your community. We've personally done early K admittance, skipping K, subject acceleration, grade acceleration, in-class enrichment, and occasional afterschooling for our kids. Nothing has been perfect, but we've chosen the least-worst options and have improved the situation and our kids are happy if not really challenged.

It sounds to me that you will have to do something to make school a better fit for your son if you decide to send him to school. Don't forget that homeschooling might be a great option.

Does your son go to preschool or have other group experiences with kids his age or older? That can be hugely telling about whether he will want to be in K for the social experience or whether being with kids learning the basics will drive him batty. How is his behavior, in general? A lot of early educators are particularly nervous about boys being the youngest in their grades because they assume they are less mature. Any information you can give the school in this regard that shows maturity might reassure them if you decide that you would like him in K early or would like to skip K.

For my DS7, btw, missing the K transition-to-full-time-school was a non-issue. He easily picked up the school skills he needed in a matter of a couple weeks.

I hope you keep posting and asking all the questions you have. The people here are great and experienced. Your son sounds amazing! So, welcome!

One other thing: the population of the school that your son would attend is hugely important. We, for instance, live in a district with a huge number of new immigrant families and a fair number of kiddos who are performing below grade level. While my kids would stand out in most classrooms, they particularly stand out in this school district. That has been good in that they very obviously need accommodations and that has been easier to see. In other districts where the parents tend to be smarter than average, their kids likely are, too, and they might have more classmates closer to their level. Obviously, your son will not likely have classmates as advanced as he is. But, I would strongly suggest sitting in on K, 1st, and 2nd grade classes at his potential school just so you get a more realistic sense of the level of kids both academically and socially at his school. You say that his handwriting is at a more age-appropriate level, and that may very well be true, but you don't know the level of the other kids and that might suprise you.

Also, make sure you get a copy of the curriculum for each grade level. Maybe when you meet with the school you can compare what your son is doing with the curriculum in order to come up with a workable solution.

Hello, welcome to the board! Of course every kid and every situation will be different, but I'll share our experience. For us, regular local kindergarten, with lots of differentiation, worked OK. DS had no interest in learning to write (he has perfectionist tendencies, and when writing didn't turn out how he wanted it to when he was very young, he gave up trying). So, we figured kindergarten would be perfect for learning to write. The teacher was good at in-class differentiation for reading, and DS went to gifted pullouts and also was basically tutored with 2nd grade math. This was all-day kindergarten, so there was a lot to get used to in the sense of "doing school" - more so than his part-time preschool. We kept our goal for the year as learning to do school and learning to write, and anything new he learned was bonus. It was pretty pretty good. We decided not to ask for the moon, but to push for the most in math, because we figured that would be easy for them to do (and easy for them to see how advanced he was), and we thought that reading could be more easily differentiated in the regular classroom.

He then skipped first, which in our district is a "learn-to-read" year, but he still needed a lot of differentiation and pullouts. An opportunity came up at a school for HG kids, which works a year ahead and faster, and we transferred DS(now 7) mid-year. He's been there a little over a month, and it's been great. We don't have the constant worry that he's not learning anything new. Best situation so far. We are hopeful that this will work a few more years, since the school goes through 5th grade, but we take things a year (or less) at a time.

Be prepared for a lot of advocacy, and try to always be on the good side of the school, if possible. We had some misunderstandings with the first second grade class, which reminded us of a few things: 1) you need to do your best to work as a team, 2) always be respectful, 3) most teachers and school staff have no experience with EG/PG kids, and so they don't know how quickly they can learn and it takes time for them to see for themselves (which you should give them, in reasonable amounts), 4) principals have wonderful powers to choose teachers who want your child and who will be good at differentiation, 5) try to get some sort of plan in writing, in case you do have to switch schools and there's no record (we learned that the hard way, even though the school switch was in district).

Also, what sort of options do you have? Do you live anywhere near schools for gifted kids? We drive our DS 45 miles each way to his new school, but it's been worth it for him to have intellectual peers, and we have not had to worry that he's not learning. His handwriting is still pretty bad, but we're working on it, and the new teacher gets asynchronous development.

Best of luck!

Thanks so much everyone for the replies. I often feel so overwhelmed and alone... Its so nice to hear from people who have experience in this.

So, here are the educational options that I know of so far. Public school system: grade acceleration and/or gifted program starting in 3rd grade. The gifted program is fully incorporated at a different school in the district and it really seems to be well done. My niece is in the program and it has been awesome for her. Private schools: there are a few nearby, but nothing that I know of that claims to work for a gifted learner. And as far as home schooling, I may be chicken, but I'm not sure that would work out. I have 4 little kids ( he's the second) and our days are not structured or predictable enough to provide a good structured educational environment. I would prefer to make the public school work since we have a neighborhood full of young kids and they all go to school together.
He goes to a short preschool program, 2 hrs. a day, 3 days a week. He enjoys it. He has fun with his friends and he likes the worksheets. He also plays well with his older sister and her friends. I think socially, he'd be ok in either k or 1st.
Again, thanks for all of the advice and suggestions. It gives me more to think about.

Just to point out - he has achieved all that already in that environment, it can't be too bad Even if you decide not to home school, don't underestimate how important you are!

My DC went to school with all the same age mates, even though we knew our child was clearly capable of more. As a pp mentioned, we used K to focus on the writing and getting used to the classroom rules. No, she didn't learn anything she didn't already know though. Then, she was grade skipped from 2nd to 4th and as others have mentioned, when a child is so far advanced, one grade skip still won't put them at a level where they need to be. Our child is STILL not challenged, but the material is more independent and the switching classes and having different teachers and many other things are more intriguing and have definitely made for a better fit. As we see it, each move or accomodation puts us one step closer to where our child needs to be. Don't expect any choice to be a solve all. There will still need to be accomodations along the way. As long as you go in with that mind set, you can make adjustments as needed and know that this decision won't be the last one. Take it one step at a time and make the decision for now, not worrying about the far advance future. Not doing anything for your child can be just as detrimental to his needs, so always consider that as well.

I'm just curious - what grade is your older daughter in? Has she been tested for the full gifted program? The odds are that even if your first born isn't as far out as your 2nd born that she is still gifted enough to have special educational needs.
((Wink))
Grinity