This has bothered me for a while.
My son is 6. He is a second grader in a gifted class. He is doing 5th grade math in another gifted class. In his homeroom, he is the youngest, but that is just up to one year difference, and because he is also the tallest, his classmates thought he was older until his 6th birthday. However, in his math class, his classmates are 2-4 years older than him and his height is average among them.
He is turning 7. I was thinking whether we�d celebrate with his math classmates. Or should we not let them know because although I have no idea what their reactions would be, I do have concerns that they may not treat him equally after knowing he is much younger than what his height and intelligence indicate.
What bothers me more now is when I think about the future. At his pace - he is good at thinking the math nature not just mastering the algorithms so he progresses pretty steadily, he will advance at least two more grade levels by the end of the school year, more likely three more levels, and probably at grade 9th (at least 8th) at the beginning of the next school year, third grade. There will definitely be more types of concerns.
I am keen to know if anyone had similar experiences or could share some insights based on your experiences.
FYI, my son is Chinese American. This may add to the complications of the situation because of the additional cultural differences that I am not aware of. My experience in the US is more on doing my graduate degree and working here, so I have growing but limited understanding of the cultural aspects especially those related to raising children. However, I think even without the cultural differences posed by parents, it would already be challenging to cope with the social and emotional situations with a child several years more advanced intellectually.
Another FYI, I know it is not uncommon on this forum for a 6 yo child to be at 5th grade level math, but for our situation, my son had not been exposed to higher level math until about a month and a half ago, when I learned about Davidson programs and got to learn my son was bored at school by asking him. He said everything was easy and easier and he was bored. Before this, I thought it was a gifted program with gifted kids, he must be having fun. Now I know gifted kids also have different levels of abilities.
I also wanted to do something yesterday when my son said �not much� in response to a cashier�s question �have you learned a lot at school today� when we checked out at Trader Joe�s. But this is a btw and another problem, sorry for distracting you from the main topic.
