I am giving the wrong answer to the request: �Help with preparing a child to skip a grade�.
But I hope to offer a different view. I am intimately familiar with a kid who skipped more than 6 grades.
�He is now scared of being with older kids.� � To me, this is a red flag. I would seriously reconsider the benefit of skipping a grade if the child is having an issue. What will the child gain by skipping a grade? If the answer is to offer a better match to the educational level of the child, then there are remedies. At that age and level (1st grade), the parents could easily do a better job than the school by offering a tailored made education � the parents who home school their child did just that. Kids who excelled, they all seem to have learned more from home than school (at least at that young age). There seems to be little to gain by skipping a grade. I met the parents of some of the Davidson fellows � all of them are very involved and attentive to their children�s education. I met a professor, he told me that he was so fortunate that he has a job that he could work anywhere. So the professor drove her daughter (a Davidson fellow at 14) to various extra curriculum functions and he waited for her on the floor doing his work. Not everyone is so fortunate. Just want to make a point how much the parents can do for their child. The professor�s extra effort placed his daughter among the Davidson fellows.
I would be very cautious not to dampen the child�s interest and would instead find ways to further nurture and grow that interest.
There is an interesting article, �Raising an Accidental Prodigy� (
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704559904576230570655238148.html).
The interest as well as talent of one of the gifted kids described in the article was sadly dampened when the parents made a wrong decision. Later on, that musical talent faded away.
