P.S. I'm being extra sensitive about hot-housing and modern ideas about appropriate early academics because my late birthday boy (by 1 measly little month) can't go to preschool this year because Texas state law has drawn a hard line at 4 by Sept. for pre-k, �LMAO
Mr W was ecstatic when he went in with older kids. His first comment to me when I picked him up was, "Dad, they can talk!!" I imagine that putting him back in with his age peers would be like a scene from the Planet of the Apes where Heston meets the non-verbal humans. So maybe its a blessing in disguise for you.
If your kid is off the charts and progressing nicely through their learning curve, then to put them in with their age peers means that they will slow down or stop in their progress. To me that is unacceptable. But what is the alernative?
The school situation is a big issue with us as well. We've spent a lot of time looking at the laws and programs various schools - both public and private - provide in Texas.
The public schools will allow early entrance to 1st as a 5 year old if the kid passes the 3rd grade TAKs test and jumps through a number of hoops. But even first grade for a PG kid at 5 will mean learning to read rather than reading fluently.
There is only one district in North Texas that allows early entrance based on standardized IQ/achievement testing and then takes those kids through an accelerated program. I talked to parents in that program and parents who left it. Its not a true accelerated program past the 2d grade.
There are a number of "magnet" schools but the school district as a whole has very few National Merits as a % of the student body.
Just about every so called "elite" private school has a hard age range. Some come right out and tell you that "No Exceptions." Yet their curriculum is no different from the public schools at that age and no different at the higher grade levels as well. A handful of kids end up working at a very high level and do college courses in the 10th grade and beyond. So what are you paying them to do? These schools do have a lot of National Merit grads, but I wonder if that is more a function of repeating the same material over and over and over.
There is one regional program in Math that is run by a former Romanian math professor out of UTD. It seeks to ID mathy kids and then accelerate their math education with them doing Abstract Algebra while still in HS. Pretty cool.
So, there appears to be no one place to go to for education from 3 until 18. The two PG kids parents I talked to both now home school as even the accelerated elementary or magnet programs did not work past age 8 or 9. Some other parents have had skips in the magnet programs but supplement a lot at home then move to a district with a top HS.
So, I think it goes back to something Kriston said a few years ago and Grinity expanded on - that the kids have to lead and you must make adjustments.
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I've read through a lot of regional forums and I see a number of parents say "my kids tested at 3rd grade level but we put her in K and that was the best choice." then you see another comment about how studies have shown they call catch up by 3rd grade. LOL. I do not want that for Mr W - I know what that was like for me.
