So glad a better schedule worked out!
My son was full-grade-skipped in 2nd grade (it is maybe the only example that occurred in our district in 10+ years, and it is a medium-sized district with 3500 kids in K-12, so it was an unusual circumstance in our town). But this really didn't remedy the situation, so by the time he hit middle school/6th grade, he was selected with 4 other kids to skip 6th grade math and join the 7th graders for math. This would have been fine, but same lunch problem--he had to eat lunch with the 7th graders.
This was a double problem for him (he tried it for 4 weeks, and was so miserable, we opted out). First problem--he felt a little like a pariah in the 7th grade lunch, so it was fairly miserable. Second problem--he is a really social guy, so he REALLY missed his 6th grade friends. They no longer have recess, so this was his one chance to truly socialize. So even if the 7th grade lunch was tolerable, or even mildly pleasant, he still would have been sad to miss the 6th grade lunch.
Our solution: we felt that the social stuff is way more important than the academic stuff. But we weren't totally okay with disregarding the advanced math, as we'd like him to be with those other advanced kids in high school. So, we left him in 6th grade math (yes, a boring review, but a kind/sweet/energetic/fun teacher who does her best to keep him interested), and did EPGY's online 7th grade math at home that year. This year, he's in 7th grade, and he did EPGY's 8th grade math at home. One more year of this extra work, and he can slip into the year-ahead math at the high school. So, it cost us to pay for the online class, but was 100% worth it to keep him with his friends/class for lunch. Too bad the schedule is set up to force them into this weird decision of lunch vs. more appropriate math class!
I guess this long response is partially to encourage you to realize that they probably learn so little, even with the gifted teacher, that losing out on a 40 minutes of gifted class could probably be made up at home in 20 minutes one-on-one with you!!! So I would focus on happiness. A little bonus after-schooling with you can provide some challenge. But it seems you may have managed the best of both worlds. Good luck!
