I'm seeing that the conversation in this thread has turned toward skipping your children a grade. I'm generally in favor of that (I have a grade skipped kid myself), but don't necessarily think that it works for all gifted kids. I'd definitely get a hold of a copy of the Iowa Acceleration Scale if you want to consider a skip and do think that subject acceleration is a reasonable compromise if it isn't a good fit for your particular kid (we've gone that route with my other child for whom a grade skip isn't the right fit). A couple things to consider if you are considering advocating for a skip:
I find it hard to believe that you could not advance your children a grade. I considered skipping a grade with my dd and was talked out of this by teachers because they had a "higher ability" program. Unfortunately, the higher ability program lets in about 15% of the kids and my dd is in the top 1-2%. ...
Of note is that in activities outside of school, she mainly hangs out with kids that are 2-4 years older than her. I have found that her giftedness is reflected socially in addition to her academics. I really wish I had advanced her at least one grade because she gets along much better with older kids.
My dd who is skipped is like JLC01's. She is just older in many ways than her years. She hangs out with older kids by choice when she can in extracurriculars and adults even in some of her extracurriculars (like SCUBA diving). We've always called her our old soul. Kids who are socially mature and who fit well with older kids without standing out as younger seem to be better accepted when they are placed academically with those older kids from what we've seen. (There are a few grade skipped kids in dd's grade and we've seen both and had teachers comment to us about the difference.)
Then I got her test scores back. As of January, she was already well past the end of year goals in everything. The end of year goal for recognizing and naming letters was 27. She scored a 54. For hearing and using sounds in spoken words, the goal was 18 - she scored a 44.
Academically, the child should be well, well above grade level in pretty much all subjects when s/he skips. I'm not positive if I am reading your post re your dd here correct. Are you saying that she is supposed to be naming 27 English letters by the end of K and can name 54? I'm assuming that they're looking @ capital and lower case letters in this instance. I can see as how this would be boring if they are working ad nauseum on learning those letters she already knows, but I don't know if this is enough proof of significant advancement to the extent that she needs to be skipped. (Again, I realize that you're not the one who raised this possibility.)
For instance, I recall that both of my girls had met end of year goals on everything for K by the first time they were tested at the end of the first quarter. It wasn't a big issue for them b/c their K teacher was good and they had fun singing and coloring even if they didn't need the song about "Ms. V the vegetarian" to learn the letter V or the sound it made. They also weren't held to reading simple early readers they had mastered.
With your daughter, I'd start with trying to advocate for more complete testing to show how advanced she really is as it sounds like her reading is more advanced than the testing they are doing is showing. Then I'd work on having the limits lifted on what they're letting her check out from the library. I'd be inclined to push pretty hard for subject acceleration in language arts in 1st grade for her as well b/c 1st grade language arts/reading classes are pretty darn boring for good readers (unless their writing is well behind their reading abilities).
As to whether I'd look at a grade skip for either kiddo, I'd see if you can get IQ testing and above level testing done or at least one or the other to see if that seems to be a good fit academically. Then I'd take a look at the IAS to see if the other pieces seem to be in place (social, etc.). Can you set up a meeting with the GT coordinator at the school and see if s/he can help you get the ball rolling on some of this?
I know that you may get what JLC01 and many people hear -- GT doesn't start until [3rd grade, 4th grade...], we have a good GT program that will meet his/her needs at that point... I agree, that if you have children in the top 1% or so of ability with no major twice exceptionality issues, GT programming doesn't often meet the need. Like JLC01, we have a lot more than 1-2% of kids in the GT programming and it really is geared more toward meeting the needs of kids who are in the top 10-15% than the top 1-2%. If that's what your GT programming looks like, I think that it is well within reason to ask for more (subject or grade acceleration).
I'd also say to take comments like 'the reading GT class serves kids who are in the top 5% and the math GT class serves kids who are in the top 5%' with a grain of salt b/c what that often looks like is kids who are in the top 5% after being tested on multiple measures to hit that top 5% in something. There is also a big difference btwn a kid who is in the top 5% of achievement and ability in one area and nowhere else and a kid who is in the top 1-2% composite. I'm one who will also maintain that kids who hit the top 5% on one part of a group ability test are not necessarily kids who will hit the top 5% on any part of an IQ test b/c I've seen that happen too often (and the converse, kids with high individual IQ scores and lower group test scores).
