We have a year to decide on this and any commentary, suggestions, experience is welcomed.

Wolf is 7 and in an Independent Study program in a neighboring district. Besides hand writing he is working at least two levels above his age (that's in his lowest subject, math, which is speeding up now that multiplication has been memorized) and has already had one grade skip. He is currently at the end of 3rd grade on paper. There is only one other kid his age in his program and he almost never even sees him. He is mostly around middle schoolers.

There is a program in our district (not the one he is in) that is a middle school charter school. It is called the Nature Academy, is very science and nature based, does a lot of classwork outside no matter what the season, etc.. It is very well regarded. Being a charter school, even though there is an essay required to enroll, the enrollment is based on a lottery.

Wolf's teacher will be retiring soon. We are considering skipping 5th, trying for the Nature Academy and if we don't get in district transferring back to his current teacher's program for another year, undoing the skip, and then trying again the next year. It gives him double the chance of getting in at 6th.

I have absolutely no qualms about playing hard and fast with paperwork and silly things like grade levels. My main concern is that this would be a full day school program, something he's never had to deal with before and it would be middle school. The Nature Academy has smallish classes and the kids work in the same groups from the time they enter till the time they go on to high school, so it's not quite as social intense as regular middle school. It also tends to pull in the kids in the GT program and other bright kids.

He'd be ahead of the curriculum in all subjects except math and handwriting. He'd be at grade level in math. Most of the rest of the academics would be review, but it would be in a group setting which might make it different enough for him to deal with it. He's not against the Nature Academy, but he's also not jumping up and down excited about the prospect either. Age of students has no weight in his opinions at all as far as I can tell.

So if Wolf was your kid what would you do with him?