My son is 11 and has skipped one year (2nd). We've thought about a second skip but have decided against it. Although he could easily do it academically, he's not mature enough and that "life experience" think HK mentioned is a big deal. Where we are, the school considers him two years skipped because he is a July birthday and most summer birthday boys don't go to Kindergarten until age 6. So, many of the other 7th graders are already 13. He also says he doesn't want to skip another grade.
On the other hand, we had not regretted the skip until this year. It just seems like the maturity and social skills are lagging and it might be very nice if he was a 5th grader instead. Especially when the other 11 year olds are out playing and he's got 7th grade homework.
You have to know your child and what you want to accomplish with a skip. And, don't dwell too much on the future but picture it a little. When he's 10 and in the 7th grade, how is that going to look? Will he be ready for that? Another thing that's been hard for us is the Middle school (where he is) gets out at 4 pm while the elementary gets out at 3 pm. So, for example, when he has baseball practice at 5:30 he doesn't have much time to get homework done. The other boys have had that extra hour.
I think it's probably easier to undo a skip in grade k - 6. Once you get into middle school, it's harder (not impossible) because if you repeat 7th grade, you have to repeat all your core classes. That would make my kiddo miserable.
I don't mean to scare you away from it. Just sharing some of our experiences to help you look at all facets of it. Maybe you could suggest subject acceleration for him?
ETA: I didn't mean to make it sound like we regret it now. Given the circumstances, we'd do it again. However, there has been some regret about it this year. It's been mostly good and this year it's been somewhat harder.
Last edited by petunia; 01/14/13 03:52 PM.
