Hi MamaLisa,
Warning, this is a very pro-acceleration forum! People find this board because they are having troubles that most people do not experience. That said, you will find a lot of people who have gone through exactly what you are going through. We also have a kiddo who was an excellent candidate for a grade skip on the IAS, and we effectively skipped him twice. First he skipped first grade, then we transferred him to an accelerated program mid-year 2nd grade, going from a class size of 22 to a class size of 29, IIRC. The bigger class size made no difference whatsoever, as DS was finally in a more appropriate educational setting and the teacher was awesome.
Especially considering that your kiddo asked for the skip, has friends in the receiving grade, would be close to age to most of the kids in the grade up, on top of all the evidence of what a great candidate for skipping he is, I am sure you will have difficulties convincing anyone that holding him back is a better idea. But I am only commenting based on the info you gave us. There are plenty of reasons people choose to not skip their kids (sports, very small size, immaturity, to name a few), but I have not seen any evidence of this in your post.
Good luck!
