Pud (almost 7) just finished 1st grade at our public school. He has been identified by them as gifted and they have a 1 1/2 hour a week pullout program for enrichment. They do not have acceleration, either full grade or subject (well, they'd have to do full grade if we really fought for it but it is against district policy). We had a really bad year in 1st grade trying to get them to give him accelerated work (or at least skip the stuff he already knew). He recently took the End of Second Grade ITBS and scored 97th Percentile, GE= 4:7. I'm looking at these school options (with comments):
1) Second grade at public school - Principal has agreed to pretest him in math and reading and let him do what she calls rubrics, crossword puzzles with math terms, "number searches", drawing a house and measuring sides, writing about math items. All of that depends on the teacher, which they won't reveal to me until a week before school starts. School offers acceleration in math in 5th grade. I dealt with the Vice Principal all last year and never got anwhere. She will take the principal's place in January. They will continue to do Saxon phonics. The GT pullout program will study Egypt.
2) Private school (SCA) - they did the ITBS and suggest putting him in 4th grade (a 2 year skip). DH opposed to this because of age and maturity level; not sure if he is mature enough for 4th grade content. We have discussed putting him in 3rd there and moving him to 4th mid-year. SCA meets 2 1/2 hours a day 4 days a week and does not have music, PE, recess, or art. Parents provide that. It is expensive. This would give us time to do extra projects and activities at home. SCA director thinks he could conceivably (?) be ready for college by 12 or 13 (eek). They don't have much wiggle room with a short day, so there's not in-depth coverage. It would cover the fundamentals, though.
3) Home School - This would probably meet his academic needs. DH opposed to this completely citing structure, discipline, and sanity. Pud and I have done some this summer and it would be very hard as we are both stubborn and strong willed. I can foresee many power struggles. It would also be hard with an only child as he has no "built-in" playmates.
I've looked into transferring to another school in the district (NO), buying into a nearby school district that has a better GT program (but they won't test him until he is enrolled and I don't want to enroll him unless he qualifies; she told me his CoGat scores wouldn't be enough to qualify him; he'd have to take the Nagliere?) (NO was their answer), Montessori, and religious schools. I didn't get a warm fuzzy about the Montessori. The religious schools close by are too religious. There are two religious schools farther from us but they are way, way expensive and would involve about 4 hours a day of drive time. I've looked at another private school but it only goes to 4th grade and then we'd be doing this all over again.
Questions I am considering: What is your long term goal for Pud? Do I want him to be going to college at age 16 or 17? Skipping grades starts down a path that will lead to this. Will he be emotionally mature enough for that? Will he "get burned out" from the pressure of performing and "growing up" too fast?
Do I just want him to be challenged and happy in school? What will it take for that to happen? Could enrichment in grade level satisfy the issue of being challenged while allowing social development with same age peers? Would advancement cause social/emotional issues? What about playtime?
By the way, I did the IAS and he scored a 55, which indicates "good candidate for acceleration". Interpersonal skills subtotal was his lowest. And, I did it without any input from the school or teacher.
Thoughts, opinions, questions, ideas? Sorry this got so long. I've got to make a decision soon. I'm leaning toward 3rd grade at SCA and considering it "building a foundation" while we build structures "off site" (sorry, construction terms) to add once we are certain of a solid foundation.
