A long time ago, I came here because I was trying to find a way to NOT have my daughter skip a grade... it had been recommended by everyone around her, and I even moved to a school known for gifted programming in the hopes that they would differentiate enough in the classroom so she wouldn't need to be skipped.
Eventually, the superintendent talked me into letting her skip-- she was too many grade levels ahead for differentiation-- and she skipped from 1st into 2nd grade last year. The result was iffy. Academically, it was right. But by the end of the year, she was begging me to be homeschooled. The kids were rough. A couple of really bad bullies, and just not a great social environment. She cried every day leading up to the start of 3rd grade.
The nice update is this: This year has been AWESOME. The bullies are not in her class; she's very well-liked and has plenty of friends. She's still at the top of her class and they're doing differentiation with her, but there's at least one other kid now who's close in ability to her. She's excited about going to school... huge relief! Next year starts the self-contained gifted class and I'm excited and nervous to see how that works out.
Anyway, just wanted to add an update. Going along with the skip was a very hard decision for me because I didn't want her life to be rushed ahead, but I can see now that not doing the skip would have been really inappropriate.
Now a question: what's Mensa like for kids? Do people feel like it's worth joining?
