However, you can still be a scientist if you don't grade skip.
Unless not being challenged in school caused you to lose interest due to boredom. Or always being the top kid in your grade (without expending any effort) allowed you to become complacent and lazy in your studies (which made actual rigor in college a huge shock to your system).
I have a twice grade skipped daughter, taking two foreign languages, who has amassed more credits after 5 trimesters of HS than most of her peers will in 9, and she is still half-arsing most of her classes. I cannot imagine how bored she would be not having been skipped.
Would swim be a little more satisfying if she were with her age-mates? Sure it would. But a decade from now, I'd rather see a medical degree hanging on her wall than a swim team MVP plaque from HS.
Just my two cents. Please don't be offended by my brusqueness.
Best of luck,
--S.F.
I am going to concur.
Kids get
addicted to easy success-- and frankly? STEM in post-secondary is a wicked beast if you are conditioned for that.
Dealing with this particular cocktail of factors right now. DEEPLY regretting not accelerating
harder on math-- until it
wasn't so easy.
Deeply.
I say that as mom to a kid who is a 15yo college student. So she
was "accelerated" significantly-- but graduating #1? Yeah, clearly 3y wasn't enough, and we should have figured out SOME way to get her learning some of what she needed to know. Things like "life is hard, but you can improve if you work" and "not everything that is worth doing/learning is going to be OBVIOUS the first time that you see it."
Advanced STEM topics aren't
easy for
anyone. Being bright is necessary-- but not at all "sufficient."
Hard work also necessary-- but not sufficient.
There's no way to "work harder" to an understanding of some topics if your FSIQ is just 100 or 110. Won't happen. Then again-- osmosis isn't a good plan, either, even if your FSIQ is 150.
What I'm going to say here is likely to be non-PC, and may make some people unhappy-- but-- what we're finding is that our child is looking at what is "easy" for her versus "hard" for her-- and realizing that she can more or less CONTINUE to be a slacker and not face down her perfectionistic demons (that is, perfection is still more or less attainable with little effort) in her arts/humanities courses. Not-so-much in STEM.
That said-- it IS possible for people who are bright enough, and have learned that schooling is a 'demonstration of innate knowledge' (as opposed to a learning opportunity) , to skate by even in college. They just won't be doing it in STEM.
Ask yourself if you want to help close that door. Seriously. If it's that it isn't your child's nature/passion, well-- so be it, perhaps. If it is, however, I'd proceed with caution on allowing things to be too easy.
I would
not consider sports in an academic placement decision. Look to club sports with age placement if it is important, and realize that you've made some trade-offs. But decide which is MORE important to the long term well-being of your child. Proceed accordingly.
I, to, hope that this isn't too blunt. Hindsight, though-- I sure wish that someone had tipped me off to this one when DD was 6 or 7y.
