Thanks for all the advice--nice to know I"m not alone with a gifted kid who is also very athletic. There is so little posted/discussed about these kids.
I am meeting with the school later this week to discuss options, so I'm just trying to get my head around the whole thing before I go in there. No skip has been offered, but I"m trying to get a grip on facts/opinions outside the school before I agree to anything. Based on the direction things are going, I suspect a full skip would be preferred by the school district as it's less work on them. My son really doesn't care what classroom he's in--he just says he wants harder work. I"m not on board with the skip right now.
Our district's GT program is really in it's infancy. They have traditionally had a pull-out program and they do cluster the kids (though the don't do much work differentiation in the clusters). They have announced plans to expand the program to offer more telescoping/compacting/acceleration next year, but the details are still fuzzy. In our case, I think waiting until next year to "see what they offer" would be a mistake, so we are pushing the envelope now.
We've been trying to figure out why this year is so different than previous years for him--it's light a light switch was turned on and he now sees that he is capable of alot more than the school expects. We can't pin it on one thing, but wonder if it's a combination of him maturing and that he expected more challenge entering intermediate school. At any rate, I'd rather focus on how to move forward and challenge him than why we got to this point.
He is already involved in Club soccer, but he also loves football and basketball. If he were to stay with soccer, the full skip would be fine, based on how select and DA work in our area. However, I do not want to deny him the opportunity to see what he can do with the other sports if he wants to pursue them. He's only 10, so we really don't know what the future holds, and we are trying to find a way to keep him balanced and keep his options open. Sports may lead to something bigger....or they may not....but as of now, they are a HUGE piece of his identity.
