Dear Parents,
My DC5 is around 4-6 years ahead of his current grade level in math and reading respectively. This is an approximation based on a combination of achievement tests, school assessments, and reading and math that he does for recreation.
I'm wondering if there are any parents who dealt with a similar curricular gap and chose not to accelerate. If so, how has your experience been? Was your child happy?
I understand there is a lot of research on acceleration and good tools for decision-making. I am just wondering if down the line, acceleration eventually becomes inevitable for kids who maintain and then widen the gap between themselves and their age peers; or whether there are any families who managed to keep their kid with age peers--and for how long?
I'm not completely against acceleration. I am trying to make sense of advice I was given for years that emphasized the importance of kids staying with their age peers in school no matter what. Why do some early childhood educators believe this? Is there any basis for this strong bias toward age-grouping regardless of outlier ability levels? We've seen the gap between my child and his age peers widen dramatically over time. Did his preschool teachers believe that the gap would get smaller? I feel a strong need to debrief from a few traumatic years at a preschool and would like to gain some seasoned advice about what we may have to come to terms with over the next few years (grade skipping?).
Thank you
