Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments To skip or not to skip -- kindy

Hi Mom2Two- there are at least 2 parents who are regulars on this board who have done a skip of kindergarten altogether, or a skip after a half year (Hi JBDad and CathyA!). So I will let them talk of their experiences which are very pertinent to you.

I have a DS4 with a Jan birthday (4+ months past the cutoff), similar to yours in reading the sight words at 2, and now reading at an extremely advanced level. It turned out he was very HG, and the tester told us that he will need many types of acceleration in the future, no need to start it early, he'll learn on his own at home anyway. We were told that many HG+ do better sticking with agemates in the less structured format of kindergarten, and then skipping first. But this depends on your specific kid's personality. Our DS does not like to sit still, especially when learning. He gets excited and runs through the house. He is more likely to be a class clown than a teacher pleaser. So, we have him in his second year of a part-time play-based preschool, and we'll try kindergarten next fall when he's 5, and watch closely.

It's also a good idea to check out all the different options for schools now. We just thought, before we found out DS was HG+, that we'd send him to the local public school. Now, we question if that will work because our local school is overcrowded, and he will need some individualized instruction, which will be much easier in a smaller school. We are hoping to send him to a new STEM (science tech engineering math) K-8 school that's starting next fall, since he'll have more access to things he's interested in. Bigger areas have gifted magnet schools and loads private schools you could check out. Maybe the private school where you're looking for kindy. Sometimes schools you don't expect to do well with gifted kids will surprise you by trying to do as much as they can for your child. You might also want to consider homeschooling or partial homeschooling, if that's an option in your area.

I would also speak to the school gifted coordinator in your district ahead of time to see what they have for young kids, and to learn about the policies on gifted and acceleration. If they don't offer any gifted programming until later, or none at all, and you really have no other school choices, I would lean toward recommending trying to get him into first next year. (Does that mean you could start kindergarten late at the private school, meaning now?)

As an aside, you'll want to make sure that your child is not being used as a tutor when he gets to "real" school - he has a right to learn too. It seems fine in preschool if he likes to read to the other kids, but I wouldn't want that to be his role continuing into school.