he still seems a bit fragile emotionally. That fragility and the need to be accepted by the older kids leads me to think acceleration is a bad idea right now. But boredom is a really bad thing, too.
Hi OHG!
I hope the visiting day goes well. Your grandson hass been through so much, and I'm glad that he found himself academically. I don't think that you have caused the bordome by 'enriching him outside of school.' We stayed away from 'enrichment' when our DS was entering school for the same purpose, and he got miserable and acty-outie without our help. They just get to a certian age where they become aware of the gap between their 'burn to learn' and what they are getting in school. I don't think that this is your fault, or even a 'sad side effect' of the intervention you did to heal him. It's just not suprising that a child who is HG or beyond HG who is healthy enough to complain, will be unhappy with out significant accomidation.
I would like to hear more about what you are seeing as 'emotional fragility' and 'needing to be accepted by the older children.' Afterall, OverSensitivities can look a lot like emotional fragility or immaturity. If you DGS had a need to be accepted by his agemates, would that worry you? LOL, mine did and it led to all kinds of 'class clown behavior' habits. Lots of kids have a need to be accepted by
some kind of peer group, and in a way, older kids are good candidates to be his peers. Somehow I have this picture of him smoking cigs in the bathroom with the 5th graders - I sure hope not!
Finding a reasonable peer group is a problem that follows us Gifties all through our lives (see thread about Isolated Adults)
OK - so there are lots of ways to find a good fit without a full skip - although a full skip, for all it's disadvantages, has a kind of 'they can't take that away from me' solidity that we found nescessary when dealing with real humans down at the school.
Online classes during school, with credit substituting for regular classroom work.
Attending the gifted pull out with the older kids - I like this one because no one can complain that it creates 'gaps.'
Workbooks in the back of the room
Attending a few classes at the Middle School and then returning to the elementary school.
Attending a few classes with older classrooms in the elementary school.
Socialize by day, learn by afternoon lifestyle, if he can handle it.
Academic competitions.
A lot depends on if he likes to learn alone, or if he needs teaching and peers to learn. My son's extrovert-preference also pushs us towards the compromises that go along with gradeskipping.
The good news is that Schools expect Middle School kids to be 'disorganized, and mentally led off topic' because they recognise that as one's mind expands, there is more to keep track of! So once my DS got to Middle School, folks were more excepted of his oddnesses.
I'm starting to believe that what was causing his organizational/out in left field difficulties was a kind of 'mental puberty' that hit around age 9, and is quite similar to what folks blame on hormones in Middle School kids. Perhaps the hormones are mearly a noticible association with the kind of new mental processes that make 'sit and obey' approaches to the classroom difficult.
I sure hope this help (not that I've gotten you into this)
It isn't isn't isn't your fault!
Grinity
