Deliberately describing a skip as an experiment that he can call off if he finds it isn't working may help prevent the possibility of the stigma you experienced if the situation is not a good fit. We did this when our son skipped from 6th to 7th in the middle of the school year. The kids our son left behind in the 6th grade might have harrassed him if he had returned to 6th after a hiatus, but it seemed worth the risk. Some were already harrassing him, and it seemed good to get some space from those. The older kids weren't as threatened.
bluestem
