Trinity,
1. I find myself facing old teaching assumptions (and myths told to be as a student) regarding grade skip. The Nation Deceived document and other research has been read and reread in my house and my husband and I are having our own revelations. With that said, I am torn. I am sure that my child needs a multigrade skip for reading. Because of her broad reading and interests, social studies and science would be beneficial, too. As far as math is concerned, I am not sure. I know that she could probably handle 1st grade math, but have not seen her explore this area much yet. We have taken the philosophy of feeding the machine. She basically leads the way into interest areas and we provide materials and exposure (insects, sign language, human body, animals, fairy tales, space, etc.). We are pursuing subject acceleration at this stage.
Good, you know where you are. I would rather you get an "Assesment -- IQ and Achievment test" than pursue subject acceleration just yet. I'm assuming that you mean "moved to 1st or 2nd grade" during reading. You could mean, given materials at her readiness level in her classroom. I'll call that "in-class enrichment." confusing, yes?
If you want her moved to a different room, then do it if you can do it without spending all of your "good-will capitol." Otherwise scurry to get the testing and see if it's worth your while. If you are trying to get the teacher to do things differently.....that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't - but it makes the teacher the bad guy, and she isn't. Your child isn't the bad guy either, of course, it's an educational philosophy that children like your daughter either do not exist or should go to private schools. You know that your daughter exists. I think the private testing will help you shed your previous indoctrination. If she taught herself to read at 3 and it's your dime, can you travel?
Have you read "losing our minds, gifted children left behind" by Dr. Deb Ruf? That may help in the meantime. Such an amazing experience to see your kid "fitting in" with words in books.
Feeding the machine is wonderful for homeschooling and afterschooling. I encourage you to keep going with this as long as you can. OTOH, School is very different, and for most schools, you want to set her up in the "least worst fit" situation and see what she and the school can figure out together. There's a thread here where we talk about all the amazing things that schools have done for our kids. It's true, schools have done so much, it's just that sometimes the price is way too high.
HTH,
Trinity
