I would have had no friends for sure. I am thinking of signing Peter up for online courses to fill the accademic void anyone do this????
Welcome dear!
You certianly are between a rock and a hard place. My thinking as I was reading your post was - why bother to send him to school at all? Why not homeschool if there is NO chance of him progressing academically at school?
I am a big fan of establishing enough parental leadership with your child that you are in a position to 'demand' challenging work be done after school, but to be honest, some kids are too exhausted when they come home to do more.
I would certianly not advise 'riding out' this year. I would use it as a chance to learn, learn, learn about parenting your unique child. I would sign him up for many activities with age peer and with older kids so that you can see how he interacts with other children of various ages. Unfortunatly, small private schools can be a social nightmare because the pool of kids is just too small to find someone to 'click with.' We found this with our son, now aged 12, who spend two years in a private school that were great academically but a total loss socially, and my son is very social. We moved him to public 8th grade, and he's having a ball socially, and learning a lot, although perhaps a bit underchallenged in the 'organizational skills' department. So he's with the same age group, but having a very different social experience.
I would encourage to read 'Genius Denied' because it has the actual number on kids' experiences with gradeskips.
I would also like to address the 'only one skip isn't enough, and several is too much socially.' I hate to see folks taking this position, because flexibility is really the key to grade placements. So a single skip might be a good start, and a child might go with an older group for certian subjects, and in years to come additional full skips might occur.
One possibility for now is to request that your child be placed back with his agemates at the Montessori, and try that on for size. See if he makes more friends. Again, in small schools, the character of each grade may vary wildly. Ask your son what he thinks would work for him. I have experienced that the teacher sets the tone for how each child is treated. Another possible thing to try is to put him with the 3rd and 4th graders now at the Montessori and see if the older kids are more mature about having a 'little buddy' around. Sometimes there is too much jealousy with the kids who are just one year older.
I like the idea of taking classes in practicing social skills.
Whatever you decide, we are here for you to talk to. Grade skips kind of stink, compared to a classroom of agemates with similar learning readiness levels. For us, the hour drive each way plus two parents working was 'too much for our family' and staying with agemates caused too much behavioral and underachievement problems, so that left a single gradeskip with tracked Math as a 'least worst option.' For now, it's working, even though DS12 has those 'too high to measure' IQ scores.
Just some thoughts....
Love and More Love,
Grinity
