Hi JDAx3,
I would strongly reccomend puting him in 4th grade NOW for 3 reasons.
1) Maybe he would actually learn something. keeping him in a situation where he has to spend some energy learning helps him 'learn how to learn.'
2) Maybe the new location won't have a gifted program, and if he graduated from 4th grade, it builds a much stronger case for him entering 5th grade, assuming that that is what's needed.
3) It is possible that you dear DS will act obnoxious and cocky with his gradeskip. Mine did. If at all possible, you want him to experience this at the school he is leaving so that he has a chance to learn from his mistakes and keep his mouth firmly shut at this next school. This isn't a garentee, of course, but it did work for my boy.
Some kids seems to be 'shamed' by being placed with agemates and expected to spend hours and hours learning very little. My son's pride was deeply offended, and although I cringed at his 'showing off' and tried to convinse him to 'tone it down and cut it out,' he really was trying to work off years and years of having his best qualities ignored by teachers and knowing that he couldn't dumb himself down enough to be a teacher-pleaser in the early elementary grades.
(BTW - I'm not saying that the kids who have a higher social/emotional IQ and more maturity would have to dumb themselves down to gain praise from early elementary school teacher - just that my son, with his age-appropriate social IQ and maturity would have had to litterally dumb himself down to please his teachers. Personality matters SO much!)
Love and More Love,
Grinity
