I am guessing he will do fine. I have an 8yo who also goes to 5th grade for math, and I had the same concerns. He is a great kid, but pretty laid back. When he moved ahead, they gave him the summer packet that the kids get when they go into accel math (skipping 3rd grade). His brother almost had a heart attack when ds8 said, "yeah, it's optional." Ds10 said, "but you HAVE to do it. On the first day of class, the teacher will ask who did the summer packet and you have to raise your hand." Ds8 just shrugged and said, "yeah, well, what happened to the kids who didn't raise their hands? Nothing, right?"
Anyway, I had the same concerns as you. This year, we wanted him to be with the 4th grade accel, but it didn't work out and instead he goes to 5th grade. I thought the same things---- oh gosh, his handwriting is so big he'll need extra pages... and he isn't good about math facts... and he may struggle with the extended responses because his writing (not handwriting, but actual writing) isn't as advanced.
Well, so far, it's been NO PROBLEM. We are meeting today to talk about it, and he actually has a not-great scenario where math and gifted pullout overlap (so he misses the first 20 minutes of math usually, i.e., the instructional period!!) but you will be amazed. My guess is that you're comparing him to yourself, your family, your other kids, your dh... you might be thinking, "he's good, but is he that good?" But in all likelihood, he really is that good and you just don't realize what the "average" 5th grader is like!
Yes, your son might not be at the very top RIGHT AWAY, but my guess is that he will be soon. We've been through grade accel and subject accel (ds8 is the youngest of our 4 gifted kids) and I often caution people that grade accel isn't a magic bullet. It works for a while, but if continued differentiation isn't done, there will be problems. I would bet money that your son *eventually* will be at the top again, simply because he learns faster than the average kid and has a natural affinity. I view it like one of those math problems:Suzy starts out walking to the store at 3 miles per hour. Joey starts out half an hour later, walking four miles per hour. Eventually, Joey overtakes Suzy. Your son is Joey.
We never had much of an issue with any of my kids accelerating, but I tried to make it very lowkey and I made sure that they did their homework faithfully and didn't expect perfect scores. We hit patches now and again where we found missed knowledge, but it really wasn't that often.
When my son first skipped ahead two grades (although it was more gradual, as he skipped ahead one grade and then a few months later skipped again with the accel group) we started using Beestar.org for grade-level (his new grade-level) practice.
I have to admit, ds8 isn't one to do math facts or workbooks or whatever. He's a builder, creator, sports-playing ball of energy. But, we did the two 10-problems questions each week, which are aligned to state standards (it isn't the state we live in, but that's okay) and it helped fill in any little gaps and didn't really take much time or effort. I'd definitely recommend it, at least for a few months. I didn't think it was any great burden on ds, because even in the higher grades, our math homework was minimal at best.
Good luck!!
Theresa
