I'm new here. I have a 5 yo son that I am fairly confident to say he is gifted, most likely he is highly or exceptionally gifted. He started phonetically reading at a little over 2.5 and he now can read anything he wants. He's enjoyed some chapter books, but mostly he likes poems and non fiction books about animals or places. He adds, subtracts, and multiplies double and triple digit numbers and has an incredible sense of numbers. His most recent love is geography and he has learned all of the states and their capitals, and knows all of the countries. He can place them all on the map and can tell you what countries border them and knows the languages that many of them speak as their primary language. He learned the countries within a couple of weeks of obsessive study. Anyways, we are highly considering skipping him next year out of kindergarten and into first grade. We have his evaluation with the school in a couple of weeks and I feel that after that is done and the school agrees that we will be able to make a firm decision. I'm so nervous about making this decision. While I can't even imagine him having to sit through kindergarten, I worry about the social consequences, especially later in life (high school sports, dating, driving, etc.) I also wish that he could get the kindergarten experience and have that year to transition into full time school. His fine motor skills are probably normal for his age, so I worry that he wont be able to write fast or as neatly as the other kids in first grade. Ugh... Well... I guess I'm just looking for experiences people have had with grade skipping or not. I've read the research that says that acceleration is the best route most of the time, but would he be ok if we chose not to skip? Of course, any and all advise is totally appreciated. Thanks.
