We had a meeting today to discuss what to do with DS8 for the rest of the year, specifically in math, but most of the meeting actually ended up leaning toward what to do with him next year. He will be in 4th grade next year, and since he's burned out on ALEKS for now at 80% of the 7th grade level, we're going to try him out in the 6th grade (middle school) math classroom and see what happens. I think we will end up going to the 7th grade math class instead, but since there is a radical difference between what he's been doing (coasting, mostly) and what middle school math class requires, we're going to see how it works out with a class where he already knows most or all of the math but hasn't been exposed to the process of learning it the way the other kids do, and where he can learn how to handle a middle school class in an environment where he doesn't also have to put too much actual effort into learning the material at the same time.
What is really excellent is that the principal brought in a paper that she found on acceleration, one which is quite favorable and brings together a lot of previous research into one place, and she's quite happy with the idea now! You can find a link to that paper
Here in case anyone needs it for a battle.
I don't think we'll be doing a full grade skip until after 5th grade, because if he doesn't skip next year I don't want him to skip 5th grade -- there's a fabulous teacher waiting there for him, and I would rather he skip the first year of middle school than skip into the first year of middle school anyway. But we shall see.
They're also getting a program called "Reading Detectives" for him and the general GT collection, to help with the disconnect that he has in shifting perspectives and abstract thinking and stuff (ASD related).
All in all, yay!
