Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Skipping grade and collage admission

Worse yet, keeping a child at the wrong level of learning is even more harmful than worrying about college apps. The child may be so turned off to schooling by then you might have bigger issues to worry about if nothing is done in the 12 years prior to college.

My DS is 4 and has finished 2 years of pre-k, but now at the situation where the public school will not allow him to test into kindergarten because he misses the cut-off date. He has already excelled in the pre-k. And now at the situation where he has to go to pre-k again because of the cut-off date and the school will not make "exceptions". He has already done all the kindergarten curriculum, I had looked into all the private schools around our area and none of them will test him because they all say they have to follow the Board of Education rules about cut-off date. The school he's been at offers and is willing to put him into Kindergarten, but my husband and I feel that they only want the tuition and as long as they get the money. Besides this school no one else is willing to test him. And now I'm stuck where he's asking why he has to repeat pre-k and not advance into kindergarten like his friends. And I know he was bored at the pre-k and he will be more bored when he repeats. Is it easier to have him skip a grade when he goes into first grade? Now with the budget issue is New Jersey I don't know if that would even be my option in the future. He is physically, mentally and intellectually ready, but public school only looks at the birth certificate to determine the readiness.

Hi TBMom, welcome!
My DD#1 went through this too, her private pre-school agreed to test her and determined that she could just skip kindergarten and go straight into first grade...some loophole, apparently in Texas, you couldn't start Kindergarten early but you could skip it completely(!) With the test results, we were able to get DD#1 tested for the public gifted magnet school that started with first grade. She went from being a bored bully in her 2nd year of preK to a perfectly happy 5 year old first grader. She ended up skipping 10th grade and graduated from 11th grade with a full academic scholarship.

DD#2 tested higher than her big sis in every school achievement and aptitude test, but she was not as social and was physically very small so we decided not to accelerate her, despite the fact that she wasn't learning anything new in school...she didn't complain, just sort of drifted off and eventually checked out. We are dealing with the consequences now and I keep wondering how things might have been if we had gone ahead and skipped her too. She has recently been diagnosed as ADHD inattentive, I wonder if we would have discovered that much sooner if she had been placed in a grade that actually challenged her so she couldn't skate by for so many years based on already knowing all of the material presented in class.

I guess my new perspective is "if in doubt, skip" its much easier to take a year off down the road than to make amends for extinguishing the spark or letting your child slide into lala land.

TBMom:
From my experience, grade skip has more to do with the school than the state. Also budget wise it would be easier to let the kid skip a grade than provide him enrichment. This year I know few kindergartners who were accelerated in math to 1st grade. So I am assuming they are looking into it.

Did you try getting him interested in music or art? That will help him relive some of his boredom.

Shitu,

If you want to send me a PM I would be happy to connect and discuss options, and if you are looking for testing, give you some ideas.

Cat

HI! Do you have any Montessori Schools around you? They group them 3 grades at a time. So, you could sign her up in "pre-school" but she would be in the same class as the kinders and most likey able to do work with them, or above them, as the Montessori Philosophy is to "follow the child." The generally choose their work even if it is advanced work. This worked very nicely for our daughters who are now in public (age 5 and age 9) and trasitioned very well.

The next year, if the school thought she was ready (which they should) she would go to the 1-3 classroom, and would be exposed to 3 graders. Ths works well, until the child IS in third and is the oldest in the class. That is when we pulled my DD. She did 3rd grade in public.

Just a thought. They also learn a lot of science and history and geography..which is a very nice way to "round out" their education. There was a strong focus on social skills in our Montessori School and "self-help" and each child was tought to focus...to their ability. This focus time became longer and longer as the child was ready. Rather than moving them along from one subject to the next because the bell rang!