Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Going back a grade mid-year

My daughter is slated for first grade next year, but if she doesn't do well enough they will move her back to K -- which is the 'right' grade for her age. On the chance that she does get moved back mid-semester....
has anyone done that in the middle of the year? Around here I bet I won't get many answers - but if you have had that experience please let me know how it went for the child.

I am still strongly in favor of at least trying the first grade as things stand right now.

We were offered that option as well when my DD was accelerated into first grade. It was more of a safety net for the student/family. When I asked how many grade skips did not work out, the school gifted coordinator indicated that she did not know of any.

My DD was grade skipped after the first week in school, so she had already made K friends. However, when she was skipped to 1st Grade the next week, she made new friends very quickly and loved the change. DD just finished 3rd Grade, and I finally asked her if she had any regrets on the grade skip. There were no regrets at all. She was happy she did it.

Most schools do not offer the grade skip if they do not believe the child is ready. DD had to take four exams (six hours of testing in a single day) at 5 years old in order to skip. They required a 90% pass rate in all subjects (reading, math, science, and social studies). If your school is allowing the grade skip, then your DD should do just fine in the higher grade.

Good luck!

Well tex, that's pretty much not what I needed to hear, but thanks.
they are 'allowing' it because their policy allows it, but they are not in support of it, so they have pointed out how my dd's drawing is not the same as other 1st graders, and her reading is behind other starting first graders.
She has show some eagerness for reading and ok progress but we only found out lately she needs glasses, and I think she was getting really discouraged there for a while.

She has some pretty high wppsi scores, so I am still leaning towards going ahead, but it would just be soooo much better if they gave her a few months to get into the swing and to come back from a pretty discouraging reading experience. But she has the tail end of summer and the first 6 weeks of school only, so I am worried. I am concerned that especially with math, if I keep her in k this year she will be majorly bored in another year, for the next 5 years. Last night she wanted me to show her some algebra since I was looking at a few things with ds11; she did ok with figuring out how many bottles in 1 box of drinks if 2 boxes of drinks have 10 bottles; how many in 3 boxes, etc.
But then again, she'll probably be bored with l.a. too; today we were looking at a muzzy language game and accidentally went into colors in italian; we haven't looked at this in ages, plus she's never heard italian before, and she just started figuring out the colors from what they were saying, even rosa=pink. Sigh.

So my quandary, give up now, or wait to see how it goes.
I will at least give myself a couple more weeks to consider all this.

Chris- I'm going to say hard stuff- make sure you've had coffee. :-)

I would not ever want a child to be put in a spot where the mid-year drop back was an actual possibility. I think it often makes the school feel more comfortable to say it's a "trial" period. IMHO, that option is there as a "do not sue us" coverage, but shouldn't be there with any time the parent isn't too confident of the skip. I believe it would feel like the child had failed to meet everyone's expectations and that she wasn't "as smart" as you thought she was.

My son skipped mid year and still, two years later, his biggest fear is that he is an imposter and someone will find out. He was strongly prepared, skipped up at the top of the next grade and made friends easily. But if he got in the slightest bit of trouble last year, missed a math problem, didn't write his "best" on a paper, his first reaction was always "please, please don't make me go back, I'm sorry!"

If you think she's ready to do 1st, I see no reason not to try! I would say however, that it might be better to have her redo 1st again next year, rather than return to K, if you find out it's not working. Or consider doing 1st again somewhere else if she needs to catch up. But a mid-year downgrade to K seems harsh and punishing, particularly for girls. I don't know why but 1st grade girls have a twinge of middle-school girl in them. While I haven't done it myself, I imagine the playground teasing would be relentless.

On a related note, my son went from barely reading BOB books to reading 3rd grade chapter books within 4 weeks of getting his glasses :-)

Chris,

What does her reading look like? If I only had my oldest, I'd say that reading jumps quickly in gifted kids, but I've seen it go both ways. Dd12 went from Henry & Mudge to Harry Potter in a matter of weeks, but things were more in jumps and periods of stagnation for dd10.

Are they exaggerating about her reading in comparision to other incoming 1st graders b/c they aren't in support or do you really feel like she isn't reading at a 1st grade level? I would probably only agree to move a child ahead a full grade if she'd be above average in all areas. It is a much harder fit when the child is hugely advanced in some areas and more average in others. I'd be more inclined to push for subject acceleration of maybe multiple years if reading was not advanced and math was very advanced. Is that a possibility?

Thanks everyone, to be honest I guess I am hoping that some jump in the reading will point the way, and if there is not one... we may play it the "safe" route and redo K. Only way to give the skip the try again is with approx 2 years of waiting around (apply for gifted program, several months, see if that helps, when it doesn't figure out other strategies, possibly apply for skip then, several months go by...). Socially, etc., kindergarten last year was just a dream come true 96% of the time.

hmmmmm......

If K was socially a dream, then it would seem to make sense to keep her with those kids (first graders) this year and not move her to a class with kids a year younger than those she got along so well with.

I would expect that being able to see clearly will make it much easier for her to learn to read.

I would keep her with the kids and have her do 1st. You can always afterschool a little to catch her up if necessary. The disparity entering 1st of reading skills is so huge, at least where I live. You have some kids who know their letters, others reading Hop on Pop and others reading Henry and Mudge. You might find one or two (my Ds's class had 3) that are reading chapter books.

What kind of reading system is her school using? Are you sure you have an accurate measure of her reading? We've been prone to a bit of denial around here! Maybe look at an at home reading assessment like Let's Go Learn and see if you feel like it gives you more of a picture.

Is she adventurous or sentimental?

Have you used the IAS to help you decide? That was a very useful tool for us when DC skipped.