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Hi, just wanted to introduce myself. I've been reading the Davidson Forum for a few months now after my son's violin teacher told me about it. Thanks all for the wonderful advice!

My DS is almost 7 years old. He was tested at the end of the previous year (in K) using RIAS, and scored at the 99.97% percentile. He was bored the entire year of Kindergarten, and asked to be homeschooled again (which I'd done for preschool & partial for PreK), so I asked for -- and got -- a skip for the current year to 2nd grade.

Alas... he's not being challenged and he's unhappy about it. After he broke down in tears on two separate occasions recently, I approached his teachers (homeroom/gifted reading & math) and they vetoed the idea of giving him more challenging work. Rather than pursue up the chain, DS is with grandma this week to see if homeschooling will work the rest of the year. I'm a first year middle school teacher, so I can't be home with him right now, but am sending him with his schedule, plenty of work to do, plus one of his instruments.

I would love some advice, so I'll be back to post again!

Thanks,
Thestr0ng1

Just wanted to say "welcome"! Thank goodness for grandma:) I hope it all works.

Yes - Grandma sounds wonderful - how lucky for you to have her Homeschooling could be the best option.

Thanks Petunia and CCN. Today was day three, and so far so good. I know my mom's concerned about not being able to "teach" him (which I've assured her she doesn't need to do, but I think she feels like she's supposed to be doing something to that end). My son seems to be taking it well, though I know he misses certain aspects of school -- none of which have to do with learning (like PE, Lol).

Having to make this decision has been really stressful. For one, I really did hope that the grade skip would help. We were both so excited when we found out he wouldn't have to start first grade -- that would have been an out and out disaster -- but after patiently waiting through the first several weeks of review material, he started to get unfocused and even I started to become impatient for the "new" stuff to kick in.

He does really well when challenged, but with easy stuff, or overly repetitive work, his mind goes wandering. Case in point, he bombed a couple AR tests on 3rd grade books, but got a 90% on a 7.7 grade level book. Go figure? I am working with him on eliminating careless errors (especially when he assumes that because something looks easy he doesn't need to give it his complete attention), but I remind myself he is only 6 years old. Sigh.

I just want him to be happy. I want him to be challenged and to remain excited about learning. He is so hungry for knowledge, I don't want to see that fire go out.

Well, I guess I've rambled enough for one evening. Thanks for listening, and for the welcome.

- Thestr0ng1