Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Benefits to completing 8th grade at school?

My 11 year old son is currently in 8th grade at a private school. They have been very accommodating about acceleration (two whole grades skipped and additional acceleration in math). Even with all of the acceleration, it is still not enough (it seems as though acceleration increases demands on executive functioning without a concomitant increase in cognitive demand). He is frustrated and unhappy. Socially, things are mediocre. Prior to attending this school, we homeschooled. He is asking to be homeschooled again and wants to leave at the end of the semester in January. I would love to homeschool him again, so there is no issue there.

Is there a compelling reason to keep him there until the end of the year? Are there benefits to completing 8th grade at a brick and mortar school? Regardless of when we start homeschooling (in January or next fall), he will be doing high school level work, if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

I would go with this. That you'd be tackling high school work is a bonus.

What does the extra semester cost (or is the full year paid up already)?

One question would be if you wanted to attend a brick and mortar high school later would you need the verification of completion of 8th grade due his skips? If so could you arrange a partial homeschool schedule with the school so he would get the certificate at the end of the year?

We already paid in full, but since I don't feel as though we're actually getting anything out of the deal, we're wasting money either way. Now I'm just trying to figure out if continuing is as much of a waste of time as it appears to be.

The thing about having completed 8th grade at a b&m school is the only compelling reason I can find to stay. Does anyone know if this is as important as it seems on the surface? If it makes a difference, he is adamant that he doesn't want to graduate early.

If he's adamant that he doesn't want to graduate early (does he mean "early" or "earlier" by the way?) then homeschooling may be literally your only option.

Putting the brakes on additional acceleration within a B&M environment, as you've discovered, may be quite difficult if that's about all they have left to offer in the way of differentiated content/instruction.

We have noted the same phenomenon, btw; DD14 was more than ready for college-level work at 10-12yo, but not for "college" at that age.

He doesn't want to graduate either early or earlier. If he were to stay at this school, my plan was to homeschool him for three subjects for the next two years (the school would give him high school credit for all courses taken including the homeschooled ones even though he would be registered as a middle schooler). It's complicated, but the upshot is that it would enable him to graduate with his age peers while still moving forward academically (at least in theory).

That the school is supportive of his two skips and the homeschooling/independent study piece is remarkable. I realize that it is highly unusual to find such flexibility.

I guess then the only question in my mind would be "what comes after that?" if he's allowed to move forward at his ideal pace.

I understand the desire to not have him enter college early, but just how far ahead do you project this putting him relative to agemates? In terms of the content/level of his mastery, I mean.


Because if it's too far, then college becomes problematic as he'll need to sit through course requirements that he has CLEAR mastery of, but can't "officially" produce documentation for, if you see what I mean. Sure, there is credit-by-exam, but it can still make things weird and discontinuous then.

For now, I can definitely see that being allowed to stay in sync with agemates would be good-- I just wonder if it doesn't trade that for longer term asynchrony in college.

I guess it depends on his interests/ability profile, and on whether you are expanding things vertically or horizontally in homeschooling topics.

I think we can go sideways with high school material for a while. He could do dual enrollment at the local community college starting when he is 15. My older son is doing that right now and it's been a good experience. This particular CC has a strong math/science/engineering focus, so those courses are pretty good.

I think with a mix of homeschooling and dual enrollment, we could make it work.