Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Advice on grade skip

Hi everyone,

My husband and I have two kids who attend a bilingual school. Our eldest son (age 7, grade 2) is quite fluent at this point and has been feeling underchallenged in both languages this year. He could read English before he started pre-school and is advanced in maths as well. Our younger son is in the kindergarten, which is 80% French and has a big focus on motor skill development. Right now it's a good fit for him, and he reads at home with me.

We'd tried to work out an arrangement for some type of differention for the 7 year old child and hadn't gotten anywhere, bar a grade 3 phonics book in place of the second grade one. This book isn't a challenge for him. We gave up and then my husband discovered a near-ish school that does placement tests and lets kids work at whatever level they're ready for. I visited the school and it seems like a cool place. It goes to grade 6. Then we found a similar school that goes from grade 6 to grade 12, which is also nearby. We applied for next year.

So out the blue today, we got an e-mail from the current school offering to let our older child skip grade 3 next year, and now we have to make a decision.

The new school is private but is half the cost of the other one, BUT it's English only and our younger son probably needs at least two years in the bilingual school to really pick up the language. He's only had one. The schools are in opposite directions and so having one in one school and one in the other would be a big pain.

I was hoping some of you might be willing to share your experiences with grade skipping. I've read a lot of the posts here and people have made some good points. I have some specific points I was hoping people might have insight on:

* What was the most challenging aspect of a grade skip?

* Was one grade skip enough for your kids? Our eldest is already working on grade 5 maths at home and his I think his reading is at least at a grade 4 level. The new school will let him do 6th (or 7th) grade math in 3rd grade.

* What about the socialization thing? I honestly don't think a one-year skip is a big deal, but I'd like to hear from others who have been there themselves or whose kids are there.

The bilingual thing is such a complication!

Any advice and/or insight would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Val

P.S. After reading a lot of the posts here, I'm very well aware that this is a good problem to have! :>)

For me the most challenging aspect of the grade skip involved being really really sure that my kid wouldn't 'run out of smarts' down the road when school finally gets harder - so the above level testing, the individual IQ test, amd the Iowa Acceleration Scale Manual were a great comfort.

Starting a new school is a social challenge in general, and I've heard of things going both ways socially with gradeskips. Does your son have any dear friends at his old school? Are they also local or part of other social networks?

If the LOG is high enough, and there aren't 2E type problems, then one grade skip may not be enough. Go sit in your 4th grade classroom in your current school and check out the teacher, the flow of the day, how much abstract thought is involved, how the kids interact. It sounds like you can take the gradeskip at the current school for at least one more year, and switch to the new school (with perhaps another skip) the year after.

I would reccomend continuing to participate in the process of applying to the new school just to see where they would place him... I've learned as much from watching various school interpret my kid as from the IQ scores.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Grinity,

Do you have any concerns about missing a subject when grade skipping? For example, state history is covered in most schools in 4th grade. Maybe it's not all that important to learn state history, but maybe a key point in grammar, math, etc., might be skipped. Do you just address the missed information as it comes up, or do you review what a child might miss and give a quick lesson on it afterschool or during summer?

I have a thought on this. Our daughter skipped third grade and is in fourth now. She is highly verbal and we were worried about some gaps in other areas. The only gaps we have found are some math facts and rules, which she is still picking up quickly. Her writing and reading is a non-factor. We were very worried about social issues and leaving her close third grade friends, but she has worked it out and it was a good move for us. She has to work a little bit now, but it still comes easily. Leaving her in third grade would have been a waste of a year. She has really enjoyed fourth grade.

We also looked in a private school for third grade. After testing her, they old us that she would probably do better with a grade skip at the public school and if we wanted to go private, reapply next year as a fifth grader. That turned out to be good advice.

Funny you should ask. Much is made of how great it is for the high LOG kids to have Gaps becaue so much of school is repetitious. I have a first hand experience that says sometimes too much is too much without adult support.

When DS11 was 10, we had a midyear skip from 5th to 6th, and was given the opportunity join an honors group of 7th graders in Math "Pre-Algebra." Math isn't his strongest area, but it certianly isn't an area of weakness. He was not able to do it 'all by himself, and eneded up back in 6th grade for Math, after a 3 month trial.

Let's do the Math. He completed 4th grade as a 9 year old, (summer birthday in a heavy red-shirted area) then had a month is 5th grade as a 10 year old. Followed by a skip into a class that is supposed to be the equavalent of 8th grade. 3 years with no prep. Ok, we didn't know what the limits were, and we found out. If he had loved the chicken dance, or been about to make up the classes he missed easily, I would have gone back with Aleks.com and filled in the missing pieces, but those are big IFs. This year he is doing well and getting "A" in the same Math class, and finding it only a slight challenge. So yes, in the future I would take my jumps in slower stages, more like Dottie. And I would hothouse a bit at home, maybe.

I will say, (in retrospect) that althought the Math was too far of a reach for him last year with all the stresses of being a new Middle Schooler, if he had stayed in 5th and only gotten the subject acceleration to Math, I think he would have deeply enjoyed the hard work. So either path would have worked for him, I think. This stuff is hard, but I am here to say that it's better to try and need to adjust than to do nothing.

Smiles,
Grinity

* What was the most challenging aspect of a grade skip? For us the most challenging aspect was getting the skip in the first place. We petitioned until we were blue in the face with our public district to no avail. We were forced to go private, but it was well worth it as I can not imagine either kid in lower grade at this point.
* Was one grade skip enough for your kids? Our eldest is already working on grade 5 maths at home and his I think his reading is at least at a grade 4 level. The new school will let him do 6th (or 7th) grade math in 3rd grade. One grade skip to a private school with a rigorous curriculum and into a class of very bright kids was perfect for our daughter. Early entrance for our YS son has not been enough. We wish we had been offered an additional skip while he was still in the lower grades.
* What about the socialization thing? I honestly don't think a one-year skip is a big deal, but I'd like to hear from others who have been there themselves or whose kids are there.
Our daughter skipped into a situation where she performs above average overall and is included with the more advanced group for math and science, yet is not beyond her peer group. Her socialization has been effortless and successful.
Our son is still well beyond the group in at least math and science and so stands out from the group. It wouldn�t be any better, and would possibly be worse, if he were in 5th grade rather than sixth grade though. He does take pre-algebra with half the 8th grade class where he gets As with very little effort. I think because he is so much younger (3 years) the eight grade students don't feel as threatened by him as some of the students who are closer in age do.

Great advice ladies.

My oldest found the hardest thing about skipping one grade was being smaller than his peers during adolescence (they all suddenly grew a foot taller and hairier). Skip early and try to avoid the "bridge" years between elementary and Middle school or middle and high school.

My second son who also skipped once finds it hardest to be the youngest in his class and still the smartest. I wish I could convince his to skip again, but he's determined to "not be a freak".

My 3rd son only stipulates that he doesn't want to skip to be in his older brother's class (or above).

Gaps can be filled. Do you really think the kids going through the class will retain it all anyway? Besides, I've found that the first 9 wks of school is basically review of previous material to "refresh" their memories after summer, especially in math. High IQ kids should be better at retaining and faster at grasping. Ideally, compacted curriculum would be preferable, but since that's usually not possible, the skip(s) is a good compromise.

OK, here's another question about skips (Val, I hope I'm not hijacking your thread).

When you have a gifted child who learns about twice as fast as a 'normal' child and you get one or two skips in elementary, isn't the child still learning faster than the other children in his new classroom? Are there more opportunities for accelerated education at higher grades but you're limited to skips at lower grades to keep a child learning?

Well 'duh' on me, haha! That would be a good reason NOT to do a mid-year skip.

I agree that the gap thing is over rated. Our school had been telling us since kindergarten that she was in the right place, despite our shock at how far ahead of the other kids she was. In retrospect, we should have skipped 1st grade, but we were new to all of this stuff and believed the school when they said everyone else would catch up. Obviously, we know better now. A difficult part of our decision was the fact that our school has never accelerated any students, we were the first and I am not sure anyone has asked before, it is considered an excellent district with a lot of red shirt kids. Our daughter is tall and on the older side and very mature, so it has been easier to explain to curious parents that think we are nuts.

As I stated, we were late in recognizing our daughters giftedness, even though she has been raising eyebrows with some of her skills since she was 3, but we have figured it out. We are in a very competitive school district and the parents drive their kids very hard, so other parents feel we are hot housing her, even though the opposite is true.

I have been lurking on this board for some time and have learned a lot. Each kid is individual and there is no one solution for everyone. One thing we definitely realize after all we have gone through in the last year is this: No one knows your kid like you do, so go with your gut. We have been right the entire time and I am glad we stepped up to the plate.