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Posted By: scmom123 Grade Acceleration and siblings - 08/26/15 04:27 PM
First time poster and I would love some advice regarding grade acceleration for my DS who is only 1 year younger than my DD. DD is HG and DS is PG. DS is about to enter 2nd grade and I know that he should be at least going into 3rd otherwise he will be bored and will continue to say "why do i have to go to school? it's boring". My DD is going into the 3rd grade. She loves school, so she can be content with outside enrichment programs such as CTY.

Question: Has anyone experienced a grade skip where siblings are consequently in the same grade? How did it affect the sibling that did not skip?

Thanks in advance for any insights.
Posted By: aeh Re: Grade Acceleration and siblings - 08/27/15 12:08 AM
This situation came up recently in this thread:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....ration_DD_1_yr_younger_t.html#Post204388
Posted By: greenlotus Re: Grade Acceleration and siblings - 08/27/15 01:10 PM
Originally Posted by scmom123
First time poster and I would love some advice regarding grade acceleration for my DS who is only 1 year younger than my DD. DD is HG and DS is PG. DS is about to enter 2nd grade and I know that he should be at least going into 3rd otherwise he will be bored and will continue to say "why do i have to go to school? it's boring". My DD is going into the 3rd grade. She loves school, so she can be content with outside enrichment programs such as CTY.

Question: Has anyone experienced a grade skip where siblings are consequently in the same grade? How did it affect the sibling that did not skip?

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Hello scmom,
I was asking the same question this past Spring. One unhappy HG and one content MG daughter, one year apart.I think if you read all my posts and the answers (see link provided by aeh) you will see what we went through. I will list some other thoughts/facts, and you feel free to fire away with more questions:

-While the Iowa Acceleration Scale says never never accelerate a child into older sibling's grade that just isn't fair to the younger sibling (according to our family and our school).
-Separate separate separate!! DD10 didn't move into 5th until midyear, and she was placed in a different class than DD11. This year they are on different teams in middle school so except for one class they don't see each other.The counselor responsible for team placement puts all the twins in the same team so parents don't have to keep up with 2 different team systems and homework, but our girls are NOT twins and, if they had stayed in different grades, would have had different homework, field trips, etc, anyway (I'm still feeling like a bad parent because the counselor kept pushing the same team concept - she made me feel like I was making the wrong decision although the AG teacher thought it was a good idea to separate them).
-Friendship-they have a few of the same friends and some different. They have very distinct personalities and so usually don't attract the same kind of kids. BUT! DD11 is very social, and DD10 knows it. That makes this all tricky. DD10 is the "quirky" smart kid who struggles to fit in. She sadly told me the other day that except for one girl, she never had friends her own age; she seemed to do better with older kids. I agree - it was hard to watch her with her age-mates sometimes. They thought she was weird.
-Affecting older sister? She was very upset initially. Kids asked her why younger sister was moving into the next grade. Older sister thought that meant she was "dumb". Lots of tears. I haven't heard that in awhile. They have moved onto to new and exciting things to fight about!! crazy
Long enough post. Again, post away with questions if need be!!
Posted By: scmom123 Re: Grade Acceleration and siblings - 08/27/15 01:56 PM
Thanks aeh for the info and greenlotus for sharing your experiences. You bring up a lot of good points from an emotional/social standpoint that I hadn't thought about, especially your DD11 feeling "dumb" when DD10 skipped. That is the last thing that I would want my DD8 to go through. From a social standpoint, since one is boy and one is girl, they would have the friends issue. However, my DS7 is already on the small side and already the smallest and youngest kid in his current class (you can't fight genetics) and my husband is afraid that if he skips, because of his size, later on down the road, like teenage years, it may affect him (like dating, etc.).
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