Hi helpful group,
DS5, currently in K, has now completed quite comprehensive evaluations through his school and has been identified as "gifted and in need of specially designed instruction." We live in Pennsylvania, where gifted IEPs (GIEPs) are required by law. We're thrilled with the school's response to our son's needs so far - everyone seems excited to work with him and in agreement that he needs serious modifications to the regular curriculum. However, it's a small school and this is the first GIEP they've ever done for a kindergarten student. As parents it is our first experience as well.

Our son is particularly strong in math (>99.9th percentile), but has 99th+ academic skills across the board. His only current accommodation is a one grade acceleration to 1st in math, but he has already passed the end of first grade math test with a 95%. He is intimidated by the idea of being with kids 2 or more years older than he is (and he's physically quite a little guy for his age), so we haven't yet tried to move him up more. We will be doing the IAS to help us consider a full grade skip for next year.

One thing that has been suggested is giving him end-of-unit math tests at the beginning of each new unit and allowing him to test out of units where he already knows the material. This seems reasonable, but I don't have much idea of what he would then do during math time? Does anyone have suggestions there? I don't think the classroom teacher has time to design something specially for him.

What else could/should we suggest or request at the GIEP meeting? The resources available include a gifted support teacher who can pull him out a couple of hours a week, but there is no congregated gifted classroom/program available. Since he will be in the regular classroom for the vast majority of his day, it would be especially helpful to be able to give some suggestions to his regular classroom teacher.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions from those of you who have experience with this.

When we used the test out/compacting approach for math, the teacher used the school's curriculum for higher grades, using mostly independent work packets, with periodic checkins by the teacher. No need for designing individual curriculum. So our DC would essentially take a unit test every day until reaching one that was below the agreed on cut score (80% is a common one), at which point the teacher would hand DC a packet with that unit's work, give a brief run-down of the skills involved, and leave DC to work on it during the same math period as the rest of the class, checking in occasionally when other students were doing independent or partner work. In our case, this was successful enough that the teacher started doing it with other students who were scoring consistently in the upper 90s on unit tests. Slightly older primary grade class, though. For littles, I'd prefer some direct instruction, but if he's that far ahead, he may be able to get by with independent work for the time being--depending of course, on his executive functions.

Many math textbooks have computer components for little kids...usually flash demonstrations, some video. My son had his independent work and could hop on the computer, punch in the chapter and do some of those activities if he needed to get some help before the teacher could get to him...he was seven when he did this.

Thanks, aeh and Cookie. It definitely helps to hear what this might look like in practice. At home he will sometimes get on IXL and just go with it for a while on his own, including with topics he's had little to no instruction in, so he *might* be able to handle this independent approach in school. I'm just not sure he'd stay on task with all the distractions around him. Still, I really like this idea of curriculum compacting because it would address pace of acquisition as well as present level. A one-grade acceleration helps a bit, but I've volunteered in the classroom and the pace...it just kills me, ha ha. At least at this very early level of math, kiddo does not need repetition to grasp concepts like rounding, odd/even, etc. And there is SO MUCH repetition!

Are there any specific modifications we should ask for in other strength areas, like reading and writing?