I have just recently found the forum and am so thankful I did. I have a gifted son age 12 in 6th grade who was tested gifted in Kindergarten. We looked into grade acceleration but were really discouraged from it because of social issues, etc. Needless to say even though they had a special full day gifted class I believe his learning was limited by the limited exposure he had to new materials. As I privately refer to it, he was dummied down while waiting for the rest of the kids to catch up. His main gifts were mathematics. Fast forward I now have a daughter who is 6 and in first grade and was just tested for gifted. Her scores are General Conceptual Ability 150. Verbal 140, Non Verbal Reasoning 142 and Spatial 157. Her gift is really language arts. I talked with the school extensively and they finally agreed to have her spend a 2 1/2 hour block in 2nd grade for language arts/reading. She is in the top group in 2nd grade and all is well socially.

I am considering pushing for whole grade acceleration and have her move into 3rd grade next year. I know it will be a battle with the school, but feel that if she continues in her current grade level she will eventually "dummy down" waiting for other kids to catch up.

Having her always be pulled out for a subject acceleration seems like it would set her apart from the other kids in both classes and cause more socially issues than just skipping ahead a grade. Plus what happens in the last year of elementary school when there is no grade to be pulled out to accelerate with? Her other subjects are ahead as well and her teacher currently has her working out of the 2nd grade math book too, but in the 1st grade room. Her language arts skill level though is at least 2 years ahead while other subjects are closer to 1 year ahead. I don't work with her at home on any of the subjects as she is already so far ahead of her peers. What are reasons to stick with subject acceleration versus grade acceleration?
What is this Iowa Acceleration Skill thing I hear about? Is that something I can administer at home or is it done somewhere? Are there other methods for evaluating whole grade acceleration? Does anyone have any tips on going to the school to ask for it? According to our school district, the principal makes the decision whether or not kids are accelerated. I'm sure they gather information from some sources, but don't know what those sources are. Thanks for any input.

Hi Dorthys, I am in the same boat w/a DS6 who did skip Kindergarten and we are having social issues. I guess skipping really depends on the child. Overall, I think girls are more mature and more able to handle skipping than boys are. But of course just my opinion, many will disagree. I dk really what to do next. I can't believe I am even considering homeschooling. I think NYC is not really in favor of grade skipping you prob have better luck in Iowa.

Welcome Dorthy S -

The Iowa Acceleration Scale is an instrument to gather various data and help with decision making when considering a grade skip for children in grades K-8th. There is a delightful book about it called the Iowa Acceleration Scale Manual, which is worth owning.

You daughter, however, is already proving herself more than any predictive instrument could do. You thinking about the drawbacks to subject acceleration are right on, so yes, I would encourage you to seek the gradeskip. She may also need additional subject accelerations on top of the full skip, or future skips with scores like she has. Take the first step and then monitor and take the second step...

BTW - don't give up on getting your son into a 'better fit' academic environment, even if it's only during the summer, doing a talent search summer camp, or at a saturday gifted class. Or maybe they would let him get that 'one day' program with older kids? Post more about him and his interests and we'll help you think about him. And, I do hear you kicking yourself over not asking for more when he was little. It's ok to have regret, but in the long run, you have to play the hand your were dealt, and remember that we weren't for you here 6 years ago. I'm so glad that we are NOW!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Tracey - please don't be so quick to blame your DS for the current social issues. He may be behaving perfectly fine and friendly in the middle of a competitive bunch of nasty kids. Or there may be just one nasty kid who is leading the pack. Of course once a child is gradeskipped there is a tendency to blame every bad thing that ever happens on the gradeskip, that's one of the worst parts, but you have 4 months to practice flexiblity, so make good use of that time and explore. The answers will come in time...

Love and More Love -
Grinity

So does this book actually have some type of assessment you have the child complete, or do you complete something, or is it just more general information to help you make a decision?

Try these links:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/iowa_accel_scale.htm

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10053.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0910707553...41&creative=373501&link_code=as3

http://www.amazon.com/Iowa-Accelera...IKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1X6EW4PENHKBBPWTSY7J

I think of this book as a way to organize the information you already have, and of giving you greater insight into the information you already have. I also like that it's research based, not someone's idea of what works.

What happened at our house was that when DS was in 4th grade I read the book, finally understood 'above level tests' filled out the form, decided I was in favor of a gradeskip in our particular situation, gave the book to our principal while negotiating for a subject acceleration in Math. The principal and the assistient superintendent hadn't ever seen the book before, and stayed up all night calculating their score, which was similar to what I estimated. Then we all had a meeting and they told us 'No Way.' But we did get once weekly invitation to the 5th grade Math Club, and 5th grade music lessons. Which really helped a lot, amazingly.

The next year we switched school to the local private school. I had given up on the gradeskip idea (messy handwriting, very immature appearing - emotional kid, not compliant) but within one month he was reading books during class discussions again, so I asked for a skip, and within a week, he was a 6th grader. They didn't use the Iowa Acceleration Scale, just gave him the algebra readiness test that they use on end of 6th grade, and were guided by the school psychologist who had a similar son.

Advocacy is tough work, and one can do everything right and still get slammed. ((shrug))

Hi Grinity,
I think I just read this now.
My DS is very emotional and could be exaggerating.
I went for his bday and kids were crowded around him etc.
Of course it was his bday.
I spoke to the teacher she said it is true he doesn't have one friend he hangs out with so maybe that is what he means when he says he has no friends maybe "no best friend".
She tells me he talks to everyone etc.
So I dk.

Hi Traceyqns-
There is another way of looking at this:
Combo of OverExcitabilities and
Outward Directed Perfectionism.

The OE's mean that every happy and sad moment are intensely happy AND intensely sad. He's not really being very emotional compared to other people who are like him.
And the ODP means that the has a picture in his head of what would be under ideal circumstances that 'haunts him.'

These are daily occurances for all the members of my family. I gave DS12 the quiz in the book 'The Optimistic Child' and he scored 'off the charts' for both Optimism and Pessimism. Just a different normal, I think.

Love and more Love,
Grinity

Hi Grinty,
Boy you are very knowledgable, are you a therapist?
I think you really nailed it, both OE and ODP really describe my DS6. A small disappointment and he will say it is the worst day of his life etc. and then something good he will be over the moon w/excitement (I always just say he is very emotional). And for ODP geez I could give a million examples.
Playing any game and say a pice maybe broken or a piece of lego is missing , well he will flip saying "it is ruined, it is not the way it is supposed to be, fix it, I can't play w/it etc" Disaster, game ruined day ruined etc. Or say his grandmother usually comes on Fridays if she doesn't make it one day well then Friday is completely ruined, he flips out.

Kind of like having the base and treble maxed out?

Just a sad note, my DS6 just said this morn
"He is the smallest in the class"
He means the youngest.
I hate when he says this stuff makes me sad he skipped.
UGH, so hard to know what is the right thing to do.

I will plug in with my stories:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/5667/1.html (my story is on page 3)

And also this thread
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/3251/1.html

It has been over a year since I posted those - so they probably do need some updating. Feel free to ask questions if you are brave to browse through the above

I recall when I was moved from 1st to 4-7 grade class in Montessori.

I was forced to walk from the back of the class to the front and then introduce myself. Everyone was seated and PEERING DOWN on me like vultures.

I was terrified.

Big desks. Big kids. Little me.

I adjusted.

Well, is HE sad?

Don't assume that because he is comparing himself to others, he's sad about it. That sort of comparison is age-appropriate. They all do it, and usually it has less to do with being unhappy (or happy, for that matter) about their lot in life and more to do with just establishing the order of things. They talk about who is the oldest, youngest, tallest, shortest, fastest, smartest (and not in a bragging way), and who owns the most video games or Pokemon cards. And that's just what I've personally heard discussed...

If he IS sad, that's different. But if he stated this in a matter-of-fact way, it doesn't necessarily mean anything about the skip.

WOW what a moment and you still remember.
Must have been hard though to adjust.

Hi Kriston,
Yep he is sad or more mad maybe.
I believe he is associating Age with Importance.
As if it is a grade, if the highest grade is the "best" then so is the highest Age lower age lower importance.
I think this is what is going on.
How to explain age not relevant to importance?

Rather than explaining, have you asked him why this matters to him? Sometimes talking less and asking more helps. If they start trying to explain it, they see that it isn't what they think it is.

Or, if he doesn't talk himself out of it, at least you can get a better idea of what exactly is bugging him and how best to deal with the problem. I think we parents too often project our own interpretations of a situation on our kids, and their thought processes can be VERY different than ours.

(Not that you're doing this. Just that I think it is something to consider. I know I've been bitten by this a time or two...)

The more the child talks, the less likely we are to be wrong about things.

IMHO...

And mad may be a good thing. That means he's not willing to accept that he's less important or whatever because of his age. That's probably a good place to start!

Hi Kriston,
I def could be doing this.
You know we were in a store and I told him he could open a candy bar while we were on line. He didn't want to open it,was all freaked out. So I assumed he was thinking we would get in trouble for say looking like we were stealing it.
Anyway when we left I did ask him why he didn't want to open the candy bar. He said "because if we ripped the bar code they would not be able to scan it" So yes, a very different reason than I was thinking.

Great example! Exactly!

I very rarely answer a question my kids ask without asking one in return. (And for things that I think might be really serious, like a skip being a bad idea, I usually ask a lot more than one!)

I am going to try to talk to him more today about it and see what he has to say, could be interesting LOL

thanks for the compliment, but no, not a therapist. Perhaps an 'old soul?'

But really - although each kid is unique, what our kids go through is very predictable in certian ways. There really is such a thing as giftedness, and there really is a societal pressure that impinges on 'natural giftedness' in certian ways.

BTW = I do agree that the ideal situation would be a same age classroom with kids who are similar in 'readiness level' in each subject, and teachers who think that variety is the spice of life. It's just that most of the time, that ideal situation is too far away, or too expensive to consider, if it even exists.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

I told DS8 that once everyone sits down, it makes no difference.

I think that it's now accident that children are sorted into 'Grades' like 'eggs.' It's not our schools' fault that they mirror our larger society that sorts and labels everyone in it's path. You can try to explain this to mistaken perspective to DS and see if it sticks.

But my Main, main worry, Tracy-kins, is that someone in that particular classroom is telling him that he isn't 'good enough' to be with the other kids. Someone like a teacher or a bully.
Again - I urge you not to 'just wait this year out.' I'm getting a bad vibe from your discriptions of your son's school setting.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Hi Kriston,
Well I did ask last night about friends in the class.
He said "nobody is his friend" I said nobody?"
He said "almost nobody" I ask "what does he mean almost nobody" He said "5 kids like him and 21 are not his friend"
And then he said the 21 are not his friend because one day he picked his nose. Gross I know, he just turned 6 so most of the year he was 5 and most of the class are much older. Here is an example of a negative social aspect of being w/older kids. Other 5 yr olds wouldn't think much of this but older kids will be disgusted and not be friends etc. I said maybe they will forget my DS said "no they will not forget"

Ah. That is a problem.

I'm with Grinity. I really think this classroom situation is bad news. I wouldn't wait it out.

I'm new to this forum and have a couple of questions. I have a DD6 who is in the middle of going through the testing to get a complete body of evidence together so that she can be tagged gifted. However, we all know she is gifted, this just seems to be the technicalities the school needs to do. She is currently in kindergarten but spend time in 1st grade for reading and math. She reads/comprehends at a 3rd grade level and her math is end of 2nd grade. My DH and I are trying to figure out what the best move would be for her next. She broke down during dinner tonight with cries of "why am I so different from everyone in my class. I don't want to be different, I want to be like all of my classmates." It turns out she has noticed recently that she thinks differently and works differently than everyone else in both kinder and gr 1 and she doesn't like it. We live in a small rural town and we are lucky enough to have a charter school in town she goes to, but there is little or no money for much of a gt program and the school has little experience with gt kids this young. They keep telling me that "the other kids they've had have been accommodated by splitting grades like she is currently doing. But they've never had a student like her before." (If I hear that phrase again I may scream.)
So, My questions are, 1) how do we help her understand that she is different from her classmates, but it is not a bad thing? and 2) If skipping a grade is the thing to do should we have her moved now so she finishes the year off with 1st grade and then goes into 2nd grade with them next year, or should we wait until next school year to make the change?

Sorry this was a bit long but it tore my heart to have her crying about being different at such a young age.

Kerry,

Her classmates are several years older than she is. That is all.

Perhaps if you get Miraca Gross' book and read it then share it with her? Same for Deborah Ruf's book? IIRC there is also a book for GT kids to help them with the issues they have - maybe someone can share what it is. You could also get a biography of Marie Curie that is geared to her age to share??

I was in several rural school districts when I was younger and one did accelerate me. It was the smoothest one. I did reading and math pullouts 2 grades ahead and after the break I was in the 6th grade. I was still so far beyond my classmates that I still did self-study more than half the class time. Other accelerations were handled by asking me what I liked to study.

Kerry,

There is a book titled something like "Gifted Kids Survival Guide." My DS enjoyed reading that book. He nodded and had a smile the entire time b/c he so identified with what the kids were saying in that book. That's the part he like, hearing what the kids had to say about being gifted and different.

Is she prone to 'breaking down' in general, or is this unusual for her?

Is there a grade where she can stay with the same kids all day and be at a reasonable level of fit? Usually a combo of full skips and subject accels is what works best, but for now, she may be better off with a full skip to 2nd or 3rd so she have a group to at least try to 'fit in' with.

You can keep telling her that it's ok to be different, but also support that part of being human is wanting to be 'part' of a group. If she is old enough, apply to Davidson's Young Scholar's program, if she qualifies - so that a few times a year she can have the experience of fitting in. Also - look for Adults or older kids who are passionate about what she is passionate about - really - any group will do.


It's also ok to teacher her that there are a lot of sad things in the world that are beyond anyone's control that we just need to cry and rage over until we can pick ourselves up and 'play the hand we were dealt.' The old 'Courage to change the things we can....'

Also - you can let her post here about what is bothering her, in a new topic, and we'll get our kids on to answer her nicely.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

[quote=GrinityAlso - you can let her post here about what is bothering her, in a new topic, and we'll get our kids on to answer her nicely.[/quote]

Oh, Grinity, that's a GREAT idea!

Yes, she is prone to "breaking down" and it usually doesn't bother me, because it is common, but she usually winds up with some whining and moaning first. This time though it was with out warning and so sudden it caught me off guard.

I think part of her "fitting in" problem is in her mind because she has lots of friends in both kinder and 1st grade, but I'm not sure she has a "best friend".

I will ask her if she wants to post here and see what she says. That's a great idea. Thanks again.

Any ideas on moving her completely into first grade for the remaining part of the year versus waiting until next school year to skip her directly to 2nd? (I don't think the school would go for a 2 grade skip, and I'm not sure she'd handle it too well emotionally.)

Not too bad. I sat up front and once the teacher started reading a book aloud, I was hooked. I had my choice of reading at recess or lunch as well. I could read ahead in class. We worked on multiplication and geometry. It was fun.

Thank god for that Montessori school and the wonderful teachers there. Those three years there gave me the foundation to make it through the next 8 years.

The most traumatic event of my childhood was leaving that 4-7 grade group and going to public school where they put me in with my age peers. The teacher took away my Jack London books I brought to class and forced me to read "See Spot Run." I became immensely unhappy and felt terribly betrayed by the school and the teacher.

As that week progressed, I grew increasingly despondent, until I lost all respect for the teacher and just walked out of class and walked home. I can still clearly recall where I sat in that class, what I was reading, and what the teacher said to me when I decided that I was just going to walk out of there.

My mom was livid that they lost track of me and that I was being forced to dumb down. From then on, I stayed in the back of the class and read my books and was allowed to spend first and last period of the day in the school library. In the year and a half I was there, I read everything in the library and made a dent in the reference books.

It was a big waste of my time. I should have been moved up to 7th grade. But you did not put 7 year olds in 7th grade back then.

Parent's fears are not the same as the kid's fears, are they?

GT kids are unique and HAVE to come to grips with it sooner or later. Pretending they are not is a gross disservice to them. Its ok to be blazingly smart, and its ok to be a kid, too. There is no script to adhere to - and its a walk on part - a free-flow ad lib.

I wish my mother was still around to discuss those times with her now that Mr W is here. My dad has told me that no one knew what to do with me - those years I lived with him. He was a great father, but knew little about education, even though he had 100% in all his A&P classes.

Funny how parents will not let their kids help them to see themselves!!!

In the case that she usually shows what's on her mind, I wouldn't put too much weight on 'only one outburst' - it may have been different than usual for any number of reasons that don't mean too much in the long run.

I guess if you love the teacher she has, or hate the recieving teacher, and she's having a great time at school and you see a slow steady decrease in 'Perfectionistic Behaviors' then I'd wait until next year for the skip. I will say that for us, the second half of the year is usually more difficult, as it seems to be that by February Vacation, everyone has pretty much started 'Spring Fever' and that would tip me towards the mid-year skip, because adjusting to a new classroom is 'new and exciting' and my DS12 thrives on those qualities. Also, if there are any small social wrinkles, I think that having her start now, and have the summer to 'grow into' the situation may help. If you were changing schools, then waiting for the natural break would be appealing, but since you've already been doing subject accelerations you may as well not have the 'impending skip' hanging over your head.

If things really aren't right, it's better to try now, and decelerate over the summer - although I doubt that will happen.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Yep this is the problem, the Long Island School For The Gifted Is Too Far. And of course Manhattan has plenty of private school that I am sure would bend over backwards for you if you can afford 30k+ a year. So, now we are thinking of finding a 4 grade teacher to tutor him after school assuming Public in Sept is a wash. Maybe public will be better than I expect. I will bring his boxload of completed workbooks and composition books and book reports etc to show them the work he has done and take it from there I guess.

Well, other unhappy parents have removed their kids midyear.
He tells me the teacher is nice but the assistant teacher is mean.
She is VERY young. When I went to the bday party I had help control the kids. The ass teacher was in over her head, she looks like a teenager. So this is probably part of the problem.

Hi Traceyqns
I love the idea of you and your red wagon of workbooks! What a visual! I think that will help for next year's placement.

as for the rest of this year...

What about putting him back with his agemates so he can have some fun, and asking the teachers to bring the work to him? If he's really miserable, perhaps that will get him in a better place to end the year? Or if you suggest it, and he gets a chance to say 'No Please No' then perhaps he'll be happier where he is?

Is there an 'older class' in his current school?

I think, that even if a teacher is 'nice' that they just aren't doing thei job if a kid can be 'discluded' over a nose-pick.

Hi Grinity,
There is 1st and 2nd grade in his class, so he is supposed to be in kindergartedn but is w/the 2nd graders.
So the kids and himself is all confused.
They say he is both in 1st and 2nd and so does he.
This could be another issue.
They don't know where he belongs.
Technically he was promoted to 1st grade (skipped kinder).
But he does the work of the 2nd graders, gets their math book, does book reports w/them and gets their spelling words.
This could be why is sort of a misfit, they don't even know what grade he is in. I am afraid putting him back down a class would cause more problems. I am def keeping him home for the summer to have some fun.

Dottie,
She has not had an IQ test and we are waiting for the school to give her the Nnat test. Otherwise, on the NWEA she took in January she scored in the 99% and had points that put her at 3rd grade proficiency for the state of Colorado. She is our oldest so we don't really know what testing or assessment they should be doing for her and what the information means once they give it to us. (We're on a steep learning curve:))

We have a PTC on Friday for the end of term and we're hoping to hear that they gave her the Nnat. Her school has not had a student like her before and they are a bit flustered and confused about how to handle her. They will be getting help from the area coordinator for GT, but we're pretty isolated here so it is a big thing to have this woman come down to the school.

She just turned 6 in February and as such is actually one of the younger ones in kinder (they have to turn 5 by July 1st of the year they enter kinder, so she was 5 1/2 but many of her classmates turned 5 last summer or in the fall.) She is also almost the tallest one in kinder, but one of the smallest in terms of weight and stature.

I think your right with her perception of how different she is being more pronounced now since reading versus not reading is a big difference.

I'll let you know what we find out on Friday about assessment of her.

The NWEA is designed to continue as long as the child performs. It will continue to move up through subject matter until the child misses 3/5.

My DS13 complains that the "dumb kids" get short tests. He's fairly advanced in math and therefore his testing is long. The NWEA qualifies as the aptitude portion on the IAS. It is not considered above level even though the student has the opportunity to go above level.

Falling down on the job Dottie......!LOL

Austin,
I looked up Deborah Ruf and printed out a copy of her estimated levels of giftedness. After both my husband and I read it we're a bit more blown away by what we think. It appears to us that our DD is either a 3 or 4 (we don't agree), but either way it leads us to believe that she is extremely gifted. (Which we had been thinking anyway) Now it has made us more frustrated with how slowly her school is moving to get her tagged as GT so they can write an ALP for her and start addressing her needs.
I'm waiting for one of the other books to come in to our library.
Thanks for the info. It can be overwhelming when you're new to this and have more questions than answers and aren't really sure where to start.

Kerry.... It's overwhelming when your not quite so new too!!

I keep waiting for that feeling to go away!

Kerry,

Glad you enjoyed the book! It sure is overwhelming, but it beats stabbing around in the dark.

Best place to start is to start your own topics here and see what happens. With DD, just starting to understand you 'deviant' she is from the mean will help you really see her with your own eyes, and leave the 'but everyone knows that' behind.

Since each child is unique, it's not that these books have the answers, it's more that they help one overcome the conditioning we have all been subject to that shut down our own powers of observation and ability to make plans and monitor them.

Welcome Dear! I'm so glad we're here for you!

Grinity

Well we had our PTC with DD6's teachers. (Just as a recap - she is straddling kinder and gr 1 with reading and math in gr 1 and the rest of the day in kinder) I am happy to report it went really really well. Both teachers were there and explained that she is actually doing gr 2 work while she is in gr 1 now and is doing great at it. They did the Nnat last week but do not have the results yet. And otherwise she is fine. So, we then told them that we'd done more research and "found" (thanks to you guys) Ruf's levels of giftedness and showed them the relevent pages. And that without having an IQ score to add to our thought, we think that she is either a 3 or a 4 level. To which both teachers said WOW really? (We now had their full attention) We then asked about getting an IQ test done and found out that the district has someone who does them and if she can't do it the principal at DD's school is actually trained as a school psych and can do them! (And she is willing to do one too in light of our thoughts on her level.) We then floated the idea of DD moving up to gr 1 fulltime now for the rest of the year and then moving onto 2nd gr in the fall. (Fully understanding that that may not be enough, but lets get them on board with this first.) Everyone is in agreement, so we just have to talk to DD and then we're good to go!
I had to laugh to myself at one point though because when we mentioned that DD thinks she should be moved to gr 3 or 4 so it will be hard enough for her, the principal said "well, speaking as a parent, I would be concerned with moving my child too much because what if that means they graduate at age 16 - then what?" I thought I handled it well by saying that we were focusing on the present and would worry aobut the future at a later date.
Thanks again to all of you who gave me advise so far - this is a great board.

Thats Awesome Kerry!

This board has helped me tremendously. There is tons of knowledge here and many different perspectives. Keep us posted!!

A bit more to the tale..... DD6 was just about busting out of herself when we asked if she wanted to go into 1st grade fulltime. She was so excited and happy to have been listened to it was great. She is officially a 1st grader as of today . The teacher was really happy that she decided to move up and really shared in DD's excitement about it this morning, which was good to see.

The principal also said that the district person is willing to do an IQ test, but not until May because she has too many other tests to give in the nearer future. So now we're trying to decide if we should wait or if we should push the school prinicpal to do it earlier. Any thoughts?

CONGRATS ON THE MOVE UP!!!!

If your daughter is happy with her new placement and doing well, I'd just wait it out. May isn't all that far away and it will be helpful with placement for fall. They probably aren't really likely to suggest you make another change before the end of the year anyway. It seems like the school is really trying to work with you which is a great sign for the future! Good for you. If your daughter is miserable and hating to go to school, you may want to reconsider seeing if you can push for it earlier or use an independent tester.

Ok, It's me again with another update. This one not so good. When I went to pick up DD6 from 1st grade today she barely made it to me at the bottom of the stairs before falling into my arms crying about how horrible 1st gr is and how she doesn't want to be a first grader anymore etc etc.

Eventually it came out that they don't have snack time in 1st grade and she didn't know when they were doing what so she was very confused and didn't like it and never wanted to go back there fulltime.
(Apparently everyone - teacher included- forgot that she doesn't know the routine because she has been up there so much for so long they all assumed that she knew the deal.

Needless to say it was a long afternoon/evening with lots of breakdowns over silly things and we just got her to bed still asking if she ever has to go back again. I know we made the right decision and that she will adjust soon, but in the meanwhile it could be a long hard week.

She did not once complain about anything academic or social, in fact she was pretty excited about now having an AR goal for the reading program they do, and that they got to go the 2nd grade for something too.

Isn't life with an OE emotional kid wonderful

Now that my daughter is in sixth and we have been in two (drastically) different schools, my advice is to really look at the climate.

In our current school district, sixth grade girls are dating ninth grade boys (on a regular basis). My daughter is both appalled and feels left out at the same time. She is only slightly younger. Luckily, our school district allows for her to take accelerated subjects. However, there is very little social studies or science until middle school.

At our last school, most of the students were way above grade level (not considered GT). My daughter was reading three years above and she considered herself a "bad reader". She totally fit in with the group and they had very stimulating conversations. They had two hours of homework per night in fifth grade and they were able to finish way more of the curriculum and beyond. They also completed a full year of social studies and science.

This varies from school to school, city to city, and state to state. Unfortunately, Colorado is a local control state, which means that each district sets the curriculum. In our town, they are forgoing the science and social studies to concentrate on testing areas. And these subjects are usually to help with reading. Last year in American History, they studied until the Revolutionary War. We had quite a bit to learn in the summer.

well, luckily DD6 is a quick recoverer. (Is that a word?) Anyway, she loved grade 1 Tuesday and has not even mentioned the idea of going back to only part time gr 1 again. So, I think all will be well for the rest of the year. (I say with my fingers crossed.)

I cannot believe my DS6 just cried this morning saying that he skipped 2 grades kinder and 1st grade and that that was "unacceptable" WOW!! He is upset because the 1st graders are doing measurement which comes much later in the 2nd grade txt book and he wants to learn it now w/them because he doesn't know it "completely". I told him I would do it w/him at home but he said he wants to do it with the kids!!!!

Boy my DS6 cannot handle being w/older kids.
He knows he will go to a new school in Sept.
He said he had a dream he will be w/8 year olds and they will tease him. We are going to put him w/kids his age and worry about the academics later.

traceygns,

That sounds exactly like something my DS6 would do. Heaven forbid he should miss out on anything! He actually tried to convince his math teacher to send him to 3rd grade for math as they were learning how to do lattice math. Never mind that DS has been multiplying since he was 2.5! He never learned that method. She had to show him how to do it before he was willing to move on.