Hi. I've perused the site and found so much neat information, I decided to register. As I have more time, I'm sure I'll post questions, so I thought I'd say hi and give a brief intro.

DS is almost 9 and in 3rd grade. He entered the gifted program (1 day pull-out enrichment type) in kindergarten and began reading acceleration to the next grade level each year. He loved it, until he got to 2nd grade and wasn't allowed to go to 3rd for reading. Then it was time to PCS, so we moved to a new state with different criteria. He was tested here and put into the gifted program last month. It was a bit frustrating that it took so long, but at least it got done.

The tester recommends using the remainder of this year to bring in 4th gr material, with the ultimate goal of accelerating to 5th next year. DS has been given tests from 4th gr and has been passing with great scores. DS is aware of the testing and has an idea of what it's about, but we haven't told him all of it yet. He's pitifully bored this year and willingly shares that sometimes he doesn't pay attention because he doesn't need to (humility is not his strong suit). DS has even suggested that he go straight to 4th grade because he "would probably have to think a little bit".

We're due to move again this summer which, we feel, would make a grade skip easier since he would go in with a fresh start and wouldn't have to share that info if he didn't want to (although, I'm pretty sure he'd let everyone know). Of course, a question we have is what happens if the grade skip is too much for him? I really don't believe that it will be, but we'd like to make as informed a decision as possible. Has anyone ever had a similar situation where the skip occurred in a new school? I guess I imagine that if it happened here, at least there would be familiarity with his situation, but not so if we do it this year. Would he still fall under a "gifted" category, or would he be considered a regular 5th grader? Any thoughts?

I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I appreciate any input. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply. It has been enlightening going through the hoops lately. Honestly, we didn't give too much thought to the testing in Kindergarten. We knew he was advanced, but when they put him in gifted, that seemed to be enough to keep him 'engaged'. As he's progressed, it seems as though it's by leaps and bounds, and general ed is most definitely not cutting it.

We're kinda taking this year as a loss, if you know what I mean. Because the testing had to be redone (it was definitely more thorough), an IEP written, etc. it was February before anything was put in place. Then, we found out we were moving again. I'm not sure of all the specifics of our new state, I have more checking to do. I would HATE to have to go through all this again and have yet another year go by waiting. DS has developed an "I don't care" attitude because he isn't being challenged. That's why I'm hoping that they'll put the grade skip in his records and that he'll find the new situation better. Even if he didn't qualify for GT services, but was accelerated, I feel that might keep the day to day from being mundane and he can shake the apathetic attitude. Make sense?

I'm glad to finally have confirmation of what we've suspected all along, but that knowledge opens the door to so many other issues that I need to educate myself on, specifically how to advocate for him and navigate the system.

Anyway, thanks for your input.

Check out the state by state info in the davidson database links, that should help with the new state rules.

Hi JDAx3,
I would strongly reccomend puting him in 4th grade NOW for 3 reasons.

1) Maybe he would actually learn something. keeping him in a situation where he has to spend some energy learning helps him 'learn how to learn.'

2) Maybe the new location won't have a gifted program, and if he graduated from 4th grade, it builds a much stronger case for him entering 5th grade, assuming that that is what's needed.

3) It is possible that you dear DS will act obnoxious and cocky with his gradeskip. Mine did. If at all possible, you want him to experience this at the school he is leaving so that he has a chance to learn from his mistakes and keep his mouth firmly shut at this next school. This isn't a garentee, of course, but it did work for my boy.

Some kids seems to be 'shamed' by being placed with agemates and expected to spend hours and hours learning very little. My son's pride was deeply offended, and although I cringed at his 'showing off' and tried to convinse him to 'tone it down and cut it out,' he really was trying to work off years and years of having his best qualities ignored by teachers and knowing that he couldn't dumb himself down enough to be a teacher-pleaser in the early elementary grades.

(BTW - I'm not saying that the kids who have a higher social/emotional IQ and more maturity would have to dumb themselves down to gain praise from early elementary school teacher - just that my son, with his age-appropriate social IQ and maturity would have had to litterally dumb himself down to please his teachers. Personality matters SO much!)

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Thanks so much for your input. I just spoke with the principal the other day about their plans for DS.

He's already in a 4th gr reading group and will begin going to 4th gr math and writing (writing only because 4th gr math is at 3rd gr writing time). She said that he would essentially be a 4th grader for the remainder of the year.

In response to your points...

1) This is one of our major concerns. Apathy is beginning with DS already and I'm sure it's because he can't stand doing things that don't stimulate or challenge him. I think going to 4th grade for a majority of his subjects will help with this. We also worry that if everything always comes so easily for him, how will he learn to work for it, ie. study, really put forth effort, etc.

2) We're going to Hawaii and they do have gifted programs, from what I've been able to find out. However, I've yet to hear positive things about the public schools. There's a private school for the gifted that sounds amazing, so we may check that out.

3) LOL, DS would most certainly let everyone know that he skipped 4th grade (which makes me cringe because of the possible reactions). If this all pans out, we plan on presenting a case for keeping it quiet to DS and just hope that he blends in well enough.

Our main concern is that he be placed as appropriately as possible for all facets. Right now, the dominant factor for him seems to be the intellectual need. I'm pretty confident that he'll make friends OK as long as they don't meet his ego first, LOL.

Thanks for your thoughts.

This happened to my son after K-2 in public school. While I read that gifted kids don't get bored, gifted kids can entertain themselves, gifted kids challenge themselves, etc etc etc....not my son. He can't stand review (unless it's part of a game) and his mind seems to need to be constantly stimulated.

DS has already told me that "sometimes I just don't pay attention". He draws or whatever if they're doing something that he already is proficient in, and I hate to see habits like this forming. BUT, having been excruciatingly bored from time to time, I can't totally fault him. I just think situations like this will leave him ill-prepared for times when he will have to pay attention, put forth effort, really work at something, etc.

I don't know if it's cause and effect or not, but my son before K had an extremely loonnggg attention span. I watched his attention span getting shorter and shorter. It's taken months of HSing to slowly build up his attention span. I don't know if it would have happened anyway but generally I don't think attention spans get shorter. I think it was from not being challenged and not having to exercise his attention muscles.