Thank you all so much for sharing your thoughts and experience. It was also nice to hear from the educator's perspective!
Since our DS10 has been going to 8th grade class, he's gotten some experience in dealing with older kids. They've been quite nice with him, and he's able to hold his own. There was no bullying whatsoever. Could it be because he's only there for an hour, and did not have to socialize with them during recess or P.E. (as he's surely the smallest one)?
On the other hand, he is on the naive side, even among his 5th grade friends. Of course, there are days when he starts showing some attitude!
We're also concerned with high school coming too soon. We haven't exactly been planning that far ahead!
He met with our Principal today to discuss the advantage / disadvantage of going to 6th or 7th grade. He told him that he was nervous about going to 7th grade. In fact, he told him that he did not want to skip! He will still go to a 6th grade class this Friday to shadow for a couple hours.
DH and I are not sure which way to go, either. Had the school not been willing to offer subjects acceleration or if the only way to get accommodation was by skipping, we would have jumped immediately! Fortunately, after a rough start, this year ends up to be a pretty good year. He got 2 subjects acceleration and was still able to stay with his friends. It was not exactly a perfect solution since sometimes there were scheduling conflicts which caused him to miss part of the science. Sometimes it also meant that he did not have as much time to finish his other 5th grade work.
Another concern we have about not skipping is because the 6th grade teachers had said that they would meet the kids at their level within 6th grade class. Even if a student is able to do algebra or geometry, he / she will get it in that class rather than going to 7th or 8th grade class. This is contrary to what our Principal had said, so we definitely will with him.
We will talk with our DS again after his shadowing on Friday. I'm sure we'll have a long discussion with our Principal and his 5th grade teacher. We will surely ask them about possibility of mid-year skip or even skipping 7th rather than 6th.
