Hi Grinity - thank you for chiming in!
Is your son in the very next grade up? Would it work for your family if DD is in the same grade or even higher grades?
DS is in the next grade up but after going through the testing with DD, and with respect to DS's academic performance/OLSAT scores, we've come to the conclusion we should get him tested as well. Those results could potentially change the landscape for him too.
One way to look at it is to try and get your daughter into the classroom where she would be 'able to make mostly As IF she works at it.'
Another way to look at it is to try to get her into a classroom where her 'ready to learn' level is within 3 years of the class average. This isn't scientifically documented, but word in the gifted world is that most teachers, most of the time, are fine going up to 3 years beyond the class average with 'differentiation' but that after 3 years it take a superteacher.
As far as peer development, acceleration can do that quite nicely. Most kids are a mix of ages throughout the day - and what about the one room schoolhouse where kids of all ages played together? She just needs to spend some time each day with kids who get her jokes.
My only concern about grade skip is that another child who recently went through this at our school hasn't been treated well by her peers in the grade she skipped to. The parents weren't necessarily kind either (to the mother) and sadly, the child has been ostracized on the playground, etc. - many days coming home crying. I'm not willing to forsake DD's academic needs, but we also need to make sure the social situation is a fit. Another issue the tester brought up was that it becomes difficult for girls when they start developing physically and emotionally (interest in boys) and our DD would be in the middle of that prematurely. I believe this is why she felt a gifted program would serve her well academically & socially. I would be interested to hear thoughts on this from those who have gone before us!!!
You & others have been a tremendous help!! I can't imagine trying to work through alone. We probably would have put off testing if it hadn't been for the encouragement here - but now we KNOW we need to make some accommodations!
As a side note and thanks to this forum and some of your suggestions in particular, we have signed the kids up for some fun "academic & creative thinking" camps for the summer that they were able to choose from a huge list. I can't wait to see which of these they get excited over so that we can work towards providing future opportunities in their paticular areas of interest.
Thank you, thank you, thank you all!
