My DD skipped 2nd, and didn't have any issues with the 3rd grade workload. However, we'd kind of assumed that she'd breeze through 4th, and she's had a difficult adjustment to the 4th grade workload. Fourth has a lot more writing volume, a lot more open-ended work, a lot more homework assigned as homework (rather than work that could be finished in spare time in class). The work itself isn't difficult (even her differentiated spelling isn't hard); it's the increased quantity of work and the need to be able to break a project down, leave appropriate amounts of time, etc.
