Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Multiple grade skips for 5 year old. Pros? Cons?

Hmmm... well, given that my DD is another one of "those" kids with Connections-- that is, on a similar trajectory, and apparently she was one of the first PG kids they'd seen in their system when we started with them 7 years back...

well, they've clearly learned a lot about not fighting over what PG kids need. That's the better news here. The bad news is that you ARE setting up some future complications. I think (unlike what some posters above are saying) that you should be thinking about this-- hard. There is no "un-do" on this once you have your child WORK THROUGH additional grades' curricula. We know. There's no really good way to reset since your child HAS DONE the work, and it's public school. This is something which is unique to virtual schooling, by the way... rather than "acceleration" it's more like compacting-- the kids HAVE done the work. Just at a much faster rate. The upshot is that if you went to the local B&M in three years, they would consider your child to have completed whatever grades he's done with Connections. (We found that out when my DD was in 9th grade last fall. Twelve or not, she was very definitely a high school student, and the local middle school wouldn't enroll her... and furthermore, the high school recommended that we send her to the local community college campus since we'd already outstripped so much of their offerings, too.)



There are some things that I want you to be VERY well aware of with Connections. Contrary to popular opinion, too, this is NOT homeschooling or even a lot like it once you leave elementary grades (more on that momentarily).

1. They are VERY unwilling to actually go so far as to increase challenge to truly appropriate levels for PG children. They tend to WANT to keep kiddos like this in placements where they can (and often DO) achieve 98%+ across the board. So if you're looking for a placement that will actually result in risk for your PG child in terms of outcomes... look elsewhere. Truly.

2. They will only decouple math. Generally speaking, this isn't ideal for kids who are asynchronous in other subjects, but the reason is that the literacy-intensive nature of instruction in those other subjects ties EVERYTHING to the literacy level. Period. As far as I can tell, up until high school coursework, if you're in GT Language Arts 6, there is NO WAY to also be in Science 4. Or 8, for that matter. This leaves kids pushed against a ceiling in their weakest skill set, basically. (For my DD, this was written expression for many years-- which plays into item 1 and also into item 3, below).

3. This system FEEDS perfectionist tendencies. BIG time. The entire system is disproportionately based in short, badly written, superficial multiple choice assessments. They are an ABOMINATION for PG kids, and they feed the binary world-view of the inwardly directed perfectionist... after all, they aren't wrong to view an assessment with three questions as either "perfect" (100%) or "unacceptable" (66% or 33%). That's the bulk of daily feedback in secondary in this system, by the way. It is downright toxic.

4. Past about 4th grade, Connections is NOT intended to be self-paced. Period. You'll get increasing pushback to work in sync with the schedule, and in high school, you'll lose the ability to schedule at all-- no working ahead in high school courses. Well-- you CAN. There's just no point, though, and it causes problems with the administration.

5. In secondary, the executive demands are EXTREME in this model. Think college time-management and self-regulation needs. We've struggled most with this part of things. It's entirely inappropriate for a 13yo to be able to monitor and correct ALL of his/her own time during the day, YK? But the model demands that.



Finally, from the perspective of your state, your child IS whatever the system has next to his name. If that says "4" under "grade" then that is what he is. Period. This isn't homeschooling, and while you can ASK the local administration to retain a grade designation more in keeping with chronological age, eventually (in secondary) this becomes a losing game since they will graduate a student who has accumulated the sufficient credits-- 8th grader or not. Make sense?

The other thing is that you SHOULD be considering the social ramifications.

This is because if you ignore that now (and think "oh, it's fine because it's a virtual school.... like homeschooling, no social issues... blah-blah-blah") then that is going to catch up to you both with a vengeance during MIDDLE SCHOOL. Connections expects (and demands, actually) synchronous participation with classmates (who are obviously 3-4 years the senior of kids like yours and mine) starting in 5th-6th grade.

You'll soon have a feel for whether or not this is likely to pose problems when your DS starts the GT Literature elective in October. Pay close attention to that experience; some kids (like mine) seem to do fine socially with older peers, and soem of them don't... and some in between... but honestly, even with Connections, we felt pretty strongly that a 3 year acceleration was about the limit of what was wise. Health topics in middle school, in particular, were a more than a little inappropriate for our then-nine-year-old, and we are VERY liberal and unsqueamish. I'll also never forget the day that my ten year old informed me that one of her algebra classmates "has a new baby." (Horror)

One more consideration-- because this is NOT homeschooling, organizations like scouting, 4-H, and other unaffiliated extracurriculars (including sports) will rely upon GRADE, not age for placement/eligibility. In the worst cases, they use BOTH, (must be aged 11-14 AND grades 6-8), which completely excludes PG kids who have been grade-accelerated by 3-5 years. Been there, done that. My daughter has also experienced truncated eligibility because of the acceleration.

PM me if you want more detailed/insider info, need answers to Connections-specific questions, or if you want to contact me via the school intranet. We've been Connections' guinea pigs for many years.