This is a very hard decision to make and really depends on the child. We started considering skipping my DS9 at the end of kindergarten. In first grade we got more frustrated with how bored he was and how little new he was learning. After much back and forth we decided to have him accelerated just in Math. At the time our thought was this was his strongest area and that reading was easier to let them progress at their own level versus math. So we had him tested and fought hard to have him skip 2nd grade math and go to 3rd grade just for math. The experience was awesome. Everything went well. We ended up having a very strong teacher for that Math year which I know helped in the transition. After seeing how well it went and also seeing that he still could be learning so much more in reading we decided to go for the whole grade skip the following year. Even after single subject acceleration going well the school still fought us on the request. We continued to advocate for it all the way to the superintendent. So the following year instead of going to 3rd grade with 4th grade math he was skipped to 4th grade. So far it has been wonderful. He is still bored even at times.
What I have learned from this so far:
1) A grade skip is more than likly a short term fix with allowing him to not be bored. However I still feel it was the right decision and helped.
2) The best situation is to have them in classes with other gifted children and a teacher that teachers gifted kids. This is where he gets the most challenege. He was moved to the gifted Math class mid year. (They didn't want to do it all at once)
3) Our son is extremly social and athletic in addition to being gifted. Sports were a big reason we initially didn't skip him the entire grade. In the end we decided that academics were the most important and we also decided he was already playing up a grade in most sports and was still at the top.
4) Our son has ADHD as well. His maturity with organization and filling out his planner is not strong. I feel that honestly this will and is a struggle but would have been whether we skipped him or not. It seems to still be going ok but right now have to really stay on top of it. The middle school years will be the real test with this. I feel he will be ok because we are constantly working to help him improve in this area.
5) He is one of the smallest children in the 4th grade. We spoke with him about this ahead of time and he was ok with it. He still seems ok but it is noticable and most noticable when he played rec basketball this year.
6) Because we subject accelerated him first it made the transition to the whole grade skip very easy. He aleady knew a classroom of kids and was excited about the move. This was a huge plus that we hadn't thought about when we did the subject level first.
7) So far it has been a GREAT decision for us. I mention the above just so you think through them. We would do the skip again in a heardbeat! However, we haven't hit the middle school age with possible social issues. Altought I think he will be fine here based on his personality. Just will be behind with girl / boy maturity which boys already tend to be. Highschool and sports are going to be interesting. I can see this being the only reason we may regret down the road. Only because of how athletic he is and how size may play into things.
Please feel free to email me with specific questions or concerns.
Also, don't worry about others comments. Do the right thing for your child. People will quickly forget about it. I do however see that anything that goes wrong in years to come will be blamed on the skip even if they would have had the same issue without skipping. (by other parents and teachers)
Good luck.
