Thanks everyone. We are open to a grade skip but do have some serious reservations. He's getting picked on now and is already young for his grade so the concern is that even if the grade skip significantly improved some of his at-school behaviors he will still struggle socially. We do have an across-district gifted coordinator but haven't yet gone to him out of respect for the hierarchy. I will ask for him to be pulled in at the next meeting so that when everyone ignores that request I will be within bounds to call him. I agree that there's just no way that our kid is the only kid like this they've ever encountered but you'd never know that from how they're acting.
I guess I'm struggling with knowing exactly what the best alternatives would be, polarbear. He definitely needs a lot of acceleration and a fast pace on math -- that still gets him excited. Putting him in 4th could do that. I fear we're already losing him on reading because he is tending toward re-reading a few beloved classics and consistently choosing lighter fare left to his own devices even though he says they're all too easy. But when I push him he pushes back and wants to go do other things. But maybe going into 4th for that would help. I think overall some mix of trying to stick with some parts of 3rd grade while being pulled into 4th for math and doing independent study might be a good mix. Just wondering how unorthodox that is. Seems like most everyone has to go to a grade skip, which makes me think that creative solutions just don't ever work.
I'm so impressed at everything all of you have negotiated for your children. This is hard.
