Hi all,
My (suspected) gifted young daughter THANKFULLY just makes the cut off date to start school - if she was five weeks younger she would have to wait another year.
Due to a weird historical hiccup/ technicality/ oversight, acceleration is possible once the child has started, but s/he cannot start early.
I think/ hope that we will be able to manage my daughter's learning needs before she starts school with a combination of daycare and homeschooling.
Because of her birthday, she will be one of the youngest (possibly the youngest) child in her cohort - this in itself does not concern me.
However, if we decide to push for acceleration once she has started, she will be almost two years younger than the oldest childred in her cohort. Again, this in itself does not bother me and if this is what we need to do to meet her needs it's what we will do, but I've recently become concerned about the flow on effects to finishing age.
Most students finishing school will be between 17.5 - 18.5 when they graduate. (Driving age is 16, drinking/ voting/ legal adult is 18.) If we skip her early into grade one, then she will be 16.5 when she finishes (assuming no further grade skips are needed later on.)
I know this question is a long way off, but is 16.5 too young to be finishing school? I know that that depends on the child and the circumstances, but is there anyone here who experienced this with your child? The idea of not being able to go to the pub with your uni friend until halfway through second year uni? I would still need to sign permission slips for her to do field experience in her third sememster of uni!
Surely this has come up for families with children who have gifted traits before - is it an issue and what did you do with your 15/ 16yo finishing school?
