What worked for DS10 so far:
Local Public timeline:
pretty good -- second half of kindergarten with agemates, with differentiation in the classroom and pullouts with the GT teacher for compacted 2nd grade math. learned a lot about advocacy.
not so good -- first half of kindergarten when the teacher was "getting to know" our kid
pretty good -- skipping 1st. Second grade was better, reading program was at each kid's level (though I had a sneaky kid who would try to read under level)
bad -- DS was being taught the exact same 2nd grade curriculum that he had completed in a compacted time the previous spring, when he was in kindy. The school figured the skip would be good enough and wouldn't send DS to the 3rd grade class for math because of his "poor handwriting". Through much advocacy things got slowly better and he was able to test out of some units. Very stressful for parents. Learned a lot about how not to advocate...
Best -- Transfer mid-year second to out-of-district public school for Highly Gifted Kids
DS has really thrived here with peers. Most kids are a year older, but still a great fit. The teachers are amazing and don't emphasize weaknesses like handwriting. Really wonderful group of kids. Everything is accelerated at least a year, faster pace. Lots of friends. No advocacy required by parents. Good stuff.
The Unknown:
Switching to a new STEM charter for middle school next year (the program in DS's current district ends after 5th).
ETA: Preschool didn't work so well, except that the preschool teacher was quite wonderful and was the first to tell us that DS would need acceleration some day. DS didn't like the very part-time preschool one bit. We shouldn't have sent him the second year, because that sort of soured him on school. I'm thinking he will probably never be the type of kid who likes school. Maybe in college.
