I�m now second guessing myself about the grade skips for my daughers next year. Miss 7 is skipping and all is well with the decision, but I�m not sure about her younger sister.

My 4 year old is enrolled in a playbased kindy program. She attends 3 days per week and has an absolute hoot doing role play, imagination, cooking, gluing, painting, etc. All great stuff. We decided not to accelerate her this year as per the specialist's recommendation because I�m a strong believer in the benefits of play based kindy programs. She used to �hide� her reading at school from her friends and I thought this was a sign that she was somehow uncomfortable with being different from her peers. But her reading has really taken off in the past few weeks. When tested, we were told that she was reading at 7 years 3 months. I doubted this. But everything has just fallen into place over the past 2 weeks and she�s started reading basic chapter books and is reading very fluently. With this new confidence, she�s now reading at school openly and in front of others (making me think that perhaps her prior reluctance was about perfectionism, not about comparing herself to others). Her maths is going great guns at home too and she�s just blossoming, especially having a homeday school on Thursdays.

School has approved a grade skip into a year 1-2 combined class next year. Her reading and maths are going really well but her handwriting is still pretty weak � I mean, she�s writing but I�m the only one that can understand it! I guess her handwriting is perfectly normal for a 4 year old, but I suspect she might struggle in a year 1-2 class. If she�s got perfectionist tendencies, then maybe 6 months in pre-primary with 1-2 homeschool days with me might be a better option than full time in a year 1-2 class?

Have I got the yips? Do you think I�m mad to consider pre-primary (which in Australia is learning the alphabet, learning how to read, letter formation, counting, etc.) Will it be hard to move her mid-year once she�s engrossed in the class? Is there a better or worse year to accelerate?

Open to thoughts/ideas/opinions�

jojo