Thanks for the replies, everybody!
I have a few responses/more questions....
Question: is 7 old for 1st grade in your neighborhood? Perhaps instead of a gradeskip, you can frame it as 'making up for a late start?'
DS is one of the older kids in his class, but I have been opposed to grade skipping because of his social/emotional readiness. We probably could have gotten him into K a year early, but he is a very anxious child --a psychologist diagnosed him as severely anxious (if x was normal anxiety and y was clinically anxious, he said DS is z). I had issue with the psychologist, though, because he did not think that DS's likely giftedness was at all a component of his anxiety (or vice versa). DS does have some trouble making "friends", although he gets along with everyone in his class. He is less at ease playing with them than the other children appear. IMHO, he knows he's different, but doesn't know why or how to "fix" it. Of course, it's not that there's something to fix, he is just not with true peers.
If it really is your only alternative, then you had best start requiring that he does 'double homework' each day. If possible, add or substitute an assignement that is similar to the one he gets in school, but at his 'readiness level.'
Any suggestions on resources for such afterschooling? And another question: if your child is gifted in math, and they're working on simple addition in school and your child is ready for advanced multiplication or division, do you teach it to him? Does that not increase the boredom issue he has in school?
I'm so very glad to be here. I am sick to death of feeling that if I want to discuss my concerns about DS with other Moms, they think I'm bragging and that I have nothing to be worried about since I'm lucky that DS is "so smart".
~S in MD
