I have recently started seeing some resitance and fustration at figuring things out at home. For example if it is a little challenging he will ask someone else to tell him the answer. He doesn't want to think it through. The other day he was asking what state's bordered the state of Georgia and before he even asked he said "Mom I don't know the answer okay. So just tell me". After he asked I told him to get his globe and we would find it. "I don't want to do that just tell me". Another example: he was writing something the other day and brought me a piece of paper and asked me to spell Transformers. I asked him to help me sound it out (he reads on a 4th grade level). "No mom just write it".
Then got fustrated and yelled at me when I wouldn't just write it.
we too saw this behavior at our house, and it wasn't pretty. Our local school wasn't open to the skip, so we had to pay the big bucks for a private school, where I hoped that we wouldn't need to gradeskip. I was wrong - gradeskip still needed, but thankfully for us, the private school recognised this and provided the skip. Now we are back in public school, plus one year, on top of a summer birthday. The fit is 'good enough' and instead of this obnoxious behavior, we have DS solving Rubix cubes, and learning to play chess well, and plowing through his homework. He did suffer friendship interruptions with switching schools, but now is really really happy socially. He still enjoys doing agemate things with agemates who were his friends before this all started.
Some teachers will differentiate and some won't. That's the reality. Your son has many many years of school ahead of him, and I think it's in his best interest if you face up to that reality NOW. If a gradeskip is needed, I think that socially it's easier sooner than later. I don't think time of year really matters unless you are in such a large school system that there is a chance folks won't 'realize.' That seems unlikely to me. I guess you could as for your son to be transfered to a different 1st grade teacher who will differentiate.
I would reccomend you start the testing NOW. You don't have to take the gradeskip after you see the results, but just having the testing will get him out of the classroom for a few hours and give him something interesting to do, yes?
It's great that he plays sports that are age-based, because that will help him keep in touch with his agemate friends. In our town, a lot of the most talented child athletes actually 'play up' and go with older kids if they are particularly good. If you are concerned that he will have one set of friends in school, and a different set in sports, perhaps there will be an opportunity for him to 'play up' as well.
To be honest, I think that if you keep things as they are now, you are saying 'We don't actually care about academics, we ONLY care about your friendships.' In other words - take the gradeskip or homeschool or switch schools.
One interesting idea I've been mulling over, is that I recently heard that a lot of kids who enter the fancier private high schools end up repeating 9th grade, so if you want to 'slow down' later, that is a way that would seem 'normal and natural.'
You must have good reasons to be feeling negative about the gradeskip. What are they?
Love and More Love,
Grinity
