Hi. I've perused the site and found so much neat information, I decided to register. As I have more time, I'm sure I'll post questions, so I thought I'd say hi and give a brief intro.
DS is almost 9 and in 3rd grade. He entered the gifted program (1 day pull-out enrichment type) in kindergarten and began reading acceleration to the next grade level each year. He loved it, until he got to 2nd grade and wasn't allowed to go to 3rd for reading. Then it was time to PCS, so we moved to a new state with different criteria. He was tested here and put into the gifted program last month. It was a bit frustrating that it took so long, but at least it got done.
The tester recommends using the remainder of this year to bring in 4th gr material, with the ultimate goal of accelerating to 5th next year. DS has been given tests from 4th gr and has been passing with great scores. DS is aware of the testing and has an idea of what it's about, but we haven't told him all of it yet. He's pitifully bored this year and willingly shares that sometimes he doesn't pay attention because he doesn't need to (humility is not his strong suit). DS has even suggested that he go straight to 4th grade because he "would probably have to think a little bit".
We're due to move again this summer which, we feel, would make a grade skip easier since he would go in with a fresh start and wouldn't have to share that info if he didn't want to (although, I'm pretty sure he'd let everyone know). Of course, a question we have is what happens if the grade skip is too much for him? I really don't believe that it will be, but we'd like to make as informed a decision as possible. Has anyone ever had a similar situation where the skip occurred in a new school? I guess I imagine that if it happened here, at least there would be familiarity with his situation, but not so if we do it this year. Would he still fall under a "gifted" category, or would he be considered a regular 5th grader? Any thoughts?
I'm sure I'll have more questions later. I appreciate any input. Thanks.