Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions PA - GIEP with radical acceleration

Thanks for your feedback and advice.

Lorel, I don't know how ready he is to be an oddity. We had a little of that in the past two months, with other kids asking him why he was doing high school math. When the 5th graders found out he was a year younger than them, there were lots of questions about that, too. DS's main feeling was of annoyance because he had to field the same questions over and over again, until we spoke with the teacher and she made a general statement about it. After that, no more questions or issues. But the pullout for math is 1:1 so he only had to deal with questions from his 5th grade classmates; there was no class of older kids to consider.

Previously, we had homeschooled, and it's been my policy not to even use the word "gifted" around him. I celebrate his strengths but do not emphasize how advanced his academic achievements are from same-aged friends. This has been relatively easy to do, because he has friends who are incredibly advanced in other areas (music, dance, sports, etc.), and I can point to them and remind him that some people have other strengths. My main emphasis has always been that he has a lot of ability but still has to work hard to give meaning to that ability.

I would feel more comfortable mainstreaming him in 9th if he already had a group of local friends close to his age. The private school is about 45 minutes from us, and there aren't any kids in our neighborhood who go there except a few high schoolers. If he was mainstreamed in 9th in the public school, I think it would be difficult for him to make friends close to his own age. It might be a better fit for him to be placed in 6th or 7th grade and spend half the day at the high school. Of course, all of this is theoretical until we sit for the GIEP meeting. He's globally gifted (not just math) and really needs to be in english/history classes that are geared at least at the "honors 8th" level. I'm honestly not even sure what 6th grade classes would be appropriate for him academically.

Some of you know me and our son from DYS, and he's a pretty easygoing, extroverted kid without any screaming social issues. He keeps the more advanced areas of interest to himself unless he feels there is a kindred spirit involved, and is just fine playing Wii light saber duels with other kids. The kids in 5th grade had no idea he was younger until they started talking about birthdays. He's tall for his age and might just appear to be a short middle schooler for a while if we went that route. I don't know. I would hate for him to be academically accommodated at the expense of social detriment. I am feeling that this will be very difficult to balance.

ps: This all came home for me this morning, when he lost a tooth while brushing his teeth before school. My "baby" is still losing teeth, for crying out loud, while I ponder whether or not full-time high school would work for him. The asynchrony sometimes slaps me in the face. I don't know anyone in my everyday life who would understand this.