He had a lot of emotional, behaviorial and social issues in school, which have diminished to a normal 8 year old boy level this year.
Hi OHGrandma!
I'm really celebrating what you said above. Yippee!!
You are correct in that he was probably being slowed down by 'other issues' and that now that he has found himself, he may continue to 'accelerate.'
I also like that the teacher found something for him to do with his spare time. Do you think it's true that he is learning to challenge himself with his superhero book.?
Personality makes Such a difference. Some kids are best left alone to push themselves through project they choose such as the superhero book. Other kids are more like my son, who is now age 11, who has the "Goldilocks Problem."
Everything my son did at school was either too easy - which led to disruptive behavior, or too hard, which meant that if he was required to make the slightest effort there was tears and whining and hopelessness. ((I could have handled the tears and whining, that's normal for underchallenged kids, but the hopelessness really scared me.)) Because there was no pull out, and no subject acceleration, and his LOG was really high, (more on LOG Later)we went for the full grade skip, and we have seen great improvement in his learning to deal with being challenged. After a little more than a year, he still has the Goldilocks Problem, but to a shadow of what it was.
I agree not to put all your eggs in the pull-out basket, but they can be fun and help with attitude towards school. Let's hope that the teacher uses the time to help others and not plan parties and cool experiential learning like in my experience. So much depends on the teacher, so if the school will allow you to observe the possible teachers for next year and help choose, that's a good thing. I agree that if you are going to go for the gradeskip, you want to get the system rolling now.
You didn't mention if your son is old or young for the grade. If he is young for grade you might want to be very careful to use the test scores and fill in the Iowa Acceleration Scale and to read the Manual. Perhaps your gifted coordinator can show you how it works? ((sometimes this is too much to hope for))
There are levels of giftedness. ((Here's the LOG talk.)) Most Gifted children do fine with pull outs, subject accelerations and rich afterschool and summer experiences. That's why most Principles and Teachers are against gradeskipping. OTOH, many of the kids here, on this particular forum, are in the top 5% of the group of Gifted Kids. They really really need 'extream measures.' I hope you can get the testing or test results you need to figure this out now, because a skip from 3rd to 5th is better than a skip from 4th to 6th, which is what we did. One weird thing about the Iowa Scale is that it is geared to the needs of the majority of gifted kids. When I hang around with parents of kids who are in the top tenth of a percent in individual IQ scores, they laugh at some of the cautions of the Iowa Scale! They have a short version of their own:
PG-parents version of IASM:
When do you accept a grade skip?
When the school will allow it! Bridge year, into a siblings grade, and against the child's will - all ok if your gut says "GO!"
So you can see that LOG (level of giftedness) makes a big difference. Sorry this isn't simple. One more caution - although achievment and ability tests are normally given in group settings, to get an 'acurate enough' IQ test to really determine LOG, one needs an individually administered IQ test. One thing I really like about the Iowa Acceleration Scale test manual is that it explains and groups all these wild tests that seem so unfamiliar at first.
So good luck and ((pats on the back))
Smiles,
Grinity
