Hey, Mia, I just wanted to say that I know what you mean about not waiting for a problem if you can see it coming on the horizon and can avoid it altogether.
Knowing that you like a lively discussion, I will partially disagree with you. I was skipped preemptively; the only one having a problem was my teacher who didn't know what to do with me. Before the skip I was very happy, had lots of friends, and was not bored. The result was that once I was skipped and things were not going well for me emotionally in second, I always imagined that back in my old grade things would have been hunky-dory. The first grade I skipped and the class I left behind were sort of a golden age or shangra-la, a place where life was good. And that's where the anger and resentment came from.
I wonder, now, if they had waited until, say, January before I was skipped, if that would have given me time to get bored and frustrated enough to actually want to be skipped. That would have probably made a big difference in my attitude.
We waited until DS was pretty frustrated with math before we subject accelerated him. Now he is taking algebra (in 6th) and there is a lot of homework. when he starts to complain, I just say, "Well, we can always just put you back into 6th grade math if you don't like this." And he quiets right down and gets to work. He knows what his options look like and he chose this. I did not know what my options looked like and I did not choose to be skipped and that, I think, is part of what made it so hard for me.
