Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Stanford-Binet L-M, and school enrichment question

This is a very interesting discussion! I certainly value the opinions of everyone and please don't think I'm discounting your thoughts. :-)

I wonder if the other thing that may have made a difference for my skip situation was moving. We moved frequently when I was a small child; I was in one school for K, another school (and state) for first and third, a new school (and state) for 4-8, and a new school for high school. I wonder if watching all your "old" friends from K-1 made you realize more what you were missing -- or feel like you were missing something? That "what might have been" feeling.

So that's one thing -- there's no way B will be in this school district past, say, third grade. Probably we'll be moving next year, possibly the year after, but it *will* happen, and soon. So at that point, it'll be less of a "discussion point" for kids around him -- they probably won't even realize for a while (unless ds opens his big mouth, which he probably will). And he won't have to watch all of his K friends get buddy-buddy for long. Plus, he doesn't have many close friends at his school; there are maybe one or two kids he'll miss, but not for long. Quite honestly, they're very replaceable for him right now. And he has older friends from his after-school program that he attends 2-3 days a week. So that's on our side.

*And* he's asking about being in third grade -- a good sign he'd be receptive to a move, though probably disappointed it wouldn't be to third! :-)

I guess my feeling is that he's *so* far ahead of his class now, he's receptive to the idea -- enthusiastic, even -- and I do believe that he'll need it in the long run. I'd rather start the process sooner rather than later, because it's clear that he's not going to learn anything in K or even first grade. Moving him will get him closer to where he's at.

As parents, we have to make the decisions that seem right to us at the time, after examining all the angles and weighing the pros and cons. No doubt you're parents weren't out to ruin your school experience! Certainly my parents made decisions that I wouldn't/won't make. My skip, luckily, was not one of those decisions -- I'm thankful they did it and I'd certainly do it again in a heartbeat. And yes, that does affect the decisions that I make on behalf of ds, though it's in no way the *only* affecting factor in this situation.