We are having the same problems, Breakaway4. Our DS is 9 (nearly 10) and in 5th grade. All of the boys in his grade play violent, first-person shooter video games that we forbid, like Call of Duty 4. They literally have no other interests beside these games. It makes it very difficult for a tiny, shrimp of a kid boy to interact with the mostly 12 year old boys in his class. He was also playing tag on the playground and grabbed a 5th grade girl's shirt on her back to tag her out. The neckline pulled over to her shoulder, and she stopped and scream that it was sexual harassment.
Kids are definitely not kids anymore.
FWIW, he does significantly better with the 8th graders when he goes up to the big school for Science. His teacher even commented that he does better with the more mature 8th graders than with the less mature ones. However, I agree with Wren, in that there are times when older kids/adults tolerate the presence of a gifted kid better than kids who make an issue out of their differences. But there may not be true friendship in mere tolerance.
For us it is a hard choice. DS9 has very little in common with his agemates. He has slightly more in common with his current classmates which are 2 years older. And he interacts well during the one hour that the spend with kids 4-5 years older than him. But he is still not being academically challenged. So do we stay in the grade that he is in (one grade skip plus subject acceleration) and not be academically challenged, and suffer the social wasteland of being different. Or try to find the right academic situation (which is eluding us!) and hope that he finds friends along the way that have similar interest.
Not the best options around.
