I agree that the gap thing is over rated. Our school had been telling us since kindergarten that she was in the right place, despite our shock at how far ahead of the other kids she was. In retrospect, we should have skipped 1st grade, but we were new to all of this stuff and believed the school when they said everyone else would catch up. Obviously, we know better now. A difficult part of our decision was the fact that our school has never accelerated any students, we were the first and I am not sure anyone has asked before, it is considered an excellent district with a lot of red shirt kids. Our daughter is tall and on the older side and very mature, so it has been easier to explain to curious parents that think we are nuts.
As I stated, we were late in recognizing our daughters giftedness, even though she has been raising eyebrows with some of her skills since she was 3, but we have figured it out. We are in a very competitive school district and the parents drive their kids very hard, so other parents feel we are hot housing her, even though the opposite is true.
I have been lurking on this board for some time and have learned a lot. Each kid is individual and there is no one solution for everyone. One thing we definitely realize after all we have gone through in the last year is this: No one knows your kid like you do, so go with your gut. We have been right the entire time and I am glad we stepped up to the plate.
