As far as language arts--he reads the way a starving man eats, indiscriminately and fiercely. He is a third grade writer. Sometimes his writing is lovely and brilliant. But he does not try in school. He finishes most things before the other children even settle down to work, and does the rewrites as required.
His comprehension and recall are great, if you really want to talk about books with him. He recently made a connection between Ponce De Leon (whom he had studied in school) and Copernicus (from his own reading) and the Age of Enlightenment (he didn't call it that) that would have made fine college paper thesis. But, again, his non-math schoolwork is not so inspired. Based on that, it would be hard to make a case for full grade acceleration. And we were told at both schools that full grade acceleration wouldn't help--the math would still be too easy. A full grade skip with an additional grade acceleration for math might work, but his grades don't support that.
Sorry Suzie,
I'm just not seeing that his writing skills are so low that he couldn't do a full skip. It sounds more as though you think that it wouldn't work, so you don't want to try - which is your right. But I wanted to tell you that you may find he suddenly likes school with a skip and is delighted. Having a delighted kid is so wonderful, but when they are miserable, it's hard to imagine that a little thing like a skip might be enough to make delight. But it might.
If he goes to 4th grade after April vacation, then he can go to 5th grade next year and do 6th grade math in the same building if it appears to be needed. Then in 6th grade they may allow you to drive him to the 7th grade building, or he may be old enough to do Art of Problem solving independently online alone for a year, and pick up 8th grade Math as a 7th grader the year after.
Or after a bit of 4th grade you may decide to homeschool him. Schools don't always work for our kids, but it seems worth it to give it a reasonable try before giving up on the school idea.
One way or another, you are going to make things better for your son, and I love seeing that determination.
Love and More Love,
Grinity
