Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Possible grade skip/decisions for next year

Greetings, Sorry in advance, this might be long, just want to make sure I include any important info. We are looking for some guidance from experienced parents.

DS5 is in pre-school. He was tested with WIPPSI-III last year and scored in the 99.8%, he's just a few points too low to apply for DYS. Tester indicated that we should test him again later because he reached ceilings.

He's reading at a 5th-6th grade level with comprehension (self-taught). He was tested for that at his school last year. He attends a private school right now.

His school mid-year did some tests on him. One was a kindergarten readiness test they say he answered every question correctly. They gave him another test to see what his levels were. They didn't tell us what the test was but said he aced that too. They decided to put him into kindergarten math for the time being, they say to see how he does with older kids. He's only been in there a week and we've already been told by the kindergarten teacher it's too easy for him. His preschool teacher has told us that basically there's no point in him going to kindergarten except it will give him more time to work on his handwriting.

I believe that possibly the school may be open to skipping him to 1st in the fall. If we decide to continue to go the private school route.

We in the meantime we have signed him up for the best magnet public school that is in our district. Here in FL I believe they will not even consider a grade skip until after 1st grade. We've tried everything to talk to the gifted program coordinator (they have gifted full day in our district in kindergarten) but she will not return our calls. My husband is friendly with the school board superintendent and she took him by the gifted office, the person wasn't in and the superintendent requested that the assistant have the coordinator call, still nothing. Not feeling very good about public school.

Lastly, we are strongly considering homeschooling. I stay home already so I could easily do it. My biggest struggle with that is self-doubt and the fact that he is SO social. He LOVES being at school and around kids. He has very few friends outside of school and really he doesn't even seem like he has many friends at school but he enjoys being around people. He does enjoy playing with older children when given the chance but doesn't seem very close with the kids in his preschool class.

I don't want to over focus on the academics and homeschool him for that reason and make him miss out on the social emotional stuff that he seems to enjoy. He gave a "resident expert" presentation to his class today and he just loved doing it. He created a book about squirrels, wrote the facts drew the pictures, shared it with his class, read them a book about squirrels and he loved every minute.

If the private school is willing to do a grade skip go with that? He's so asynchronous. Reading and math are already beyond 1st grade but his handwriting is a normal preschooler's. What to do?

Anyone that can offer any advice, please help. Thanks for your time.

Welcome! You are fortunate that your district has a gifted full-day kindergarten.

Have you looked into what the gifted program consists of and whether it will be a good fit for your DS? Do you know what the "qualifying" criteria are and whether your DS will need more testing? Our schools have quite the list of tests (achievement and ability) that they give children for G&T ID. Some schools have this information available on their website.

Did your DS just turn 5? I have a DS5, who has so far only been tested on the WJ Ach., because he needed it for a summer program. His scores were terrific (no broad scores were calculated, because they weren't needed at the time, but I have since realized that if calculated, they probably would be DYS level), but I take them with a grain of salt because of his age. Still, he sounds a bit like your son. Just to warn you, my DS5 is currently in kindergarten and is completely unchallenged. I do not think that your average kindergarten is academically challenging for many children. I believe that part of the problem is that in a non-gifted kindergarten classroom, the children come in with quite a range of abilities.

Our schools have no formal G&T ID until 3rd grade. DD8 was ID'd this year and is now in the program. Before 3rd grade, the school has informal "enrichment." DS has received a couple of things from the enrichment teacher, but not enough to really challenge him - the teacher is simply too busy (seems spread quite thin, with other duties) to help him very much, it seems. Luckily, kindergarten is NOT a full-day program, so I supplement reading and math at home (which allows me to work at his pace and cater to his interests). This will not work next year, though, so we will have to see what next year brings.

I do not think it is uncommon for a bright 5-year-old child to have handwriting that doesn't keep pace with their thoughts. Fine motor control is still developing. DS is like this, too. Actually, his handwriting is probably the one thing that he practices at school that I HAVE seen improve.

DS is in K with some neighborhood friends he has known since he was a baby - so he LOVES the social aspect of school. Since he can be shy, already having so many friends at school is great for him. He would HATE to be separated from his long-time friends.

I do not know if any of this helps, but I just wanted you to know that you are not alone. Others here have experience with grade-skips and homeschooling.

Wishing you and your DS all the best!

The way I'm reading this, you have three options, and two of them are pretty good ones. That's a nice place to be.

If the public school won't properly support your DS until 1st grade, then it makes sense to eliminate them from your consideration until at least then.

My DD's profile was very similar to what you're reporting here at this age... she was encouraged to show her talents in preK by a very understanding teacher, was highly-respected by her peers as a result, and had a wonderful time with the social aspects of that, because she's a highly-social child.

Then came K, in which she had no support whatsoever for her talents in public school. It was a disaster. We had no private school option that would properly support her, so we homeschooled.

My DW had the same reservations you do about her own ability to teach. We also had the same concern about DD's social-seeking needs. And I can tell you that in our case, homeschooling worked out beautifully. In fact, fast forward a few years, where DD has finally gotten the grade skip she needed, and access to a G/T program for half her school day (which she adores), she's fitting in well with peers, and yet she STILL says she'd prefer to be homeschooled. DW's fears were unfounded... DD thrived in homeschool.

The approach that we took with the school over the years was to let DD try it whenever there were some new accommodations that might make it work out, keeping the homeschool option as a fallback for the many times when it didn't. That might be a good strategy for you to use with your DS' private school... let them try their interventions for your DS, and see what happens.