Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Did you double-grade skip a young child?

I had a couple more thoughts but they seem to have disappeared, so here we go again:
The gifted program in your new district (4th to 6th grade combined classroom) sounds very interesting. In such a setting, it sounds like it would be feasible to correct for grade, so whatever you decide for this year would not be set in stone. Can you meet with families who are currently in the program, find out what type if kid it serves, what experiences they have had with accelerated children and what happens in 7th grade?

In addition to all the great points about a child's readiness and ability to handle the double skip, I think a successful double skip relies heavily on the school environment. If the school is very diverse (for lack of a better word) in their tracking and class placement, then it will be socially easier on the child than if the school is very rigid. While the socially part might not be an issue in the lower elementary grades, I think there are some significant challenges with it in middle and high school.

We didn't do an official double-grade skip, but DS10 now in 6th skipped 1st grade and then switched to a FT GT program that worked ahead at least a year, so an effective grade skip. First of all, you sound like you have some very decent options in both districts --they actually have GT programs and seem to understand where kids need to be placed. This is rare.

Maybe I'm doing the math wrong, but it seems like your son will be about the same age as mine if you do the double-skip. My son is also smaller for his age. In elementary, he was not quite up to grade level in physical education, but that was not a huge problem. Now he seems to be getting a bit more coordinated and can hold his own in the rec sports at his 6th grade, like soccer/ultimate frisbee. The current school is new and has no GT program, but they are flexible so that he's now subject accelerated in math to Algebra. He seems to get along fine with all the kids in the different grades, though I think he would prefer if all the kids were his age. But since that can't really happen at his current school, all in all things are pretty good. There is a lot more project-based work at this school so DS10 can do work at his level, which makes up for the lack of GT program.

I am sorry your kiddo has had troubles with bullying by older kids. Does the new school seem to have a better environment or a program to deal with this?

I suppose my DS also effectively double skipped, having skipped second to go into a full time gifted program.

On the social realm, he fits in fairly well with his class. However, he had a chance to hang out with some gifted kids three years older a bit ago and they had the best time, totally fired him up. Until you see your kid amongst peers, it's hard to see what's missing.

Agreed.

THIS. I was so grateful for this nugget of wisdom when I was deciding to take DD6 out of school recently. Saved me from wondering if I was just being Perpetually Dissatisfied Lady.

I would, and I have. My 7 year old is very easy going, social and makes friends fast. He is also very tall for his age, so he will not stand out physically in a grade skipped class. For the most part, we have seen him thriving in an environment where there are peers who have abilities similar to him.

But, we have had 2 problems. One was when he easily surpassed some other older boys in his gifted group who had been in that program for 3 years (DS was a newbie). He was physically bullied because of that, his things taken from him etc. DS is very adept at self defense and he can face up to a moderate amount of bullying normally. But, being bullied by a bunch of older boys aggressively and unexpectedly was too much for him to handle and left him in tears. The matter got resolved very quickly as soon as the teachers found out about it. But, DS who is very Pollyannaish about all the students he interacts with got a rude wake up call.
The other problem is that the preteen boys in his class discuss a lot of topics that are very sexual in nature during breaks etc. This has mostly been beyond DS's comprehension so far, but we are expecting that he will begin to catch on to it soon. We don't know yet how to deal with this.

In this old thread and others, several parents mentioned finding age-appropriate books and helping their children learn about sexual matters, bodily changes, and vocabulary (scientific and slang) at home before they learn it at school.