Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Being your own kid's teacher...

Amen to that!
DH wanted me to work with #2 because he didn't think she was getting as much exposure to letters and sounds as #1 had at the same age. This is because #1 had more 1:1 time with adults. #2's world revolves around playing with big sister. When #1 started K, I spent more 1:1 time with #2. She rapidly progressed from ABCs to picking up reading about a year earlier than #1 had picked it up.

Thanks for all your thoughts everyone - after much thought, my DH and I have decided to wait on the K skip for a couple of reasons:

1. I talked to some of the local school staff, and they STRONGLY discourage it based on late spring b-day, not reading well yet, and being "untested" in a formal school setting. Basically, they aren't willing to allow early 1st grade entrance based only on a set of test scores, no matter how good they are. I got the standard, "Many of our students perform well in the primary years due to enriched preschool experiences - they tend to all even out by 3rd grade." I know we could fight this, but I don't feel strongly enough that it's the right thing to take on that battle.

2. Apparently, it's become quite a trend in our district for parents of children with spring/summer b-days to hold them out of kindergarten for a year so they'll be "ahead" in both academics and sports as they get older. This would mean that DD4 would actually be in class with a lot of kids who are 2 or more years older (rather than just one). This just seems like too big an age difference for us at this point.

So anyway, I really appreciate all of the advice - currently, we're going to try to decide between sending both girls to Montessori or taking them with me where I'll be teaching gifted elementary. If I do end up taking this new position, I'll probably be asking for a lot of creative classroom advice, as I'll really be a middle school science teacher disguised as an elementary teacher! :-)

These were the very same reasons we didn't try to skip our DS7 and opted for homeschooling instead. (Though no one gave us the "they all even out by 3rd grade" speech, which is good because I'd have been rolling my eyes BIG TIME at that, as I really, really hope you were doing!!!)

Just be aware that you may want to force the issue a bit once she *is* in a school situation and you can see how she fits with those older kids. You may find you're changing your mind pretty doggone fast about that skip!

For our DS7, the choices were clear by 1st grade: grade skip--probably more than once in a couple of years--or homeschool. If your DD is not as prone to act on feelings of frustration, you may not see this as easily as we did. If you're the teacher, it's probably not a problem this year. But if you're not teaching her or in future years, be on the lookout. She may need more.

I hope whatever you decide is a great solution for your DD!