Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Whole Grade Acceleration in Kindergarten

I'm late to this one, but DS won't be 6 until December. He was tested in August (he started K in August)and is in 1st now. He's doing SO much better all around and will start a gifted pullout in January. His school tested him using the Iowa Acceleration Scale, so it wasn't just based on his achievement tests. We did not pay for private testing.

And fyi, if your DD is "immature" with you, she may not be once she is in school AND in the right environment - I was shocked b/c DS's school said he was super mature, which he's not with me. He's made friends with ease and still plays with those he made in K as well (recess/after school when he's in ASP, etc).

Oh, and my brother was a Sept birthday. At the time in NJ, there was no birthday rule. When moving to GA, there was. So he was a whole year younger than most of his classmates and did fine.

Personally, for us, it was a must do now with DS - before he learned to take the easy route and stopped enjoying learning. We'll cross the middle school and high school issues when we get there.

And I think the birthday cutoff is a crock of (scuse my language). I think it itself is the one thing that causes so many issues with kids in K and 1st! My DD4 has to wait until August 2011 to be in K, yet she could've easily been in the state funded pre-K here this year and move to K next year (and we're pretty sure IF she is GT, it's very, very mildly - DS was academically far beyond where she is now at her age).

Anyway, I'm babbling in circles, so I will stop.

Good Luck!

Grinity, you nailed it here... and not to mention that girls will learn to accept this the rest of their lives, causing all sorts of issues, especially mental/emotional ones! I am living proof of that, and I know several other moms around here have similar stories that can be traced back to being bored in grade school...

I shouldn't have implied that all boys will complain - a few boys will go the 'internalize' route. I know them. They are real, but so few.

I really really believed my teachers when they told me that being bored wasn't a problem, and that I should try harder to like my agemates, and pay attention in class. Sometimes I think that my brain's amazing abiltiy to change channels at the drop of a hat is 'induced ADHD' that I trained myself not to dwell on any one topic for any length of time because I was trying not to brood. It wasn't until my son went to school that I finally had words for 'what was wrong with me' and that I finally finally understood that it wasn't all my fault. Where were the swans when I needed them? Even in college, I just assumed that all my interesting friends were much smarter than I was. Sigh. I am so grateful that my son was able to show me the way. He has no confusion whatsoever about deserving to be taught even in elementary school.

Smiles,
Grinity

So, so true. Been there, done that.

Same here. I've learned more about ME in the past almost 6 years than I had in the 30 beforehand. And funny about the induced ADHD... I actually take ADD meds, and was technically diagnosed with it, but as an adult. And now, though the meds help me focus, I realize that most of it is due to issues pertaining to my giftedness and education (or having it "easy") growing up!

We faced a similar issue with DS5. He missed state cutoff, and I opted to enroll him at an Independent School. He was already reading at 2nd grade+ before he started school, and this school allowed subject acceleration, so I thought it was a fine fit.

He was bored at this school even though they are more rigorous than other schools. He was placed at 2nd grade in every subject, while retaining his K "homeroom". But scheduling conflicts etc. resulted in his school proposing he skip to 1st grade. Having skipped grades myself, I didn't want to do it to him. After frantic search on this topic, we decided to go forward with it.

Even though he is smaller than others, he is doing much better now in 1st grade. He is still mostly doing 2nd grade work, but science/social studies are in 1st grade.

As one poster said, you address the current issues and deal with the later ones later. It was worth it for us.

Can someone explain to me why #2 above would be a reason not to accelerate? Why are merit scholarships a consdieration? I understand the rest, but not that one.

Thanks!

My guess is that before a gifted child is grade accelerated, he or she is often performing off-the-charts on academic testing when compared to agemates. Sometimes, with grade acceleration, said child is now being compared to kids several years older and, while they will still probably score very well and very favorably with the older now-grade-mates, they may not score as off-the-charts. And this, I would presume, might have consequences for some competitive merit scholarships.

If one is depending on being a big fish in a little pond in order to get to college then it might be better to go with keeping the child in school with agemates, and making them work their butts off at home. Theoretically the child would have more free time to pursue a academic competitions or Intel science. So much depends on the parenting style and on the child's personality. I believe the research says that children who get their needed gradeskip have more knowledge than if they stayed at their original grade, but if you have a very self-motivated kid, or are a bigtime charismatic leader in your home who's kid does everything you say the first time, and your kid has enough stamina to pass time in school AND do meaningful enrichment at home, then maybe it's better to leave them as standouts in their grade...our family definitely couldn't pull that off, but my son knew a very gifted child in his 6th grade class who was taking this approach. The father said: 'When the teacher assigns a 4 page paper - You Do and 8 page paper.' and the child did!

I think that the family did cultivate an 'us vs. them' mentality to justify why their kid had to do double what the other kids did - but I'm not knocking it - it was working!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Grinity, you always give such good explanations and thoughtful info! Greatly appreciated!

Thanks and more thanks!