Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Kindergarten skip to 2nd for reading

DS 5 is already in a gifted and talented kindergarten but he is at the highest reading level. His teacher is thinking of letting him go to 2nd grade for reading to find some peers to work with. I have some concerns but really just need don't know what pitfalls or positive outcomes could occur. What are people's experiences and what do you guys think? Thanks

Hi graceful mom I don't have experience with this yet as DD is 3, but I do know our school does that quite often. When we toured the school here as part of DH's interview week with his company, we were able to speak to the elementary school principle and were told that they do this a lot. However when I asked if they would let her go more then a couple of years higher as at the time her reading level was already mid 3rd, they said no. Hmm But if it was an option that would work for us when DD started school I don't think I would hesitate, but it would depend on your DS. What are your concerns? Does DS interact well with older kids? Is he complaining of the pace and the choices of books in K? Good luck with your decision.

DS is not so keen on going to 2nd grade. He loves to learn when he actually doesn't think it is learning and does not like to be told what to learn. He has spent his preschool years not being challenged and now balks at anything he deems a bit challenging. I mainly worry that they will see him either as a baby or as a genius (which he's not) and I worry that he is being pulled out of his classroom too much. He also has speech and pt twice a week. The benefits of going is that he will be able to have a reading group which will mean he can work on more appropriate reading skills. It is hard to apply kindergarten reading skills to 2-3rd grade books (right now his teacher let's him read books at his level).

Is it just reading and discussion groups? If just that, I can think it can only be positive to discuss books that your DS might be more interested in. Is there a writing component? If so, how is your DS with writing? I ask because my DS-almost-7 refused to learn how to write until he went to kindergarten, and he skipped first, and his writing is still pretty bad compared with the 2nd graders.

I wouldn't worry too much about what the 2nd graders think. At that age, kids don't really seem to care too much. As for pullouts, my DS was pulled out quite a bit in kindy - for speech, math, and GT -- and at the time he didn't like getting pulled out so much, because he stood out. But now, a year later, he tells me he likes his pullouts (still GT, math, speech) because he sometimes gets out of some things he doesn't like. He's no longer worried about standing out, anyway! And for kids who are advanced, they likely aren't missing too much in kindergarten.

If he is already reading at 2nd-3rd grade level, 2nd grade reading won't be hard for him, possibly just interesting for a few weeks or, if you are lucky, months until his reading level goes up to the point where the 2nd/3rd grade books get boring.

Instruction in the proximal zone of development isn't more difficult, it's more FUN.

HI St. Pauli Girl

DS won't be expected to write. His writing is only at 1st grade level and he also hates to write. So that is relief. Thanks for easing my concerns about the 2nd graders!

DS was pulled out in Kindy for everything! Different grade levels for different subjects and the only kids he ever had trouble with were the fourth graders. I have no idea why, but the teacher told me that they'd had the same problem in the past with moving kids into 4th for reading or math.

DS is really little and stuck out like a sore thumb!

Reading is one subject that is very easy to accelerate in the current classroom if he is that opposed to it. Go down the hall and get the 2nd grade book and let him use that, while staying with his current buds. If he was across the board ready for more challenge, I'd say, send him down the hall to 2nd for reading, but if he is opposed, why not send the material to him? Send in harder books for him for times when he can read by himself too.

My sense is that if your son really doesn't want to do it, it doesn't hurt him at all to just simply keep him with the K class and let him read at home with you this year. Five IS very young to handle the social situation if he's not up for it.

We had similar issues last year with my then-5 K'er. He was reading MagicTreeHouse at 3, and officially reading at mid-3rd grade level on Lexile in the first week of K. We considered accelerating (for all subjects), but instead kept him in K with his own book bins set at his Lexile score. When he finished books, I could take him to the library and he could take his Lexile quiz. It didn't matter for the school, but he loved seeing his reading level impove with the scores.

He also loves to read at home. Even without accelerating him in school, he went from 3rd grade reading in August, to reading the entire Harry Potter series on his own in the Spring, to testing at an 8.9 grade level in reading by May. Even in retrospect, the acceleration jump wouldn't have added any more for him.

If your son does want to try it, though, I don't think it hurts! My DS-now 6 has been mingling with older kids all along, and 2 years older isn't a huge gap. He feels more of a connection w/ the now-3rd graders than he does with the now-1st graders, so that could be a great thing. Mine is also still little and talks "younger" than everyone else, so now that he's in 4th/5th grade classes, there are some moments when I really feel for him. For ex., he doesn't always have that best buddy to partner up with, and he feels a little left out when they're running around w/ gross motor, but he takes it all in stride.

I'm not sure that I'll add much that others haven't but we do have experience with language arts subject acceleration and grade acceleration for dd12. She went to an accelerated 4th grade grouping for the entire language arts block (reading, writing, spelling) in 3rd and skipped the entire year of 5th.

Because she wasn't the only 3rd grader going to the 4th grade class, that one was easy and she didn't feel like she stood out. In 6th grade she stood out a little b/c she hadn't hit that big growth spurt yet and was one of the smallest in her grade (which was new for her b/c she really isn't unusually tiny like her younger sister who is used to being the smallest). She still is much less physically developed than the other 8th grade girls, but she's grown 8-9 inches in the past two and a half years so she no longer stands out as a shrimp.

Like others have said, there is sometimes a degree of "wow, you're so smart" type of attention from the others kids, but we've found that it abated over time. The other kids, and even the teachers, don't really think about her as younger anymore; she's just one of them.

While they can send him higher level books into K as they seem to be doing, I do like the idea of having the opportunity for peer interactions and discussions about books that likely won't be taking place w/out the acceleration. Dd12's 2nd grade class had a lot of advanced readers in it and it the "high" reading group did have some good conversations about the books they were reading.