Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Acceleration or not

LOL! Yes, there is that moment of "Holy doo-doo! I didn't sign on for THIS!"

"He's got to be MG...He's got to be MG..."

Ah, that GT denial!

Now Dottie can I ask, are you kids in a traditional public school or any traditional style school? Sorry playing catch up.

And I think Losing our minds sounds like a next read if I need to get out of denial... where I think I've been trying to get back to since assessing last year. I'm telling you I'm up for that k-something reader for downloads... I get on benders like this i want to run to the bookstore right now (well not literally i might drop a cupcake or something).

Ok going back to put this is - and maybe this is like when 1st time parents say they aren't wound to tight because they are too close to see... I've read the stats 99.9/1 in a 1,000 but is that such a big step from the 1-100 like is the kid who gets an 88% on a math test so much different than the 90% one is an A one a B but so different or am I apples and oranges here.

btw does the private message light always flash... clicked it a few times claims their is a message but darned it anything is in the box.

As far as the message box--it's always flashing for me.

I stopped paying attention to it and then a few days ago I found I had two messages from last month. Sorry to those who sent me one--I have now replied.

My private message light always flashes too. I just run my cursor over it and if it says 1 then I know I have no private messages. 2 or more means an actual message.

Hi Kickball,

I'll quickly jump in with my quick response based on our situation. (Those of you who know me can just skip this post as I fear I am starting to sound like a broken record ;-) )

My DS is in the 140+ crowd and could easily have been skipped from an academic standpoint and I totally agree with Dottie that many kids whose scores are lower than that would do fine academically with a skip, so I doubt that you need to worry about that aspect.

For us the decision to not skip was based on the fact that DS really loved school, loved his class, was adaptable, is an extrovert etc. He did not want to skip and his school (which is mediocre by all outward standards) has bent over backwards to accomdate him in his classroom. Now in 6th he goes he takes algebra with the honors 8th graders and is in a very small gifted class for English.

Watching these boards I think many of us have decided that mediocre public schools without great reputaions may be more willing to accomodate HG+ kids than schools that are outwardly doing better and may be prone to smugness. DS's teachers have usually expressed concern that they are not able to do enough for him and come to me for help and ideas. Meanwhile many parents who have kids in "good" schools are having to jump up and down and shout and still no one seems to notice. So I guess I'm saying be cautious about moving schools based on reputation, becasue sometimes the ones with good reputations are the worst fit for HG kids. KWIM?

I concur. Apparently our school system--one of the few "good" ones in our area--has a 40% GT rate. So when they say "All our kids are GT," they really mean it (or think they do...).

They don't grade skip, they don't subject accelerate, they don't do well at differentiation in general...aside from the one-hour-a-week pullout for math (and only math) that doesn't start until 3rd grade, I can't see that they do much!

Reasons why we're HSing...

I'd take a less-good school system that gave a you-know-what about my child's needs any day!

Hi Kickball!
When I hear the chirping, I go back and re-read this excellent article, which wasn't written for GT kids, but for parents of special needs kids -

http://www.our-kids.org/Archives/Holland.html

I think you have gotten great advice. What has school and social interactions been like for your DD#2 so far? Sounds like your DD#1's school is a treasure. What do they say?

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Agreed, but I think you've just offered up a third option that's different from the two being discussed: the "good" school or the "not-so-good" school, both options catering to the general public, not just to GT kids.

A gifted school with individualized instruction AND true peers might even be the ideal situation for nearly all of these kids! Certainly it's high on the list of favorable situations. Unfortunately, it's not an option that most people have access to.

Here's something to consider - would DD2 do K at the charter school? Given what you have seen of DD2, and the worked given to DD1 in the various grades, what grade do you think matches DD2's readiness? If DD2 is at or above DD1, do you think she could tolerate the gifted classroom without the gradeskip.

I don't think that gradeskips are only for kids who 'look' gifted, I think they are even more important for kids who don't have that 'built in work ethic.' Most important is to match the program and the kid. Where will she be most likely to find 'peers?'

I want to second that 'IQ's over 160' means you are reading books that don't use the currently availible tests. I think parents of girls have to be especially careful to place their daughters in situations where the child get used to pushing herself - so many girls are good at reading Adult expectations, and molding themselves to meet whatever the expectations are around them.

Best Wishes and remember...It's a process,
Grinity

I think the key here about "accelerate or not?" is that it is a decision that is unique to each child and each situation. When I talked to someone at Dr. Ruf's by email, she stated that Dr. Ruf typically recommends enrolling the kid in K and then skipping 1st. Her rationale, I believe, was that the K experience is helpful for the socialization and what our school staff called "learning how to be in school." Then, 2nd grade tends to be an opportunity for all the first graders to catch up to each other and be prepared for 3rd (?) so that a GT kid can easily skip 1st and get it all in 2nd when it's presented at a faster pace (more of a review for everyone else?). Seems logical to me, but it would have never worked for my son.

Like someone else said (sorry, I've lost who it was!) - my son would NOT have liked K. He was already acting out in preschool and needed the structure of "real learning" in first grade. Although, about 6 weeks into first grade he did tell me that he was done with first grade and wanted to know when 2nd grade would be starting!!!

We don't have options for schooling - one rural school, no private ones nearby and none that we could afford anyway. Moving is out right now. Homeschooling is out right now. So, acceleration in the small school that has what I think is a non-challenging curriculum overall, is the best option for us. Like the article on Hoagies says, you just have to weigh all the options against what your child needs and then make the decision to go with the "least worst option" for education. And then next year you do it all over again!!!