Skipping a grade in school

As so many people have already stated, the negative aspects are the social ones. I skipped a grade, it was harsh. My daughter is the same way academically, but struggles socially even with kids her own age. She is empathic, kind and gregarious, but still struggles socially (go figure!).

The very definition of a gifted child is that their development is asynchronous (I'm not sure I'm spelling that right, it's early, forgive me!), meaning they are ahead in some areas and not really in others.

My suggestion (free and take it for what it's worth), look at her curriculum that she's covering in school. Supplement at home. Learning about the life cycle of a bee? Go to the local museum and look at the bee display. Go to a farm that produces honey. Make a craft. Talk about the hexagonal shape of the honeycomb and how it fits so many more individual items together.

Learning how not to master boredom without disrupting others is also a life skill. Your job is to help her not stagnate, and I think that is possible without moving her ahead a grade.

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Wookie,
Great point about mastering bordom. As adults, those people able to engage rather than get bored are a whole bunch happier. It's a great gift to the gifted!

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Honest, I know how to spell... I'm just "bored" by my own petulant blase air.:~)

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I have a 3 year daughter who is very advanced. She is beginning to read a few sight words as well as spell them. She has been able to recite the alphabet for about 1.5 years and now knows letter sounds. She can do some simple math and counts to 100 with some assistance. She learned the primary colors about 1.5 years ago. She can name the planets, the days of the week, and the months of the year. She knows our phone # and address and what city and state we live in. She knows the full names of daddy, sister, and me. She can trace all letters and #'s 0-20. She can write several letters and a few #'s on her own. She knows the basic shapes, as well as trapazoid, pentagon, hexagon, cylinder, sphere, cube, rectangular prism, pyramid, and a cone. She does a pretty good job recognizing patterns. She can kind of cut with scissors. She learned to ride her bike w/training wheels and to use the mouse(click and drag) within a few tries. She is super sensitive and has several fears. She has a vocabulary of well over 3500 words and speaks in complete sentences and uses large words. Her grammer is typical for her age in regard to some of the words she mispronounces. She loves to "read" and spell with her magnets. She's going to preschool now to prepair her for kindergarten. She still needs to learn to follow directions and get along with others. She is academically advanced as far as kindergarten readiness, but she's not socially or physically mature enough. I often wonder how K will work for her, but time will tell.

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Let me provide a current student's perspective. I skipped fifth grade because when I left my private montessori school for public middle school, I wanted to go with my friends. I had no problem academically adjusting (at least until later, but more on that). I was "gifted" in the sense that, at the time, I was ahead of most of my peers. I am currently a sophomore in college, and didn't turn eighteen at college until february of my freshman year. Here are some hurdles I jumped: 6th/7th grade, obviously being only a 10/11 year-old girl, I was behind in terms of emotional and physical maturity, but I didn't have problems making friends or anything like that. Drivers ed was tough in high school, because all my friends got their permits before me. And when I got to college, I had to get a fake to go clubbing, as I will have to do to drink when all my friends will be a year older. All in all, I've always just had to grow up faster. I didn't have any trouble academically until I overloaded on AP classes my junior/senior year in high school. I still got into a good-name college, but I believe my grades would have been significantly better had I not skipped. Overall, I would do the experience over simply because I have amazing friends that I would have missed otherwise, as well as a certain level of maturity. On the otherhand, would I recommend it? There are pros and cons, and obviously it depends on the individual, but skipping a grade really isn't necessary. I've always felt rushed and sometimes I simply feel younger than my peers. There's no need to graduate college at 22. Let's just say, my life would be very different if my parents hadn't made this (seemingly) minor decision. My dad skipped a grade too, and had similar things to say. I hope this helps!

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