I do, though I really have no idea what a typical teenager can comprehend. 
I’m not talking Shakespeare here, more like Alice in Wonderland or whatnot… I guess closer to a tween.
Weird kids are likely going to be weird whatever the grade. Being younger and smaller might make them standout more. I guess whether or not the kid does well socially or whether or not the kid gives a shit about their social standing are factors.
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Have you significantly talked with the school to get their take? They would be the “experts” (generally anyway, we all know horrible teachers.)
I had a pretty shit experience with it but it was at a small school that wasn’t ready to handle it. Basically was handed a math book and for some other subjects intended for a grade up and then allowed to ignore the lessons as long as I handed in my work. Wasn’t ideal, I’m sure schools with more resources could do better.
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It’s all girls though, Saddle River or Pingry is better, imo.
I think for something in the vicinity of K-2 or K-4 or so they typically pull the gifted kids out for special enrichment activities that are in addition to, not instead of, regular work. This would be the same time that other kids are being pulled out for speech pathology or reading interventions and that sort of thing and the so-called “normal” kids are coloring or doing something fairly mundane that’s not a big deal to miss.
At older levels it starts to be more of being in the gifted Language Arts class instead of the regular LA class. But not for the youngest kids.
Disclaimer: I was a HS teacher, not elementary, and I haven’t worked for a school district in a double digit number of years. But gifted education was always something I was interested in, and made a point to learn how it worked back when I was teaching.
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I was thinking something similar @twig93 but know little about early schooling. I was wondering if she could be challenged more, not pushed ahead.
Oh, flashback to Teacher Education classes… the term for this is “NNI” or “No New Instruction”.
This is why I hardly taught my kid anything as a toddler. I don’t need no smartsy pants runnin’ around.
He will graduate from the School of Hard Knocks later in life.
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I have relevant experience here. I skipped kindergarten.
I could read, and not just “cat, hat”, but “pickle” and other ‘complicated’ words. So midway through the year they had me meet with the school pyschologist for social evaluation and determined I would be okay and moved me up to first grade.
Academically, I was always fine. Top of my class still in elementary school, and did great on all standardized testing, multiple AP classes, yada yada life of a typical actuary academically. Sports-wise I was okay.
Socially, I was really shy, but I’m not sure how much that was my skipping a grade vs my nature. Likely more my nature. First grade was hard to adjust socially since everyone was older and it makes a big difference at that age. I remember at least one instance of crying because of it. But I adjusted after a couple months. The biggest time it sucked after that initial adjustment was high school when all my friends were getting drivers licenses and I had to wait another year. Being in college at 17 wasn’t a big deal I just signed rental agreements and other forms as if I were 18 since everyone assumes college kids are old enough.
Overall, I don’t think it really impacted me to skip ahead.
As far as being in a more “challenging environment”, I’m not sure that really holds water. I was still reading way ahead of my classmates and things came naturally to me just as I assume they would if I had stayed back a year.
I have a kid that is in a similar position, though only in preschool right now, but way ahead of standard. If it comes up I am not going to skip him.
Not that I think it would be a big hurt, I just don’t see the added value and want him to be at the same age as his peers. Plus who really needs to get to the workforce a year earlier.
Either decision you make, I think will likely end up okay for what it’s worth.
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Wow. Thanks MA.
Plus who really needs to get to the workforce a year earlier.
I have a bit of a question about this. Is there any point you feel like you could have paused? Like… spent a year off before college? Or high school? Or anything like that?
Honestly that part isn’t a huge deal - I did take 2 years off in the middle of college to do an LDS mission. I think taking a year off before high school would be bad because your friends move on without you. Before college I could see, but I know I would not have wanted to since I was eager to get to college.
I think I was just making the point that there is no rush to finish school really. All that happens at the end is you get to start working for a large number of years.
I follow. And of course, anyone can wait an extra year before going to college.
I’m just trying to invent other benefits to borrowing time.
If you guys are wealthy enough a “travel year” or something would have been cool. I did not come from a family wealthy enough to do something like that though.
And I also don’t have the counterpoint of not skipping and how that would have turned out.
But I would say just give your kid books to read outside of school and that should help. I read all the goosebumps books, animorphs books, etc back then. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it is never a bad feeling to be ahead of your peers academically.
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Could be. And I am sure some kids would do fine (or perhaps even better) with older kids, but it just seems like one more barrier.
Of course, I am not one to talk, I don’t think anybody has ever accused me of being well adjusted.
Yeah, reading the literature on any child-rearing decision drives me insane.
I wish I could enroll her into a Randomized Control Trial right now.
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Having a kid at all sounds like work.
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You don’t need to be wealthy to do this stuff anymore. It helps, but there is an entire cottage industry devoted to gap years and they can be travel only or can be a combination of travel/work/volunteer type stuff. There are scholarships and alternative ways to raise money if you plan early enough. This could be a great use of some of the “extra” years by skipping ahead. I have seen stats (from an industry presentation) that kids who take a gap year between high school and college generally do better. There might be some correlation with those who elect to take a gap year or it could be the ability to mature and be more ready to take college seriously (which is the claim they made).
Slightly related but I have no conclusion or end so it is more of an aside - my youngest daughter had a friend in 1st grade who ultimately skipped multiple grades during her school career. She basically advanced 2 grades each year after 1st grade multiple years in a row. My recollection was that her parents were extremely busy (possibly both doctors) so the goal was to get her to catch up to her older brother for some reason. I don’t remember exactly how many grades she ultimately skipped but it was at least 2 because she passed my oldest daughter who is 2 years ahead of the younger. She was incredibly intelligent and had no issues academically. She seemed reasonably well adjusted but she was Indian so there was a social circle outside of traditional school that she was plugged in to.
Another thought, have you considered looking for a Montessori near you? I know I have seen some that go through elementary school and good ones will let her advance where she excels while making sure she keeps up on the basics she needs in other areas.
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On the flip side, your child might wait until HS to drop out, take a GED and start college early. Wait til she has a better idea of what she wants to do, then tailor to any different than typical experience if she wants.
First off, you gotta do what’s best for your family and you are really the only ones who can make that decision.
That being said, we had the opportunity to move our oldest daughter forward a year like you have. We decided to “hold her back” as my in-laws said at the time. Our primary reason was that she was pretty shy and didn’t have a ton of social skills and experience. It was a great decision for us. It is odd that you bring this up because just a couple of weeks ago I asked my daughter, now 18 and a senior in high school (and accepted to two colleges, yeah!), if she would have preferred to be a year ahead. Her response was a resounding no, so it seems like we made the right choice. The “extra” year provided her with opportunities to grow socially and be better at making friends and developing her self confidence. She also was the first in her friend group to get a driver’s license which was a really big deal. Your daughter sounds similar to mine, therefore my recommendation would be to keep her in kindergarten for the time being because it seems to have worked out really well for us. By extension, I was one of the youngest in my class growing up and I could read and what not before kindergarten and it always felt to me like I was at a disadvantage compared to my peers.