Grade Skipping in Montgomery county for Kindergarten to Ist Grade

[Anonymous]

My daughter skipped a grade in a Potomac cluster school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi
Is anybody have any idea whether Montgomery county allows grade skipping. My DD just started KG. She know everything and she is so bored. Can we skip her to Ist Grade?

I'll really appreciate any input in this matter

I advise AGAINST it. We skipped my daughter, who is now in 8th grade in a magnet MS. She was very self-conscious about being the youngest and it was a source of stress. It is one of my biggest regrets as a parent.

What is wrong with being bored? As a gifted kid, it is something they are going to have to learn to handle. Life is boring -- the sooner they learn that, the better prepared they will be. So much of my time with my first child was making certain she was academically stimulated. In retrospect, I should have used those years to have her do chores, learn how to cook and do laundry, learn organizational skills, deal with being frustrated. I coddled her too much.

My home school suggested having my younger daughter skip from first to second and raised the issue again at the end of second grade. We refused. She is now in an HGC and thriving. We used her time to teach her how to take out the trash, unload the dishwasher, clean her room, organize her stuff.

No matter how bright you are, you have to function in society.

PP. Thannks for this. I'm not OP, but your advice speaks to me, as I have a 4.5 year old who already is saying preschool is "too boring" and "I know everything already" (I'm not sure she does, but that's another issue.) I skipped a grade and think it probably wasn't the best thing. I love your point about using the opportunity to teach them non-academic life skills. So important, especially if it involves making something they can see the result of.

[Anonymous]

10:08 PP, very well put. Thanks for your insight on the down sides of skipping. Our school doesn't allow it at all and I think its a good move. They do allow early entrance to K and 1st, but I think that's an MCPS policy.

[Anonymous]

I will speak from hindsight here. I have a kid who was in MCPS and, just like in the OP's case, the school initiated the procedure to have kid skip. She was tested in K and was at almost the 3rd grade level even in the lowest category. There was a meeting and they advised having her skip. Back in the 70s, I had been skipped several years myself and had social issues in middle and high school-- so I decided not to accelerate my daughter. Instead, I applied her to one of the magnet programs and the principal 'grouped' her into a higher grade to take language arts and math with them. Fast forward over a dozen years... My kid did well socially and academically throughout MCPS. Took hard classes, did well, had friends and was seen as a leader in high school. Went to a top school and graduated. That might have all happened the same if I had let kid skip but, in hindsight, the school was able to accommodate my kid without skipping and that may be an option that some parents can explore.

[Anonymous]

18:06 here. When I say, "went to a top school," I mean went to a top college and graduated with a high gpa.