I met with the school psychologist and the principal today and Riley will be in preschool next year. I'm sad, but I'm kind of happy, too. He scored in the top 80% which is SUPER SUPER SUPER, however they are concerned that if he moves up that it'll be too much of a struggle for him. If they move him, they'd like for him to stay at the top of the bunch. I understand that. I don't want him to move ahead so that he can be in the bottom of his class, kwim? He scored 50-88% percentile on all the different categories of testing, so it wasn't super high, but it was pretty good. There are some kids that were in ELC (what they call the preschool) last year whose parents have chosen to have them stay in again. Those kids are at the same level as what Riley is right now, so today when they do class placement they are going to make sure that that is the same class that Riley's in. They do differential teaching in the classroom, so the kids that need more challenging get it while the kids that are struggling get easier things to do to work up to that, so the kids are grouped for projects by their needs which made me feel better about it, too. I was also assured that AT ANY TIME I could request to do this testing again to see if it's in his best interest to move ahead and that the ELC teachers know about what I'm requesting and will make sure that he's challenged appropriately. He LOVES to be challenged. They even commented about that today. They also complimented DH and I about how we have raised him so far. It was really nice to hear. Anyway, DH doesn't know any of this yet and we DO still have the option of taking it to the school board, however I don't think that we will. Another year will be good emotionally for him, also. So, that's where we are on that.

Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts!

Great News-

Riley will indicate when and if he needs to be moved up

Isn't it great when someone who isn't a relative tells you what a great job you have done?

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Sounds like you're definitely doing the right thing.

I was in a similar situation last year - DS tested so high, but we still held him back for social immaturity. He would have started K as a 4 year old, and turned 5 a few weeks later. I was still undecided most of last fall whether or not we did the right thing. Something magical happened (who knows what) and he really blossomed in the spring and his personality is so different. If he hadn't had another year of loving protected preschool, with 10 kids and 2 teachers - who knows if that would have happened. Knowing his personality - I think that he would have really struggled last year in K. Socially, he is 100% ready now. Academically, he is way ahead of a regular K, because his private preschool was soooo good to us, but they start testing for g/t at the first of the year and we were reassured that he will be challenged. I feel so happy with my decision and I hope that you are in the same place next year. I'm glad you are happy!

Sounds like this is the best. You will know when he is ready to move up.

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Mommy to Ariana 8/11/01 & Davis 4/11/05
I love my kiddos!

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My oldest son has an IQ in "genius" level. He also started school 2 weeks after turning five. While his grades have been super good ALWAYS (and without cracking a book, darn him!), he has hit struggles with being one of the youngest of his class. He was also one of the smallest until the last few months, and now that he is in the jr. high age, that has been a tough one. He, thankfully, is one of the "cool" crowd, but it has bothered him a good bit. As my dh says, we have had to "toughen him up" a bit in order to get through it at times. I am almost always an advocate of a boy NOT being moved up until the right age because of what I have seen Zachary go through. I understood why you were looking into it, but I am glad for Riley's sake that he will have this year to mature. You are a good mom to look at all sides of doing what is the very best for him.

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Shaking in my boots (well, if I was wearing them in the middle of summer!), but glad to be back!