kodokan

The district in AZ we were at did Cogat testing for gifted and talented from, I think, 3rd grade; it could be done annually, only at parent request (I assume teachers identify which parents to nudge about it). Kids who tested in the 97th or above percentile were given a place in an Extended Learning Program where they were bussed off one day a week to a special program that seemed to do a lot of science fairs. This was in K-6 elementary schools.

My son missed all this, arriving halfway through 6th grade which was around the time they were doing the scheduling over at the middle school ready for 7th grade. Having no academic history, they placed him in the regular math class. After a semester of effortlessly getting As, I went in in December to talk to the counselor about replacement for the rest of 7th grade. She said the only way into accelerated math (and honors English/ Social Studies) was via Cogat testing, and the next round wasn't until later in the Spring.

Luckily she was the sensible, helpful type, and understood that the train was leaving the station with math since the other stream was doing 2 years in one. She pulled up his grades, phoned his current math teacher to see how he was in class, then phoned the accelerated pre-Algebra teacher to describe the situation - bright newcomer missed tracking in elementary - see if she'd take another student from January and get him caught up.

My son then took the Cogat in March or April, and based on that secured his acceleration in Math/ Science (leading to Biology in 9th rather than the usual district 10th) and honors placement for English/ SS for 8th grade. 9th grade was different again, as everyone who wanted to be considered for Honors - even the kids in the top sets - had to go to the high school in the spring and sit math and reading/ essay writing exams, for placement.

So yes, I suppose my old district did do tracking in elementary too, but it's not the sort of tracking that mattered in the long run as things weren't set in stone. I think once kids were on it, they were on it, and would have to get Cs or below in the relevant classes to be dropped, but it was still possible to get on it in middle school. Once actually in high school, it's a little different as it's usually more a matter of prerequisites - you had to have been accelerated for math/ science and done Biology in 9th to do Chemistry in 10th, because Bio is a prequisite for Chem; Algebra 1 is a prerequisite for Bio, etc.

I'm not quite sure how they arrange things here in OH, with my youngest going into 6th when we arrived. From things she mentioned, there seemed to be some streaming for math last year, presumably based on performance or testing in elementary, but it wasn't outright acceleration. This year in 7th, there is definitely acceleration - pre-algebra as opposed to general 7th grade maths, leading to Algebra 1 in 8th grade. My daughter is regular track for math as it's not a strong subject for her, so I've not investigated too closely (although it's bizarrely working out great having her in the regular class as she's now one of the top performers, and she's running an A and talking about how she is 'good at math'. It's such a 180 degree confidence change that I'm rather glad she didn't scrape into the bottom of the accelerated track, and get permanently demoralized; she can always jump a year through summer school later down the line, if that's right for her).

N1cky

My daughter is good friends with someone who is home schooled for the sole purpose of pursuing his climbing passion (we know quite a few people who do this). This particular kid, his Dad is a contractor, he takes 6-8 week contracts, then takes 6-8 weeks off and takes the kid off to various locations around the country to climb. The kids day while they are based at home appears to be getting up at around 11am, having a smoothie, doing some school work, going to the gym. The rest of the time it would appear to be getting up early, climbing, doing some school work, doing some more climbing. My daughter describes him as 'living the dream'

Doesn't really help the OP, but just pointing out people do do it.

When we first moved over here, my daughter had 4 weeks off school (we moved to no fixed abode at the end of November, so it made sense to start school in January). We did a bit of home schooling in the complex community room, along with a load of Hollywood kids getting private tutoring. We also had outings to Disneyland, Universal, the zoo... It was quite fun, but she was only 5 and not really missing out on anything essential.

MarylandNed

Oh, I know people do it. I have neighbors 2 doors down who home-schooled a son the entire way through the school system (elementary, middle and high school) and then a daughter through elementary and middle school before letting her attend high school. My next door neighbor tried it for a year. It can work for some people - in both cases I mentioned the mother wasn't working at all and did the home-schooling. It's practically impossible to do if both parents are working full-time which is our situation - not that we would have been interested in doing it anyway with 4 kids!

N1cky

It was more the purpose of homeschooling for trolling around on vacation. There is absolutely no academic benefit in this boy being home schooled.

We too know tons of people who home school for academic reasons.

off_again

Not sure I would say that I would change anything! In fact, I am pretty pleased with what we did and how we did it. Maybe a few changes here and there, but overall I am pleased we sorted out what we did, when we did and how it all panned out!

But, I would say that stability is the key - what we didnt do well was getting stuff sorted for the kids in advance. I thought I had the relevant immunization data for my kids to start school - but yet again, my local doctors surgery let me down. It wasnt enough and they needed to get them all again - which by definition means some delays between them! Then on top of that, we delayed starting them at school a little, so it meant that they had some downtime (good thing) but got bored (bad thing) and with only one car at the time, they were stuck walking around everywhere (bad thing).

If there was one thing that we didnt do well was get the kids into school sooner - they get stability, we get stability and we start building that new life. And they get friends, invites to parties and so on.... it all helps.