Gap Year before high school

I agree it’s not the best article. I linked it to explain my use of the term redshirting outside the context of college athletes. The article also points out some of the problems with holding a student back.

The OP only posted three times, (OP, #8, #11) so there is a lot of conjecture, and I could certainly be wrong, but this is why I believe it is about redshirting.

From what the OP said we know she has a 13 year old 8th grader and they are moving to California in summer or fall (OP). She said he is very smart and doing well academically, including exceptionally well in math where he’s performing at the high school level. He’s in a sport where he is competing at a level higher than high-school varsity and he is physically small (#8). She made no mention of immaturity, difficulty making friends, any social-emotional issues or personal growth needs. She made no mention of an academic plan other than maybe going to another country to learn a language. The other plan was enrolling him in a sports academy day program.

She gives too main reasons for wanting him to take a year off. She doesn’t want to transfer him mid-year and she wants to increase his chances of playing D1 in college (#8).

Here is where conjecture starts. I don’t think transferring mid-year is her primary concern because they might move in the summer, she would be comfortable sending him to another country and she would be willing to transfer him mid-year to attend eighth grade. In post #11 she says what she really wants is for him to repeat 8th grade, but he can’t because California won’t allow it. Since he can’t repeat 8th grade, her alternative is to have him take a year off before 9th grade. That leaves sports as the driving factor and that fits the term redshirting in middle school. Redshirting isn’t just about older, bigger, and stronger, it’s also about an additional year to improve skills and performance in the sport.

An aside, it would cost California tax payers ~$11,500 to pay for a student to repeat a grade.

This is interesting: https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-xpm-2014-jan-26-la-sp-0127-sondheimer-20140127-story.html

@csfmap “She made no mention of immaturity, difficulty making friends, any social-emotional issues or personal growth needs.”

That’s correct, she didn’t, and that concerns me. It could be that she didn’t mention them because they are not problems, or it could be that the parents are so focused on academic/sport achievement that they either don’t care about or don’t notice those issues. Sadly we have all seen those kids at our kids’ schools, and we see some on CC too. There is so much more to being a healthy, well rounded, happy teenager than high grades and sports trophies.

My husband got a gap year before high school. His teacher parents took him to Europe for 10 months, during which they traveled throughout the continent. He was expected to do an hour of math M-F, and was given reading lists of history and literature that corresponded to their itinerary. (He remembers reading the Greek myths while in Greece and Gibbons’ “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire” during a lengthier stay in Rome.)

That trip changed his life. He became an international person. He wrote letters. (Old timers, remember the years when you’d go to American Express to check for your mail?) He got really, really good at reading maps and finding his way around strange cities. He became passionate about languages, and today is fluent in 3, and knows a LOT of 3 others.

A great gap year, even at 13, can be extraordinary and leave a life-long impact.

@katliamom , wow, that sounds like a phenomenal gap year at any age!

@katliamom, If your husband was in Europe then US education laws didn’t apply to him. OP will be in CA. Even if they travel the US, the family is responsible for meeting whatever CA education laws require. It won’t be a gap year. They can have him repeat 8th grade but assign whatever level work they want and register him as a 9th grader in the public school the following year.

I’d be interested in hearing what their son wants.

Well, the kids I knew who took gap years in middle school to travel did not devote much time at all to academics and rejoined their classmates with no problem. Whatever they missed, they caught up on quickly or it wasn’t important to begin with. Education officials are easily satisfied with a broad homeschool plan.

Thank You all for many great comments. I am the OP. Things have not much changed except the fact the chance of moving in the late summer is higher (than moving mid-school year).

After reading the comments above, I am considering homeschooling him. It won’t be so hard as he can do math using AoPS (he has done a few courses already) for a couple of hours or more a day. He can read books related to social studies subjects. My husband or I can teach him or at least guide on science.
Many of you mentioned about traveling. As CA is a totally new state for us, we will just travel nearby for a weekend trip or maybe a day trip. He is to travel many nearby areas anyway with his club for games and tournaments. I don’t think going abroad is the best way at this point (financially we won’t be able to afford due to the high cost of living in CA).

Of course, to fit the purpose, I will designate this as an 8th grade curriculum so that he can start 9th grade next year in the fall.

Here is my question. I have, of course, never did homeschooling and does not know the necessary paperworks to make that happen (if there are). I will research this in the internet. If any of you have resources on how to enlist myself as a homeschooling teacher (for their own child), that will be great.

Homeschooling regs are state specific. Look for an online CA homeschool group for support. Read the CA homeschool regulations yourself and make sure you understand them.

There also is a homeschooling forum here. Go to the main page where all of the forums are listed, and scroll down to find it.

@lovemidwest I don’t homeschool, but it is very common where I live and I know many people who do. As mentioned above, the rules are state specific. In my state, you have to file a notice that you will homeschool, and you have a deadline. In the paperwork, you will cover your curriculum and how you will test. Standardized testing is required for homeschoolers here, and they are held to the same standards.

Just a suggestion, but since you’re new in town and don’t have experience with home school, I would put him in a co-op. It will help him socially interact with some peers and help you with the curriculum.

Question: Does the sports academy not have an academic program? All of the “full time” dance programs we looked at for my daughter had some sort of homeschool program. Could you put him in the 8th grade in a program with the sports academy?

It is very simple and straightforward to homeschool in CA, we did it for two years. You file a notice of intent to homeschool online once a year (there is a specific window of time for it, October 1st-15th each year) and give your homeschool a name. That’s it. There are no reporting regulations or testing requirements at all. Best of luck to your family!

And read up on the sports regulations. You need to make sure he’s not considered a high schools, especially if he’s playing a sport even at the club level, to make sure he doesn’t run out of eligibility.

I’ve known a handful of people who repeated grades by attending private schools. (And others who were able to skip grades by going that route.) But they had good reasons for those choices. We are talking about an academically advanced kid here. FWIW my tiny 8th grader grew 8" in less than two years.

@lovemidwest I think you have a good plan — and that’s awesome that your son is already familiar with AOPS, that seems like the ideal way to cover math next year. As milgymfam mentioned above, homeschooling in CA is super simple, you just file a Private School Affidavit in October. Here’s a link for that:
https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ps/affidavit.asp

@lovemidwest. I am also a homeschooler and think your plan for next year is great. There are many homeschoolers out there who have provided their kid with a rigorous education without using co-ops or other outside classes.

Good luck! Just beware - your son may enjoy next year so much that he will want to continue homeschooling all 4 years of high school,too!

Why are you moving to a state you do not embrace? You are willing to do the job change but not embrace the neighborhood and city culture? You are choosing to exclude him from your neighbors and local culture if you only expose him to a homeschool study group. I would certainly think you can afford a neighborhood with good schools if you are bothering with the relocation.

@wis75 it is pretty closed minded to assume that homeschoolers are excluded from friends or community, let alone neighbors. I assure you that it’s not common to lock our homeschooled kids away from the world. They’re out there interacting, making friends, volunteering, participating in music/sports/theater… often more than the kids who are sitting in the same few classes with the same few kids every day.

I worry more about the fact that OP seems to have jumped on the homeschooling bandwagon as some sort of solution to problems unforeseen originally (almost as a legal way to take a gap year) rather than really thinking through all of it. I have no doubt that homeschoolers can be well integrated into community etc, but most homeschool parents I am aware of that do these things successfully have spent a lot of time and research on homeschooling itself as well as what opportunities are available. (Unfortunately I do also know homeschooled kids who have not had a successful experience either educationally or socially. I don’t think it just falls into place without proper preparation, and I don’t think it’s the type of thing just any parent can do successfully.)

They don’t need to make academic progress in his year off; he can engage intellectually as interests him and wait for his classmates to catch up. The kid has his sports club and teammates for socializing, and may find other outlets. It is only a year and sounds like the plan will be fine.