I read on forums all the time of people saying "if we were doing PS, my kid would be in x grade right now", but then they don't tell you what grade their child is really in with homeschool work. Is there anyone else here like that? Is your child working on one or more levels that aren't what their peers are on? Just curious how often that really happens. Seems like it happens a lot, actually.
My kids have NEVER been on grade level..... Gretchen is behind in Math....but excels in LA....but still doesn't write an adequate report without a lot of whining, etc. Heidi is good on Math....but isn't as good as Gretchen is in LA. She has to work a little harder to get the spelling and vocabulary grades that Gretchen gets. Eli was really, really behind in phonics/reading until jsut this past year...now he is catching up very quickly. His math is okay...but somewhat behind what I think he should be doing. LAs are not what they should be for him...but will catch up quickly now that he is reading well. Gretchen should be in 7th......... but is doing more 6th grade. Heidi should be in 6th........ and is doing 6th grade work. Eli should be in 4th and is doing mostly 3rd grade work but improving rapidly. How's that.......... the kids are coming along....they are not geniuses, but are great kids who are making good progress. I like being around them....if that counts for anything. :lol:
Yup! We are guilty of that here, in PS I would have a 1 and 2nd grader. Here though we are doing a science and history that spans several grade levels so can't really say what grade it is, they are both doing 2nd grade math until January (when the books will be finished) and then we'll move into 3rd grade math, they are working on their own levels in reading/phonics, 2nd grade spelling, 3rd grade grammar books, 4th grade Bible curriculum, and they are doing Latin (which is just not taught to primary grades in PS). So yes, we are on several levels of work but mostly they are on the same level with each other, and on track or ahead of their PS peers, I don't force it that way it's just how it happens. I meet them where they are, I don't 'dumb' down and I don't push them ahead, we just go at a comfortable pace and work where they are comfortable working.
Yes Yes. I graduate them to the next grade based on age. Their grade may have nothing to do with the level of work they are doing. It would be pretty hard to pin down a grade level when work could span many different grades.
6yo is working above level in reading and phonics he is on level for writing, math and just about everything else. He might actually be a little behind in writing, but I'm perfecting reading and then we're going to begin others. I feel that reading is the PRIMARY skill required, more than anything else Reading is what I feel is important to pass on to my students, if they can read, they can read a math book for themselves, so I know that they could read a book on any other subject written in the English language. You can even read a dictionary to look up words, so even vocabulary isn't as big of an issue until Reading is well on its way.
My oldest is about to turn 8 in Oct. According to his birthday he would be in second grade. He's doing all 3rd grade work, though. His math skills are great, his reading skills at least at 3rd gr level, his handwriting is atrocious, and he struggles with spelling a bit. Otherwise all of his other subjects are going along just fine.
I actually tell the kids to say "we don't have 'grades' in homeschool" to people. The reason is because it is all over the place. We get funny looks when we say that but it's the truth. My DS,7, is ahead in math , behind in language arts, ahead in reading, and learning some things they just don't teach in elementary at all. We cover things like genetics, biology, botany, robotics, automotives(yes I actually made a unit up myself last year for that, I was pretty proud of myself being able to cover the basics of engine mechanics!) and so on. My DD,5, who just started homeschool I would say is behind her peers right now and struggling to learn the ropes of schooling. However thanks to the suggestion of some other parents here I bought(at a garage sale) the set of leapfrog phonics videos. She loves them and it's actually helping my son who had forgotten some of that stuff too. :0)
My kids go by what grade they'd be in if they were in PS. It's just easier that way, since so many things they do are by grade. But I don't worry about "grade" when I pick out curriculum. Rachael, a junior this year, is doing the grammar that Faythe, two years younger, did last year simply because there was a lot in it Rachael hasn't learned yet.
We also go by what ps grade they would be in. My older daughter is 14 and would be in 10th grade and is on grade level with everything except math, which she is one grade below. My younger daughter is 5 and should be in Kindergarten but all of her work is 1st and 2nd grade. We just say 10th and K.
That sounds similar to dd. Her birthday is in Dec a couple weeks after the cutoff. Per the school district she is in 2nd grade but in math we are doing 3rd grade. Her reading is around the end of 2nd or 3rd grade. I figure I will work her at her level and then when she is in high school she will have more time to take college classes (district has a free program & homeschoolers can take advantage).
This is an issue with us, and it can be tricky for me (as the parent). If they were in ps, because their birthdays are right after the cut off, I would have a child entering K and a child entering 2nd. As it is, my children will finish K & grade 2 at the end of next month (earlier if I push, but there's no reason to.). But even "K" & "Grade 2" are arbitrary designations. My 5yo really needs to be moving into first grade math, but I'm trying to just have him practice what we've covered in K (because there's not rush - he's not driven and I don't really have time to pull together the materials right now). But he had pretty much ALL of K math down months ago, and honestly, I think he already knows many addition facts. My 2nd grader is reading far above grade level. IDK where he's at any more, I don't worry about it. A couple of the books he's either read or is asking for I have seen on 6th & 7th grade lists. Is his comprehension there? IDK. But he can talk about the plots, and he's very interested. I let him read these books for his free reading. What's the tricky part is the "rest of the world". My son will most likely be in 2nd grade Sunday School this year, because he will tell them he's in 2nd grade...and he is...but in January, he will begin 3rd (as it were). And our church only promotes in June (because. That's why.) So, yes, I use arbitrary labels.
It's too time consuming to explain their grades. My son does 5th grade math and 4th grade on everything else that's got a grade level. My daughter is just finishing 2nd grade math and does 4th grade everything else. We do some subjects that aren't specifically grade-leveled, like Latin and spelling. If they were in school, my son would be in 2nd grade, and my daughter would be in 3rd. It's just faster to say they're doing different things at different levels then tell people their ages and let them figure out where they'd be.
Because I'm schooling OPKs, their parents expect them to be "in a grade". Most of them come to me out of public school, so I just call them whatever grade they're in at public, or the next grade, depending whether they come within the year or at the beginning of the next. No prob for me. However, that number has absolutely nothing to do with the levels of work they're capable of doing or that I assign them. I have a 13yob who we're calling "7th grade" but he's doing 2nd grade reading and history, 3rd grade science and spelling, and 4th grade math. On Tuesday I'll be getting a 9th grader, and have no idea what levels she'll be on in anything yet. In seventh, she was working on Saxon math 54.
I also understand about finding appropriate reading topics. My son is on an adult reading level (upper elementary comprehension), but his mind is that of a typical little boy. He still plays with legos and train sets, and he still thinks he can mow lawns for a living when he grows up and be able to afford 6 kids and a SAHW to homeschool them for him! :lol: This is why I call my son "2nd-ish" when people ask, and when possible, I don't mention his age at all. In a class setting, all things considered (including social skills), he fits best with 1st and 2nd graders. He's 4, yes, but he's very mature, very well behaved, and the size of an average 7 year old. His friends from church and homeschool groups are all 6-7-8 years old. People generally don't notice him unless he's doing something that requires a lot of motor skills (those lag behind anyway), or if he's talking to his friends about school (common topic) and mentions what grade he's in. If I want to get him into a special event or class, I can't just fill out the form as-is with his age or birthdate in the blank (and I refuse to lie about his age, or anything for that matter), I have to say "he's about to turn 5, but he's in 2nd grade". The world talks in grades, so I speak the language. Otherwise, my son would still be in preschool level classes doing a lot of the things his little brother already knows. A part of me thinks someday when he's "school aged", I'll call him by his actual level just so that he'll be able to participate in competitions, but the other part of me doesn't think that's really fair to him or to the other kids competing. If only we could go back to the days of one room schoolhouses where everyone learned whatever they needed to learn at the time, and no one was in a "grade". :roll:
Yeah, some are. I'm thinking about things like... for example... the national spelling bee, that says you have to be a certain age AND grade to participate (to weed out people who would have an unfair advantage).
Ds is starting into 4th grade. He's 10. We didn't start K until he was 6 going on 7. He's a Dec baby. In ps he would be in the Learning Disabled or Special Needs class, which in my opinion would forever freeze him out of learning or any sort of education. We say he's in 4th because he's been Homeschooled 5 years, K plus 1st to 4th grade. Not to sound rude or anything, but I don't care what grade the ps might say he is in. As far as level goes, He is in 3rd grade math, taking physics for science, American history, and reading level is probably K or 1st grade. I read everything to him that is beyond his reading level. That way he doesn't miss out on learning just because he can't read it to himself. Marty
I say my 6 year old is in first grade cause if he were in PS he would be, and at his age, and coming out of the PS system, it was a big deal for him to go from K to 1st.... His reading skills though, are basically non-existent. His phonological awareness is good, but it just hasn't 'clicked' in his brain yet to put it together for reading fluency...his comprehension is good when read to. His writing is probably behind as well. It's not the thought process or grammar or punctuation that gets him, for him I think it's two things. 1. Fear of being wrong, he doesn't like to do creative spelling, which I make him do when he writes some things. and 2. His PS K teacher was very strict about handwriting. He was marked as 'doesn't know how to write his name' on every report card until the very last one last year because he didn't write it in PERFECT D'Nealian!! Math-He's on grade level On grade level for SS. Science-well, he is a true science geek. I think it's one reason he didn't like PS, lack of science on his level of interests. This is where we spend most of our time! We're doing Apologia Zoology 1 and 2 this year PLUS I'm supplementing with as many living books and documentaries as I can get my hands on. I'm running out of options here! LOL The GPS for 1st grade science are weather, seasons, sounds, shadows and magnets, characteristics and basic needs of living things. We covered all that when he was like 2. He's so beyond that. This kid is killing me with science! LOL But that's okay, I don't mind that he can't read and is interested into nothing but science...LOL It's who he is and there is nothing wrong with that.
Yes - I've really become grateful for site like Project Gutenberg and archive.org - access to books from "yesteryear" that I'm generally more comfortable with in terms of topics. There are still things I need to screen for, but it's much simpler than most modern books targeting that level, at least the ones I've come across.
