My Dd12's public school counterparts are currently in 7th grade. As with many eclectic homeschoolers, she is at various levels of school work. She is taking a high school speech class this year. Next year (technically 8th grade), she will be taking the same math my Ds took in 9th grade. I know she is ahead in LA, too. Here is my dilemma.... Both of my kids are mature for their age. Ds15 will be graduating a year early. Dd is on course to do the same. Since Dd's friends are all a year or two older than she is, she is unable to go to camp with them or on mission trips since she is not going into high school next year. I would like to just skip her a grade now and call her a 9th grader next year and then she would complete high school in 4 years, unlike her brother who appears to be completing high school in 3 years and graduating a year early. In essence, nothing is different other than Dd's grade label which will enable her to do the things with her friends she would like to do. However, we live in a small town where everyone knows what grade her age would say she is. Any thoughts?
I'm at the beginning of the journey, with my kids much younger than yours. Our kids all seem to complete the K curriculum in preschool. We are tempted to start DS2 officially (registered homeschooler with board of ed), as a Gr 1 student. But we decided not to. We will still teach him at a grade one level, but if he ever needs to slow down, we can do that without having to change his registration with the board of ed. In your case, you know your DD and how she learns. It probably has less of an effect on her academically, what you label her. I think what you need to do is talk with her and your DH about it. Weight the social implications of the decision and do what puts her in a good light. If everyone would be 'offended' by this, then maybe not. If it would be encouraging to your DD, and it wouldn't cause too much friction with others in her world, then go for it. Ultimately we don't try to please others, but we do have to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks. hmm...
Ds15 has been mistaken for his twenties more than once. Dd12 is usually mistaken for older than she is, too. It has only recently become an issue because the friends she has always hung out with are now in high school or soon will be and she won't. The adults in charge of the outings were not aware she wasn't the other girls' age until recently when Dd told them because she saw the different camps for the different grades. I am just now contemplating it and gathering pros and cons in my mind.
Is the real reason you're contemplating the skip because of camp or because she's really ready to graduate a year earlier than normal and wouldn't be missing out on any instruction given another year's time? If it's just for camp, I wouldn't, because it give you an extra year with her to continue to mold and shape her into the woman she'll become. If it's because she's really ready to move on and you're ok with her graduating (and assumably) leaving for college a year earlier, then yeah, I'd skip her. I'd also take a closer look at the camp. There must be a good reason for separating it at the age divide. Is it because there would be too many kids, and it has to be split, or is it because the camp is vastly different for one age group or another? You say she's mature for her age and mistaken for being older. Is that primarily physical or by the way she handles herself? She's probably ready for the high school camp, especially considering girls tend to mature faster than boys. If she were a boy, I might be more hesitant about sending her to the high school camp. From all you've said so far, I'd skip her, and ignore what the locals think or say. People always have their noses where they don't belong anyway.
This is my frame of thinking. A decision like this needs to be examined in the long term. When the time comes, IF your daughter is academically, socially, and spiritually ready to graduate a year early then why not graduate her early? IF she isn't ready academically, emotionally, and spiritually, I would then be hesitant because while the friends are blessings to have, the problem is that there will be completely new and more mature situations to deal with once she graduates. Unless you plan on keeping her out of college for a year once she graduates, assuming she graduates early, the adult world is a different place to contend with for a teen who is not ready to head out even if they completed school early. Again, if she is ready then why not. There are some teens who are far more ready to handle more mature situations and problems than adults. Basically, by graduating her early, there is more to think about than just the friends she will be able to keep company with at this time. I agree, do not give thought to what others think. In the end it is what will be best for your kiddlet.
Thanks for the great questions for me to think about. She plans right now to go to school for cosmetology, so she won't be in a typical campus setting and would not be leaving home. However, the more I think about it, I would rather have her go to the younger camp for a while longer. Going to the high school camp will put her with girls who are way more advanced in certain areas (boys) and I don't think she needs to be around that right now. Thanks so much for your honest, open views on it. It's good to know there are other parents I can shoot ideas off of.
Brooke, it sounds like you've made your decision about it already, and that's good. For others who may be considering the question, I'd like to say that academically speaking, there shouldn't be a problem with having an "8th grader" such as yours who is "jumped a grade" for certain stuff like camps or classes, because if needed they could always have "two senior years" of high school. Transcript credits can be recorded such that either way it still looks like four years of high school, and allow some leeway on either end for age-related outside activities that would require the student to be "in high school".
Our DD graduated last year and was a year early. It was definitely the right decision for her. She's now in a community college and a member of Phi Theta Kappa (International Honor Society), is a Dean's scholar and has been asked to join two other honor societies. She's also on schedule to graduate from the community college a semester early. As for her transcripts, I chose to do her's a little differently that I will for her brother who will graduate next year. For her, I listed everything by subject (English, math, science, history, electives, etc.) rather than grade (9th, 10th, 11th, 12th). This way, they couldn't look at it and tell that she crammed four years into three.
