This question is the one asked the most to children. It is a sense of pride for children to say at the end of the year, "I'm no longer a fourth (or first or second or whatever) grader, and I am now a fifth (second, third, etc) grade. When I am asked, or my daughter is asked, what grade she is in, we say what she would be in if she was in public school.
But homeschooling often doesn't work like public school. In public school, standards are set for all children to meet in a certain age range. There are children on the high end of the grade range that meet the standards easily. There are children on the low end of the grade that struggle to meet the standards. Fall outside of these "standards" and you will receive a label. If you can't meet the standards, you will receive a "Learning Disabled" label. If you can easily meet the standards and maybe move on to the next set of standards, you will receive the label of "advanced" or "gifted." The truth is probably more mixed. A child may have a natural aptitude in certain areas, but struggle in others.
My seventeen year old will have met the standards for the state we live in, the standards most colleges would want to see, and the standards I have set for my child, to graduate high school this spring. In all her years of homeschooling, I don't believe she was ever in a single grade in every subject. She was all over the place. She would do well in one subject and advance quickly, but struggle in another. I would switch curriculum, and she would find the way it was structured made things worse. I would find something else, and she would do extremely well for awhile. She made odd progressions at times. It took me a long time to realize that she is perfectly normal and this is how most children learn. They make slow progress for awhile, struggle a bit, then make a leap ahead.
Homeschooling offers the chance for students to receive an education tailored just for them. When the areas of struggle come up, most homeschool students can simply slow down the lessons, or even forgo that subject briefly, until they understand. Sometimes the brain just has to mature to be ready to master the material. Sometimes it is just an area where the child needs extra practice to master the lesson. Either way, the child should never be made to feel as if there was something wrong with him or her.
In other areas the child can move at the pace where they stay challenged, moving quickly through material they easily understand. This has happened to my children often. One summer my youngest daughter jumped over a year in her reading level simply due to summer reading. When we began the school year, she sat down and read her entire phonics and reading curriculum in less than a week. I didn't have to keep her at a lower reading level or put her through a phonics program she didn't need. We just moved forward.
One of the biggest lessons I have learned over the years is to choose materials where a child can make steady progress without the burden of grade levels. Yes, grade levels are a burden. The math program that we are using has grade levels, but I choose to simply call them levels. It is an advanced program, and no one was more surprised than me that my daughter prefers this program. So, instead of worrying about "grade level," we are just making our way through the lessons at a steady pace. First of all, the grades on the cover of the books don't match up with American grade levels, or a child wouldn't finish level six and be ready for Algebra. I am supplementing with Life of Fred for a different approach to math that is more story-based. This is working for her, this slow and steady pace that puts emphasis on the basics.
The reading and grammar we use is similar. I have chosen to use the McGuffey readers for my children. The steady progress goes from learning to read to college-level vocabulary and sentence structure in six books. However, these books aren't the same as any six books. These books are power punches for the brain. They aren't dumbed-down. We literally go through a lesson or two a week, with daily work in whatever lesson she is studying. We don't just read the lesson. We copy parts of the writing. We look up the definitions of the vocabulary words. We draw pictures. We look up extra facts in some of the lessons. It takes at least two years to get through a McGuffey reader properly. Oh, and I base the readers on writing levels, not reading levels, because my advanced reader is learning sentence structure and proper grammar with each lesson, not simply reading a story.
I have a different grammar program we are also using. It is such a gentle program, was free through Google books, and focuses on writing before introducing grammar. It is wonderful! My ten year old loves it! Occasionally I add in some workbook pages from a grammar program that I bought, to give a little more time in certain concepts and add in more practice. It isn't needed for every child, but I wanted the extra practice for my little leftie.
I am learning so much recently about how to set up a gradual learning program. In this system, grade levels don't really matter. I don't worry about what other fifth graders are doing at the local public school. In most areas, my daughter is ahead of them. In a few areas, she might be on the same level. Even if she was behind, if she is progressing, does it matter? What tends to happen is that a child will make slow, steady progress for a long time, and then suddenly jump in skill level. It's like the brain suddenly hits a growth spurt, like a child does in height, and makes quick advances.
I stumbled upon this quote this morning. "Omit grade levels. Each student should simply move seamlessly up the road of knowledge at whatever rate of progress his abilities and study habits permit. Grade levels have become a means by which student achievement is normed to public school academic levels. Children should not be deprived of the chance for a superb education by subjecting them to the failed standards of the public schools." - Art Robinson of Robinson Curriculum
I find a freedom in this idea, this belief that grade levels are truly arbitrary. I'm not alone either. I have found that other homeschooling moms share my belief.
http://momdelights.com/index.php/2016/06/01/escape-the-slavery-of-grade-levels-printable/
http://www.theunlikelyhomeschool.com/2017/03/without-grade-levels.html
https://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/homeschooling-grade-levels-relax/
Even public schools are beginning to see that "grade levels" don't matter as much as learning and mastering material.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/say-goodbye-fifth-grade-k-12-schools-test-competency-based-learning/
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