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Erica Sanchez
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| Posted: Feb 11 2014 at 6:18pm | IP Logged
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JodieLyn wrote:
| Lindsay, I would hold off until about age 9.. I recall that a lot of research showed that early readers and later readers tended to be at about the same place at age 9. So that if at the end of 4th grade they were still behind, that's when I would switch up the grades. |
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This is a good point, Jodie. My current 7th grader is probably one who could have repeated a grade. She read late and was just not at grade level for a long time. I never thought of having her repeat. I don't think I have ever thought of having any of my children repeat until this thread. We just kept going. A few years ago, we realized most were behind in math. We (they) have worked really hard to catch up to grade level. Well, except my brainy 9th grader who should be above grade level but won't do the work quickly. That's a different problem.
Anyway, back to my 7th grader. I have been pleasantly surprised to see her steadily move up to grade level work in most subjects. Recently, I asked her to bring me a book that she would like to read and she chose Girl of the Limberlost. I was going to tell her to chose an easier book, but she really wanted to read this one. She has been giving me consistent narrations and is doing very well with it! I share this just as an example of a student catching up with reading in the junior high grades.
I think now most of my children have so many friends in our homeschooling group their age/grade level that it would be very hard to have them repeat especially the closer they get to 8th grade graduation which we do up big here. :) I guess that sounds a bit like moving kids along no matter how they are doing, but our experience has been that the older they get the more they are aware of grade level work and they adjust their own studies accordingly. I hope that makes sense.
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Have a beautiful and fun day!
Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Feb 11 2014 at 7:42pm | IP Logged
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Chiming in late here-- just adding a different perspective. In elementary school I was advanced a grade when I moved from the Texas school system to the California public school system. I did fine socially and academically, but that had me graduating high school as a seventeen year old.
I turned 18 in October during my first year of college. That was such a hard year- I was too young and not ready to be away from home, and I quickly knew it. I toughed out that first year, and the next year was better. In my junior year, based on academic performance, I was given the opportunity to apply to my desired medical program a year early. Early acceptance would have given me an honorary college degree as well as an earlier start on my chosen career.
But I had learned my lesson! My first year of college would have been so much smoother and enjoyable if I had been a year older; I am convinced of that. By junior year I had figured out that life was not some kind of crazy numbers race to get ahead, and I was determined not to lose out on the whole experience of being a college senior. Besides, if I had taken early acceptance, that would have made me a full two years younger than other college graduates in the same program.
So I am all for taking the slow road. My dd has a mid-August birthday, so she did a K year, a k/1 year and then a full grade 1 year. She is in third grade now, whereas most of her peers are in 4th. It is right for her and does not bother me at all.
Will it bother her in the future? I can't predict that... but I do know that once I got into college no one (really- NO ONE) cared about what grade I did when, where I went to high school, blah, blah, blah... No one asked if I had been held back or moved up, and if I had told them, no one would have cared. There was only amusement that, as a college senior, I was not old enough to order myself a beer.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Erin
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| Posted: Feb 12 2014 at 9:03pm | IP Logged
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Well maybe it is all different here so my experience is probably irrelevant. We only ever really gave the kids grades to have an answer when the public asked. Have had my share over the years of the children being asked in public their grade and then (at quite old ages) asking "what grade am I in Mum?" 
So as I don't use many graded materials, grades aren't a problem and we don't need x.y hours in subjects like America, this is what has happened.
When young I've assigned a grade based on what they would be in the school system, and then just ignored it to work with where they are at. So they could be all over regards language arts, maths etc.
Our two oldest boys are those borderline ages, in the state school system they could have been very young Kindergarten kids, in the Catholic school system they would have missed out in being accepted by 6 weeks and the other child by 4 days (they could have bent the rules for him) so they would have been old Kindergartners. So to take the pressure off I went with the later date.
Remember this is all mainly to answer the public. Oldest son therefore was 'beginning Grade 12' when he went to a Catholic College summer camp and decided he was attending THAT year, as in the space of 1 week he decided that he would be leaving home a year earlier than planned ahem he left home a month later   Really it was the right move for him. He began college in the February, was the second youngest, mid May he turned 18.
Son 2 was 'Grade 10' and then skipped grade 11 sort of (he begin Open Uni courses for a bit, then dropped them) and somehow this year he is Grade 12 and leaving home next year.
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: Feb 21 2014 at 3:25pm | IP Logged
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I didn't read everything, but wanted to add a couple of cents from outside the homeschool community. I know several families that are struggling with having a senior that is 18 years old (turning in the fall or winter of the senior year). These youth are considered adults in the eyes of society (laws, military, etc.), so they are feeling very restricted in the high school environment. Caught between two worlds, so-to-speak, and ready to get on with living and shed the high school drama.
So, with that in mind, I will help my November boy work towards graduating before he turns 18. Of course, that's a goal, but life happens and we will work with his learning abilities, no matter what they will be (and if he requires an extra year, then so be it).
I just wanted to throw out the "adult" part of being 18 so that you can prepare for that transition if they are still in high school.
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Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Feb 21 2014 at 3:30pm | IP Logged
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So much depends on other things too. For instance sports. You can have a great deal of flexibility in how you do school and jobs and still let them finish out the year while they're 18 so that they can play that final year of HS sports.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Trill
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| Posted: Feb 24 2014 at 3:49pm | IP Logged
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I have a late October birthday and went off to college at 17. I cannot imagine turning 18 and having to go back for another year of high school. So we forged ahead with kindergarten last fall after my daughter turned five in June. She is much like I was as a child (early reader, great understanding of numbers and spatial relations, socially quirky).
On the other hand, I know young adults who really needed an extra year of maturity. I'm not sure what we'll do with the next child, with his September birthday.
Michelle
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Reading Level and Grade Level Discernment
