How do you decide what grade to put your children in?

[krisp]

Age here too.

 

dd #2 has a July birthday and will be going into 2nd grade when we start school (either next Monday or the Monday after) even though she did mostly 2nd grade work last year.

 

ds will be 5 in November, way after the ps cutoff date of September 1. He's ready for kindergarten work, will be doing kindergarten work, but will be classified as K-4. He's not particularly mature for his age, much less a year "ahead".

 

The only things that it currently matters for are AWANA and Sunday School and AWANA requires that they be 5 according to the school cutoff, so I couldn't bump him up there if I wanted to.

 

I skipped a grade in elementary school. I was one of the older kids in the class (cutoff date was Dec 31 and I have an April birthday) but probably one of the least mature. Then when I skipped, I was still bored silly in school AND the most immature in my class. I'd much rather my kids take college classes from home/online/whatever their senior year of high school than deal with some of the difficulties I had, going to college very young and immature. JMO though.

[Renee in NC]

Mostly by age, but my 8yo is a special case. He is third grade age, but on a first grade level. I call him 2nd grade, but only because he is at the 97th percentile for height for his age and he TOWERS over first graders!:tongue_smilie:

[Mom-ninja.]

age

[Pamela H in Texas]

Take age as of the cut off date in your area (or Sept 1st), subtract 5 and you have the grade level. By this math, a 6yo is in 1st and an 8yo is going into 3rd.

 

I would not grade skip at these ages. Other than summer bdays, I also wouldn't hold a kid back at these ages. A 7yo who isn't reading yet is not in need of another year in 1st grade. He'll catch up one day as much as reasonable for him (the majority of kids will completely catch up with an approrpiate education). If your 6yo is on a 5th grade level, great. At 12, you might decide to grade skip him, but I'd wait til he's a teen or real close. You can still give him 5th grade work in 1st grade as reasonable for him.

 

BTW, this is from experience both ways. And going by what they would have been in school wouldn't have worked here either as that included more than one grade skip for one and a move back for the other. Seriously, it's just easier to use their age as of the state cut-off minus 5.

[Ester Maria]

Formally, they're in grades by their age. They also take grade-level exams each year.

Informally, they're a few grades above in most of the subjects (not the same ones though) and I allow them to work at their level, as long as they cover the formal stuff they have to cover that year.

[Moni]

How do you decide what grade to put your children in

 

Age minus five equals grade.

 

:seeya:

[melmichigan]

I gave my kids the PS labels that were appropriate for their coursework, but then explained to them that they couldn't graduate until they were 18. GRIN. So, my 10yo dd was in 7th grade, because her coursework was all 7th grade work (and higher). Now she's 16yo, and finished a semester of college...but she won't graduate from high school for two more years. She's told friends that she's a "fifth year senior for eligibility reasons." It's fun to confuse the world. :)

 

 

I so love this.