Do you do one grade level per year?

[2smartones]

Let me give you an example of what I'm asking. Let's assume you usually school from Aug to May (whether you have a summer session or not). It's March right now, so let's also assume you're 3/4 through this year's lesson plans except that you've already flown through one subject. Do you drop that subject until Fall, drop that subject just until the other subjects catch up (if you do summer school), or go ahead and start next year's book 5-6 months ahead of schedule?

 

The reason I ask is that our "school year" is May to May (year round), but our subjects and grade levels have always dovetailed a lot. People think I'm crazy, but I don't like wasting time. To me, there's so much to learn before college that I know my kids can't possibly learn it all. I'm going to use my time wisely and teach them as much as possible. Yes, we have plenty of breaks and vacations. I came from public school, though (both as a student and a teacher), and I saw just how much time was wasted.

 

When I talk about grade level, I usually tell people what grade my kids are in based on their weakest subject. That's because I know they'll do well in that grade in a classroom setting (whether co-op, summer camp, Bible class, or ... heaven forbid ... public school). However, their actual grade level may be much higher than that in the other subjects.

[patchfire]

We always keep going with math.

 

In general, we keep going with other skills subjects, but I sometimes try to vary the approach (e.g., my oldest has finished what I planned for the year for grammar and writing instruction, but she's doing a Killgallon book right now instead of going to the next level for grammar or writing).

 

With social sciences and science, I try to vary what we're doing. This year has been a strange one for both of those for my oldest, so she'll be doing something different than "planned" from now through to our next school year (which we typically start in late July or early August; we do a "May Term" and a lot of camps in June & early July).

 

Art and music appreciation: she's just finished both of those as I planned them out. I have two-three weeks' worth of books for her to read for music and one more weeks' worth of books about art. Then we stop until the next school year, at least in terms of formal study.

 

Clear as mud? :)

[regentrude]

We don't do "grade level". Each child gets to study each subject at his/her appropriate level. We don't have a fixed amount of book to go through for a subject - there is always more history or science that one can study. Or the kid says that he wants to do no more subject x right now and prefers to spend his time on subject y instead. The only thing we do continuously is math.

We do not use boxed curriculum, so maybe that's why the question has never come up.

[abbeyej]

My approach is similar to Kash's... We keep going with math. With grammar, we might continue to the next book (ds did two Stewart English books this year) or we might try something different (dd is doing a Killgallon book after finishing her other grammar program for the year). With history and lit, there's *always* more to add. Usually I plan so our history textbook takes about a year, and we just add in as many "extras" as we can fit. Obviously finishing a textbook early in the year wouldn't mean we'd covered all there was to cover of that period of history. ;) For lit, there are always more books to be read. :)

 

Some things I let them finish and be done 'til we begin our next school year. For instance, I planned for ds to get through one Critical Thinking in US History this year. There are others we could move on to, but I felt that one was what I wanted to cover this year. He did a chapter a week (basically) and finished this week. And now we're done. He'll finish the Biblical literacy I wanted covered this year soon, and I won't insist he start the next 'til the fall. ... On the other hand, dd finished her science text early and I felt it was a little light this year, so I was happy to assign another book for the rest of the year.

 

So... Um... I guess "it depends"?? ;)

 

Helpful, huh?

 

I guess ultimately it comes down to this: we keep going with skill subjects. Sometimes we take a different approach for a while rather than just speeding along, but we don't set it aside. With core content (history and science) we fill out the year since there's always more to cover. With some of the "extras" though, I let them go when we've finished what I hoped to cover in the school year.

[Laura Corin]

I just used to keep going, starting new books whenever we finished the old ones. I used to ring the changes with some slots though: art history would turn into music appreciation; logic would turn into RE or philosophy. You don't have to teach all subjects all the time.

 

Laura

[delaney]

My younger DD is technically a first grader but does math 1st(but is finishing), reading 3rd, WWE 2 quickly, spelling 4th, and does history and science with her 5th grade sister. She is just chugging along at her own pace.

[MaMa2005]

We keep going - to a point. I know how far I will let DS get in a subject at the beginning of the year. Once we have reached that point in formal study, I go to something different. As you can see from my siggy, we have done a lot this year, but in some areas we are DONE until school starts again in late July/early August. By this time of the year, DS is going deeper and wider on his own, exploring what is really interesting to him at the moment. It also allows some additional dedicated time to extras such as piano and Mandarin.

[2smartones]

I just used to keep going, starting new books whenever we finished the old ones. I used to ring the changes with some slots though: art history would turn into music appreciation; logic would turn into RE or philosophy. You don't have to teach all subjects all the time.

 

Laura

 

I do exactly this, but only with related subjects. Like, when we finish science early, we'll do health. When we finish English early, we'll do something like Writing Strands or Reading Comprehension from Varied Subject Matter. We end up covering about 13 subjects (or mini-subjects?) per year that way. We only do about 5-6 on any given day, though. Math, English, Latin, and Bible are everyday, no matter what. The others are phased in and out throughout the year.

[anneofalamo]

We do two maths, one is a book the other is a computer program(Alek), the book is completed (although this year we did two book levels in math u see for one child that finally clicked), and we finished Grammar (easy grammar), but they have a new book to do one or two Daily Grams every day.

The time we put into math book and Grammar goes into Science and History for longer times, and we do way more Art at the end of the year, and out door things!

We do Daily Grams and Aleks (math) through the summer, 1/2 hour math, 2 pages Daily Grams, music practice, read book at least 1/2 hour (off reading list) and then chores, by then their neighborhood friends are up and they are ready to play!

It really helps keep them from being bored! tee hee

[Jen in PA]

For some things (math, Latin, science) we keep going. For others, like history, I aim to go deeper or spend a bit of extra time on special projects the dc choose for themselves.

[EKS]

I plan so that we have enough to do in history and science to last 9 months. I expand the amount of time we spend on these subjects by adding lots of supplemental reading.

 

In math, English, and Latin we usually just keep going.

 

As for grade level, I just tell people my kid's grade-by-age level.

 

This is for my 9yo. My 14yo has more than enough work to keep him busy until the end of the year.

[Dmmetler]

On paper, yes-although our cover school encourages progressing kids ahead when they progress a grade level, I'm not going to even TRY to go there. She's already young for her grade due to being accelerated in PS. If she has to go back to school for some reason, I'd rather not have her go back in with kids who are 3-4 years older than she is!

 

In curriculum, depends on the subject. She's on her third grade of math for this year, and we've skipped a couple of grammar and science before finding curricula that seem to work for her, but she's still working on the same handwriting book, and I want her to go back when her writing is better and actually do the exercises for Latin in the book and make sure she really has them, so while she'll be doing different Latin next year, I'm not considering LfC A "passed" this year-only introduced.

[Dinsfamily]

We keep going for the 3Rs but might dive deeper, follow bunny trails or change focus in other subjects. I pretty much follow ds's lead at this point. We school year-round (June-June) but it ends up being about the same amount of days as a regular school year. We just take different times off.

[KAR120C]

Let me give you an example of what I'm asking. Let's assume you usually school from Aug to May (whether you have a summer session or not). It's March right now, so let's also assume you're 3/4 through this year's lesson plans except that you've already flown through one subject. Do you drop that subject until Fall, drop that subject just until the other subjects catch up (if you do summer school), or go ahead and start next year's book 5-6 months ahead of schedule?

When we were doing elementary school/ grammar stage stuff (arithmetic, spelling and grammar, science that jumped from topic to topic, Story of the World), we just kept going. There was a lot of skill-development that needed the review, breaks just gave him time to forget things, and there wasn't a really cohesive theme to any year that made a change to a new book all that different....

 

Things have changed though. We tend to wallow in a topic for a year rather than through a set amount of material. Like this year we're doing Discrete Math. He finished the stuff I really needed him to finish to call it a full course.... In theory I suppose we could drop it, but I'd rather use the time to go into more depth in one area or another. So we're doing some extra work in the same area (especially cryptography applications). Same with lit/comp... Next year we're doing a focus on Identity and Immigration/ Diaspora literature... we'll just keep reading (and writing) without regard for whether it is already "credit-worthy". I think at some point it's not a linear progression as much as it is a good area to sink his teeth into. Goodness knows one could do a dissertation on Immigrant/Diaspora literature, or on some facet of Discrete Math... We're not going to run out of interesting material before the year is up!

 

We do still just keep going on foreign language. That's skills work again, and an area that suffers from taking a summer off. He is going to be sort-of-off for the summer with Latin because it's a class... but he'll still be doing review work, and reading ahead for next year.

[Spetzi]

When I talk about grade level, I usually tell people what grade my kids are in based on their weakest subject. That's because I know they'll do well in that grade in a classroom setting (whether co-op, summer camp, Bible class, or ... heaven forbid ... public school). However, their actual grade level may be much higher than that in the other subjects.

 

I always put my kids in with their age mates. I would never have thought about assessing the grade level of their weakest subject. Now that I think of it, most of these forms ask for bday or bday AND grade. Hmmm....

 

We always continue learning in some way. DD ran out of science (again) so we picked up a bunch of magnets and opened a few books we had and she just read about magnets and did her own experiments until I got her into another curric. With math, we may not continue w/the next grade level, but take the time to work on problem solving, stats or other areas of interest that might not be fully covered in a traditional math program.

 

I agree that they (all of us, too) have so much to learn, I want them to make good use of their time.

[musicianmom]

My daughter is 5 this year, so she's in kindergarten. She'll remain a kindergartner till our new school year starts this summer. I think it's less tricky that way.

 

As far as individual subjects go, I don't plan them year by year. Whenever she finishes one level, she starts on the next.

[Embassy]

For curriculum we just keep going. I set aside a certain amount of time to spend on a subject for the entire school year and they go at their pace. If they finish in March they start the next grade level in March. If they don't finish by the end of the school year they keep going the next school year.

 

We don't use curriculum for things like history, geography, art, etc. so grade levels are a little irrelevant. We finish the subject for the school year when we have completed the "set aside time."

 

I do the grade = age thing. If they are first grade age I call them a first grader. Although I was a little caught off guard when I was asked what grade level work my son was doing. How do I answer that when he is all over the board based on the subject?

Edited March 12, 2011 by Wehomeschool

[2smartones]

Although I was a little caught off guard when I was asked what grade level work my son was doing. How do I answer that when he is all over the board based on the subject?

 

I understand! I usually say "mostly this, but a little of that". :)

[Paintedlady]

I'm not at all concerned about grade level. I keep them going year round on math, grammar and reading, especially important for my dd, who is dyslexic. If we're not finished with a subject like history by the end of the year we'll keep going until we finish it over the summer.

[JennW in SoCal]

Hmmm. I was always an unschooler at heart with the attitude that learning never stops. And until high school I never thought in terms of courses per school year, we simply moved onto the next thing.

 

The joke was on me in high school, though. I counted 4 school years back from when I figured they'd be ready to start college, and called it 9th grade, but both decided to graduate early and move on. I never did have a 12th grader!

 

I'm glad I always referred to them as being in their age appropriate grade. It made sense for outside activities, but otherwise it didn't really matter. And even sillier, even though I homeschooled with the attitude that grade never mattered, I still find myself asking kids what grade they are in! I suppose it is a cultural habit, a kind of shorthand for figuring out what a kid is doing.

[catz]

We don't do "grade level". Each child gets to study each subject at his/her appropriate level.

 

:iagree: If people ask I just tell them the age appropriate grade level. When people want to know that, they are generally asking about age and don't REALLY want to get into the finer points of our curriculum choices. And for my 4th grader, I'd be answering 8th grade+ right now, which would make eyes roll no doubt.

 

We are fairly laid back in terms of work load. Kids do many extra curricular activities, we hit music lessons heavy, and have lots of time for pursuit of their own passions. We take summers "off" but I feel like we do more hands on/nature stuff/free reading plus continue music and extras so I don't feel it is lost time by any means. We all (and especially ME) get to the point where we're all ready for a change of pace. I might do a little math maintenance/journalling with the kids this summer. But during the school year we just keep rolling along to the next thing. My (young - summer b-day) 1st grader reads at 4th-5th grade level, does 2nd grade math, etc.

Edited March 12, 2011 by kck

[Kuovonne]

My daughter is 5 this year, so she's in kindergarten. She'll remain a kindergartner till our new school year starts this summer. I think it's less tricky that way.

 

:iagree:

Glitter just turned 5, so this is her preK year. No matter how much she begs, she doesn't get to be in kindergarten until September. OTOH, she insisted on doing school, so she's already using the curriculum that I was saving for her kindergarten year. Poor girl, she gets all the hard work of kindergarten, but not the glory of the label.

 

As far as individual subjects go, I don't plan them year by year. Whenever she finishes one level, she starts on the next.

 

:iagree:

Our school year is September to May. September is when you are promoted to the next grade. On the other hand, we also school over the summer, and I have yet to have *any* textbook start in September and end in May. I start and stop books whenever I feel like, regardless of the calendar.

[regentrude]

If people ask I just tell them the age appropriate grade level. When people want to know that, they are generally asking about age and don't REALLY want to get into the finer points of our curriculum choices. .

 

I have never been asked what grades my kids are in. If somebody asked me, I'd probably answer "We homeschool. He is 11 and she is 13."

Nobody has EVER asked what my kids study.

[nmoira]

We keep going with most subjects and rotate in a different subject with the remainder. I generally don't mention grade levels to others except to say, "She'd be in x grade if she were in school."

[StephanieZ]

Nah, I don't worry about that too much. In some subjects, we'll take time off or do a rabbit trail for a while if we finish 'ahead of schedule', but in others we just move on. We're never particularly on schedule and rarely start subjects at a traditional time. I don't get too worked up about it.

[Paige]

We are doing a mix. For some things, we will keep moving forward whenever we finish a level (math, handwriting, reading). For other things, we might drop it for a while and add something different into the mix (electives). And for other things, we may drop it completely except for a little practice and review until the school year starts again. We have finished MCT Island and level one of La Clase Divertida, for instance, and I won't start the next levels until August even though we school year round. Mostly because it is expensive. In the interim we are doing other Spanish activities (watching Spanish language cartoons, reading Spanish books, reviewing our vocabulary), and DS does 1 practice sentence a day for Grammar and is writing and reading poetry, but we aren't doing any formal Grammar anymore. I would go broke if we didn't take breaks.

[alpidarkomama]

We just keep sailing along a continuum. We take July off for camp at our synagogue (but still do reading, math, and Hebrew most days). Otherwise, we're year-roundish.

 

Regarding grade level, we just say the grade the child would be in for their age. Whatever! :)

[Donna]

We just continue with math (early on it was 2.5 per year but now we only do math 3-4 days a week and I use a couple different programs so it's about 1.5/year) , usually do 2 levels in spelling, and the rest I do without any regard to grade level anyway so who knows.

 

When people ask about grade level I say what grade she'd be in if in school. Way less complicated that way.

[Crimson Wife]

We HS year round and start the next level of the curriculum whenever the previous one is finished. Sometimes I'll take a break to do a specialized thing.

 

My kids are enrolled in whichever grade they would be in for PS. So my oldest is in 3rd regardless of what level materials I'm using with her. Ditto for my K5 student.

[JadeOrchidSong]

We just keep going. I never have a day that I can say, "This is the day my ds finished 2nd grade." because I never start all subjects the same time. When I finish one book, we go on to the next book in curriculum.

Right now my ds 8.3 is doing Singapore 4A, R&S English 4 while ds6.2 is doing FLL2, WWE1, Singapore 2B, AAS 3 with ds8. So we might be a grade or two ahead of their actual ages, but it works ok.

I am slowing him down for R&S English a lot since he completed 3 last Dec. and we just started 4 now.

We also don't take the whole summer off. We take about 6 weeks off in the summer, which might be even longer than some of you.

[AK_Mom4]

We just keep going, too. Exccept with Latin this year - when we finished it at Christmas, we just stopped because I hate Latin. DD9 enjoys it, though, so she goes back and reads her books over again.