Completing two grade levels in a year

[calledtobehome]

I'm new to the accelerated board so please bear with me.

Thinking aloud here and looking for some input.

 

If I wanted to start our new school year in Jan and try to complete two grade levels (3/4) in one year, how would I go about getting it done? My son is almost 8.5 yrs old.

[regentrude]

Welcome!

I would simply stop worrying about "grade level" and teach him with materials that are suitable to his level and proceed at whatever pace he wants to go.

[kohlby]

Agree. Just start on whatever level he's on and continue on. We don't worry about which books get done when. For some subjects, like science, we're not on any specific grade level, just learning where his interests lie. You'll find that for gifted kids, just moving faster isn't always the way to go - they need more in depth. He did zoom through the maths fast, intil I switched to AoPS for Algebra I. I finally found a math that was on his level and really works well for gifted kids. It's not a race. My 9 year old is a 4th grader. It doesn't matter that he's in high school math or middle school level for other things. I still call him a 4th grader since that's how old he is. Gifted kids need more depth, more detail, more analysis.

[boscopup]

I'm not sure why you're wanting to do this? Just go at your kid's pace. That may include doing multiple grade levels in certain subjects and only one grade level in other subjects. No big deal. Just call your kid a 3rd grader this year and give him materials that match his ability, letting him go through them as fast or slow as he needs.

 

My oldest is the same age. He is all over the place. When he finishes a level in one subject, I just move on to the next level, regardless of where we are in the school year. On May 24, we'll officially end our school year and be on break for a few weeks. He'll probably have just started a new math book the month before. He'll be in the middle of a spelling book. He'll hopefully have finished our history year and be ready for the next one. He'll be in the middle of our writing curriculum (which I'm spreading over 2 years and throwing in other things). He'll probably have finished a grammar book that we didn't start until about 6 weeks ago. We just work at his speed in each subject. I avoid curriculum that boxes up a bunch of subjects by grade level. Those won't work for him. His grade level designation is done by age and isn't at all affected by the level of work he does each day.

 

Now accelerating individual subjects... Sometimes, we just skip lessons he already knows. Or we might double up on lessons and assign less problems. We do that a lot in math, where I know he knows something, but I want him to practice it to make sure it's still in there. So we'll do two lessons, but assign half the problems in each lesson. There is no need to do every single problem/exercise/fill-in-the-blank. Tell the inner box checker that it doesn't all have to be done. ;) Your goal is to teach your child the material, not make sure every worksheet is completely filled in.

[maize]

Now accelerating individual subjects... Sometimes, we just skip lessons he already knows. Or we might double up on lessons and assign less problems. We do that a lot in math, where I know he knows something, but I want him to practice it to make sure it's still in there. So we'll do two lessons, but assign half the problems in each lesson. There is no need to do every single problem/exercise/fill-in-the-blank. Tell the inner box checker that it doesn't all have to be done. ;) Your goal is to teach your child the material, not make sure every worksheet is completely filled in.

 

This.

 

The general advice to just go at your child's pace and not worry about grade level works for most situations. If you have some specific reason to try to cover 2 years in 1 (say you were planning to put a child back in school and wanted them put in x grade) I would look at the subjects individually and decide what specifically you need to cover to be at x grade level in a year. Content areas such as history or science at the elementary level cover rather arbitrary material--if the child will be entering school I would try to find what they are teaching and cover the bare bones basics of those; familiarity should be sufficient at the elementary level. Otherwise I would just choose what I want the child to learn or what they are interested in learning and not worry about grade level material. Skill areas you have to start where they are and work up to where you want them to be. Math is the most sequential, so assuming the child is at early 3rd grade level I would start there, maybe have them do math 6 days a week, skip/skim sections they understand easily, and just keep going until we get where we want to be. Mastery based programs (Singapore or Math Mammoth, for example) are easier to do this with. We have skipped whole sections on things like measuring (she understood already) and time (I got her an analog watch instead). Also, each year usually starts with a review of material from the year before; if you're continuing straight through you probably don't need much review and can skip or skim those sections. Language arts are not so sequential by nature; again, if the child is going into someone else's program then I would look at their scope and sequence and determine what skills my child will need to have. Otherwise, I would come up with my own goals and go from there. Personally I think lots of reading of high quality materials is a sufficient language arts for many children at that level, preferably combined with some copywork practice.

[La Texican]

I "get" the question, I do. You have already completed three years counting kindergarten. Your kid can do more. By doing two grades in one year you provide that "more" without worrying about gaps and holes.

 

You can choose to use curriculum compacting as one method. You pre-test on the next chapter. If they already know the material then you can skip it or assign only the even number problems. If they don't know it then you can teach it.

 

Or if your child does the work quickly, understands it, retains and applies it, then I personally think it's just fine to let them go on and work ahead. Practice makes perfect. Some kids can easily do all that and still have lots of time left over in the day to do their own thing.

 

By teaching two grades in one year you are raising the baseline of their weakest skills. Often the amount of handwriting required is a stumbleing block to an advanced learner, depending on their learning environment. That goes in the pro's column of doing two grades in one year, along with practice, consistancy, and effort. The con's side shows us that the direction this choice takes us prepares us perform the assignments, produce the effort and learn to answer the questions the book is asking very correctly and efficiently. Does it take away at all from learning to ask our own questions, does it take time traveling this road that somehow is a fork in the road that you can't go back and spend that same time working on your strengths? Yes and no. The time has been spent and the habits formed, but it was spent building a knowledge bank and skills.

 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding

 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_acceleration

[FairProspects]

If you are just talking about the grade levels on the front of the book, sure, it is easy to do 2 grade levels or more in a year. But as far as thought processes, an accelerated 8 y.o will not come close to what an accelerated 10 y.o. can do and I think that needs to be considered if you are talking about complete grade acceleration.

[quark]

I would actually do it by not trying specifically to make it happen. I am not trying to discourage you OP, you know your needs better. I'll tell you what happened with us.

 

When I realized my son could finish 2 or more grade levels in a year and tried to see if I could help him to do it, it didn't work as smoothly as I'd thought it would. I'm usually a very organized, methodical person and I could have made it happen but to actually plan it and structure it that way, it would have just driven him batty. And it would have worried me no end to see him batty or frustrated. And besides, I was losing faith in this whole grade level thing. I was realizing how shallow grade level expectations are, even before reading about others' experience with kids working way above grade level. Grade levels are SO diluted. They should offer challenge when a child needs it most and that is in his most formative early years so his brain is used to working harder, rising to the challenge...it's ridiculous to expect this of EVERY child only when he's in high school.

 

It was when I stopped planning to accelerate that the REAL learning happened. And when it was REAL, my son basically self-accelerated. I couldn't have known enough to find his sweet spot. He found it and was telling me and I took a long time to listen. But when I did I knew it was right.

 

Anyway, it was when we were more relaxed about learning, more flexible about trying new things, letting life happen, allowing him to learn by trial and error, to use his hands as well as his head and touch, feel, try, fail, try again. To put curriculum (that's designed to be one size fits all) aside and discuss why something happens the way it does and see if it will work better another way, why or why not, what else can we do, what parameters should we change, what variables come into play and what else is connected to what he is learning. These are the things that really helped his mind to grow and expand and be willing to make mistakes and learn from them.

 

I do suggest that you try compacting and accelerating and see if it works out for you. If the light is still shining in your guy's eyes a few months later, congratulations. If it's not, let it go a little and let him show you what he's ready for? We homeschoolers are always tweaking around anyway and he's still so young so I don't think you'll lose much by trying either way. Good luck!

[poetic license]

 

 

It was when I stopped planning to accelerate that the REAL learning happened. And when it was REAL, my son basically self-accelerated. I couldn't have known enough to find his sweet spot. He found it and was telling me and I took a long time to listen. But when I did I knew it was right.

 

 

LOVE this reply... could you elaborate on the above paragraph? What do you mean by "REAL" learning? More self-directed?

[quark]

LOVE this reply... could you elaborate on the above paragraph? What do you mean by "REAL" learning? More self-directed?

 

 

Thank you poetic license. I'm trying to find the best words. :p Yes, you could say becoming more self-directed in a way. Being much more invested in his own learning journey compared to what would have happened if I'd just handed him a plan and expected it to be completed in a set number of minutes or hours a day. I don't mean that he works on one lesson for hours a day but what I mean is that the plan would have been mine, but the learning would not have been his if that makes sense. Ownership is probably a better word. The agenda was his. He wanted XYZ to happen and when I really thought about it, XYZ was much more fun, much more exciting, and funnily also much, much more advanced than the ABC I thought he was ready for.

 

I saw this over and over again...the more freedom of choice he had, the more he learned and more quickly, more deeply all at once. The more he could apply what he was learning, the more he could explain and make inferences and the more he could problem solve. Lots of times we just waited for maturity to kick in. Lots of times it looked as if he was just reading, not internalizing any of it, not analyzing, not asking questions. But real learning is not always immediate. For example, the OP asks how to accelerate 2 grade levels in a year...some years, kids can learn in leaps and bounds (if allowed to) and some years they just want to stew and it looks like they are not learning much. This is completely natural. I just can't see progress being limited to a steady 1.5 or two or 2.5 grade levels every year. It just took me so long to realize it's natural. I was constantly fretting about this given the kind of environment we live in but once I let it go, it all took care of itself.

 

I speak to a lot of newbie homeschoolers (newer than me lol) and one of the things I tell them is yes, you don't need 12 years to complete your K-12 education but at the same time, completing K-12 education should not be the end goal. I want my son to take what *he* is to college. Not what some textbook committee or curriculum designer created if ykwim. I want him to think for himself, come up with answers as well as questions, work it out, teach me, better still, teach his Dad, question authority (politely, firmly), take risks and even fail if necessary because that is what REAL life is. And he has only one life to live. Grade levels just don't gel with the life I think he deserves. I kinda refuse to allow grade levels to dictate what and how we want to learn. I want to get out of that whole grade-level, learn-only-what-they-tell-you-to box. And I want him to have a really cool, happy, always laughing kinda life too. He he, maybe I just want too much for him. :laugh:

 

Once you can let it go, you will automatically relax, your kid will automatically relax (and I don't mean relax with video games lol, we have very clear and firm rules about such things at home) and the learning will happen in a more natural, authentic way. You can structure things till the cows come home and unless you have that very special kind of child, all he'll learn is how to fake it and look like he's doing his work. I know this from personal experience of course. I'm not saying lose the structure, because I am not able to do that completely myself. I mean just don't let the structure get in the way of enjoying knowledge.

 

Right now, I do worry that he's not learning to write. Not learning to love WWS lol. Not learning Latin. Not learning to tie his shoes. Based on what I've seen so far though, I think all this can happen if I'm patient. And if he doesn't learn Latin now, he has the rest of his life for it. I don't want to require that he learns writing, or grammar, or even history for that matter because it will not be genuine if I do. I think it's because I don't require it of him that he picks up the books he does. He's just that kind of kid and I do sometimes wonder if a lot of boys are. REAL learning I think is very closely linked to loving to learn. Wanting it for yourself, and not because someone is expecting it of you. I do however expect that he doesn't whine when something is hard and that he give it his best shot.

 

I hope I answered your question!

[Uff Da!]

Ownership is probably a better word. The agenda was his. He wanted XYZ to happen and when I really thought about it, XYZ was much more fun, much more exciting, and funnily also much, much more advanced than the ABC I thought he was ready for.

 

 Thank you Quark!