Grades 6 and up... youngest child in the class questions

[shinky]

Our three daughters all have birthdays that fall within days/weeks of the cut-off for starting school. They will be two years apart in school. While we plan on homeschooling them through the elementary grades, we would like to keep our options open as to sending them to private/public school later on. For those of you who are homeschooling older students, what do you see as advantages/disadvantages of sending them early vs holding them back? I would really appreciate advice from anyone who went ahead and sent their daughters to a public school for the upper grades.

I was the youngest in my class, so I tend to want to hold them back. There was pressure on me twenty years ago. I can't imagine the social pressures of today's teens.

I'm wanting to make sure we don't start early, then end up wishing we would've waited. But I also don't want to start late and wish we would've gotten their school careers over with earlier.

How's that for on-the-fence?

[Lillian J]

It sounds as if they're not school age yet (?), so you have years to feel out and sort out what "grade" level they might be categorized in by the time school could come along. But you don't need to start and proceed in grade level blocks of time - they can be all over the chart in learning of various things, and that's absolutely fine, because it can quite easily all level out by the time they're approaching middle school or high school level studies.

My own leaning is always to think in terms of placement that would allow them to be on the older side. I was skipped in school so that I ended up younger than everyone from 5th grade on, and I realized later why it was always a little challenging to fit comfortably in socially. When you're in the middle of it, you don't think, "Well, gee, I'm younger than everyone else, so it's only natural that...(whatever)...", so you tend to expect more of yourself during years that are challenging enough in their own rite. But even just academically, it's so much easier to learn things older rather than younger. When homeschooling, it doesn't matter when they learn what, but if they do end up in school, they'll have to be marching to others' drums, so I personally feel that the older they are, the better...

But you may very well end up enjoying the homeschooling lifestyle so much, and being so impressed with the way it fits for them, that school will never even enter you minds later. Lillian

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by shinky

I'm wanting to make sure we don't start early, then end up wishing we would've waited. But I also don't want to start late and wish we would've gotten their school careers over with earlier.

Don't flatter yourself, lol; little of what you do, especially with respect to whether you "start" homeschooling at age 3, 4, 6 or 8, is going to have a significant influence on your kids' academic level years later. There are too many other factors at play. My eldest didn't start formal math until age 6, but finished K-8 math at age almost-10 and then lost all interest in math for over three years. So a late start, then incredible precocity, then settling back into something a year or so ahead of her age-mates. Over the same time period she went from being apparently socially reticent and "young for her age" to carrying herself with incredible maturity through a couple of months of international travel with some adult friends, and developing mature, responsible friendships with young adults rather than agemates.

So much can change. I don't think there's any reason to second-guess yourself on what feels right in the here and now.

Miranda

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

Don't flatter yourself, lol; little of what you do, especially with respect to whether you "start" homeschooling at age 3, 4, 6 or 8, is going to have a significant influence on your kids' academic level years later.

Agreed. Let go of all concept of grade levels and just do things that are fun and interesting to them.

My kids homeschooled in a relaxed way until they were 10 and 12, and now attend school. We went with age-appropriate grade placements. Both my kids read at college level (in spite of the fact that one of them didn't read until she was 8).

Grade levels don't matter at all when you homeschool, and *most* kids who attend school are a bit all over the place in regards to where they really are, even though they are moving through the same curriculum at the same pace.

Some schools (like ours) are good at accomodating students working at different levels and some aren't. Just do what works for now and deal with it when you get there.

[Momma Aimee]

our boys are fall birthdays

Oct and Nov

and we are soooooooooo glad that they will be the oldest in their class when / if they go to school.

Theo will be kindy age in 2011 -- offically -- School in late Aug or Sept and he will turn 6 in Nov ... (not that he will be going to K, or 1st or 2nd or 3rd -- but you see what i mean) ..... not that we worry about it -- we'll start kindy when he is ready and advace as he does

If we were "on the fecne age" then we would choose to hold them bad and have them be oldest rather than youngest. We will choose maturity of the extra year -- escpailly since ours are boys.

however, after homeschooling the first 4 or 5 years at home -- when they do go to school (5th or 6th or middle school) then ... who klnows they may be ahead and thus go into a grade 'above" their age (or two) and be the yougest ... we'll see when we get there. We haven't really started yet, adn i have no illusions that much of what we do now at 4 is going to matter in 6th grade but it will matter now and 6 months from now and so on ....

[shinky]

I had no idea that the kids could work on different levels, finish curriculums early, etc... I taught in public schools just long enough to have "ideas" about schooling - not necessarily home-schooling. I love this idea of thinking. It answers a lot of questions I had about how/when to start.

Thanks!!!