I’ve heard from several parents over the years with this loaded question: “Should my child skip a grade?” Now, when you’re homeschooling, as long as you’re following the legal requirements for where you live, parents can generally decide whether their children skip a grade. But before you decide to do that, there are some things you need to consider.
My posts contain affiliate links.
Skipping a grade during homeschooling is usually up to the homeschool parent. There can be a lot of reasons for doing this, but I’m going to caution you not to make a hasty decision to let your child skip a grade.
Questions to ask when your child wants to skip a grade
When your child wants to skip a grade or you think they should skip a grade, I want you to ask these questions first to analyze the motivation behind it. Be brutally honest.
- What am I hoping to accomplish?
- Why do I want them to skip ahead? What’s the goal here? Or what am I trying to avoid or overcome?
- What grade are they in now? Which grades would they be skipping?
- What would they miss (if anything) by skipping a grade (or two)?
- What are the challenges in skipping a grade (legally, paperwork, maturity, academics, extracurriculars)?
- What happens if they graduate at 14 or 16 instead of 18 because they skipped a grade?
- What benefit do I see by letting my child skip a grade?
- How would this benefit them more than NOT skipping?
- What could we do instead of skipping in order to accomplish the same final goal?
Listen to the podcast
On episode 237 of the Homeschool with Moxie Podcast, we talk about this topic in detail.
Some parents have asked me whether or not their child should skip a grade. Here are the questions I would ask and optional ideas to consider.
What could you instead of letting them skip a grade?
Homeschooling offers the flexibility to tailor your child’s education to their specific needs and interests. Instead of letting your child skip a grade, you can provide them with various opportunities to engage in more advanced and challenging activities within their current grade level. Here are some ideas:
- Advanced Curriculum: You can provide your child with more advanced curriculum materials or textbooks in subjects they excel in. This allows them to study at a more challenging level while staying within their current grade. Sometimes students are just not challenged with the courses you’ve selected for them. That’s okay. It doesn’t always mean they need to skip a grade. Instead, give them more challenging coursework while keeping them in the same grade.
- Enrichment Activities: Encourage your child to explore enrichment activities like science experiments, art projects, coding, or creative writing that go beyond the typical grade-level curriculum.
- Focus on Strengths: If your child shows an interest or aptitude in a specific subject (e.g., science, music, foreign language), you can offer more in-depth and specialized study in those areas.
- Independent Research: Let your child choose a topic they are passionate about and conduct independent research. This can involve reading books, watching documentaries, and creating projects related to their chosen subject. Letting them deep dive into topics and subjects they love is a great way to keep students in the same grade but provide a customized learning experience.
- Dual Enrollment: If your child is older, they might be able to take college-level courses or enroll in local community college classes to challenge themselves in subjects they are passionate about. Some students are even able to earn an Associate’s Degree at the same time they graduate with their high school diploma.
- Advanced Reading: Encourage your child to read more advanced books and literature beyond their grade level. Discuss the material with them to enhance comprehension.
- Mentorship: Connect your child with mentors or experts in fields they are interested in. Mentorship or apprenticeships can provide valuable insights and experiences beyond the core subjects.
- Competitions: Encourage your child to participate in academic competitions or extracurricular activities that align with their interests and abilities, such as spelling bees, math competitions, or science fairs. Or, your students might want to spend time preparing for individual music competitions or sporting events.
- Extracurriculars: Consider enrolling your child in extracurricular activities, such as sports, arts, or clubs, to develop social skills and explore different interests and pursue hobbies.
- Field Trips: Take educational field trips to museums, science centers, historical sites, and other places of interest. These experiences can be educational and inspiring.
- Project-Based Learning: Implement project-based learning, where your child explores topics in-depth and presents their findings or creations as projects.
- Life Skills: Don’t forget to spend time training your child in valuable life skills, whether they’re in elementary grade, middle school, or high school. There are so many topics and skills that most of us run out of time to teach to our kids, but if you don’t skip them ahead a grade, you’ll have more time to spend on those life skills that will serve them well past the time they need to remember how to figure out a polynomial equation.
- Work or Start a Business: It can be a very valuable undertaking to give your teen the time and space to work and save money on the side (while completing required academics) or start a business during the high school years rather than trying to figure out a way to skip over a grade and let them graduate early.
Remember that it’s essential to maintain a balance between challenging your child and ensuring they have a well-rounded education. It’s also crucial to consider your child’s interests, learning style, and pace when determining what activities and opportunities to pursue.
How can I track progress?
No matter the age or grade of your student, you’ll always want to be tracking progress. But this doesn’t mean you always need to do that with a test. Check out our post about this topic and download some free resources to help.
How do electives work on the transcript?
When your student is in high school and you’re keeping a homeschool transcript, you can absolutely track and credit electives your teen takes. Check out our posts about electives in high school in addition to the transcript template that we use for our homeschool.
Want to get regular help directly into your inbox? Join our email list below and get access to our members-only resource library.
