{"id":10304,"date":"2024-07-16T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simplehomeschl.wpengine.com\/?p=10304"},"modified":"2026-02-18T10:35:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T15:35:54","slug":"stepping-outside-the-grade-level-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/stepping-outside-the-grade-level-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping Outside the Grade-Level Box"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/stepping-outside-the-grade-level-box\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-65408\" src=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"Stepping Outside the Grade-Level Box\" width=\"675\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-1248x832.jpg 1248w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Stepping Outside the Grade-Level Box ~<br \/>\n<\/em><em>Written by <a href=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/author\/sarahs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Sarah Small<\/strong><\/a><\/em> of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/smallworldathome.blogspot.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Small World<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"drop_cap\">A<\/span>sk a homeschooled kid the innocuous \u201cWhat grade are you in?\u201d and you\u2019ll often get a furrowed brow and an answer with a question mark at the end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFourth?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This response can be alarming to grandparents, non-homeschooling friends, and the cashier at Walmart. Their raised eyebrows ask, \u201cHe doesn\u2019t know what grade he\u2019s in?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, no. Not exactly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That hallmark of traditional schooling\u2014the passing from grade to grade\u2014isn\u2019t of utmost importance in homeschooling. <\/strong>The age\/grade correlation just isn\u2019t necessarily present.<\/p>\n<p>If your nine-year-old is reading at a post-college level, does that make him 23? Who decided, after all, that picture books are for preK-3<sup>rd<\/sup> grade, that pre-algebra is done in middle school, and that high school takes four years?<\/p>\n<p>Who came up with all this stuff? I don\u2019t know the answer to that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What I do know is that homeschooling allows us to provide learning opportunities for our children <em>at their own pace.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Stepping Outside the Grade-Level Box<\/h2>\n<p>This might mean that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>your nine-year-old is reading at a 10<sup>th<\/sup>-grade level but has the fine motor skills of a kindergartener;<\/li>\n<li>or your 13-year-old daughter writes astounding stories but still doesn\u2019t know all her multiplication facts;<\/li>\n<li>or your son finished high school at 16, but your daughter plans to take a leisurely five years and graduate at 19.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>This can be tough for those of us who went through the traditional education system.<\/strong> By nature most homeschooling parents are outside-the-box thinkers, but we still tend to second-guess our choices every now and then, as if some public school administrator is peering over our shoulders and wagging his finger at us.<\/p>\n<p>I balk when I hear parents ask \u201cWhere can I find out where my child should be for his grade level?\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>The beauty of homeschooling is that it just doesn\u2019t matter. Our kids don\u2019t <em>have<\/em> to be boxed into a grade.<\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-65409\" src=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/girl-6098304_1280-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Stepping Outside the Grade-Level Box\" width=\"674\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/girl-6098304_1280-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/girl-6098304_1280-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/girl-6098304_1280-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/girl-6098304_1280-1248x832.jpg 1248w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/girl-6098304_1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 674px) 100vw, 674px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I remember a story my brother told me once about his daughter, then in first grade in public school. The teacher called him and his wife in for a conference. \u201cI need you to stop teaching her things at home,\u201d she said to them. \u201cShe is reading too far ahead and doing math that <em>we don\u2019t learn until the third grade.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My brother and his wife explained that they weren\u2019t teaching her at home, but that <strong>they weren\u2019t going to stop her from figuring things out on her own.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Last year I made the decision to skip over the next math textbook for my son. I compared the two consecutive years and realized that few new concepts were introduced in the 4<sup>th<\/sup> grade book. The question for <em>this particular child<\/em> became: <strong>Why spend an entire year doing the same old thing? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We moved into and through the 5<sup>th<\/sup> grade book easily, and then I looked at the 6<sup>th<\/sup> grade book and saw a whole year of the same old thing, again. But skipping another book would mean going into pre-algebra.<\/p>\n<p>Somehow I couldn\u2019t wrap my brain around my 10-year-old doing pre-algebra already, especially since my 13-year-old just finished the curriculum. But, well, he <em>can<\/em>. \u201cMove him up,\u201d my husband said simply and sensibly.<\/p>\n<p>My youngest guy likes math. He\u2019s excited about it, figures it out quickly, and is thrilled to be moving on to pre-algebra. On the other hand, he still reverses the letters \u201cb\u201d and \u201cd\u201d every now and then, and he\u2019s never written more than a paragraph on his own.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Is he in seventh grade or second grade? Does it matter?!<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Grade levels are necessary for the structure of traditional school, certainly, and they are generally necessary for things like clubs, sports, camps, and church activities.<\/p>\n<p>I think we should all teach our kids a basic grade-level answer (i.e., &#8220;I&#8217;m in fourth grade&#8221;), without feeling the need to explain to the general public that she&#8217;s doing 7<sup>th<\/sup> grade math, 5<sup>th<\/sup> grade science, and reading at a 9<sup>th<\/sup> grade level.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But in our own homes, shedding our mental checklist of &#8220;what your child should know in each grade&#8221; can be liberating\u2014and tremendously beneficial to our kids.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Homeschooling is all about finding the heartbeat of your family and following that pace\u2014not your neighbor&#8217;s, not your best homeschooling buddy&#8217;s, and not the grade level expectations for your child&#8217;s age.<\/p>\n<p><strong>* Bio: With a master&#8217;s degree in English\/creative writing, Sarah shared her beautiful words on Simple Homeschool for 4 years. <a href=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/author\/sarahs\/\">Read more of her inspirational words here!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65410\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65410\" style=\"width: 502px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-65410\" src=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-2-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Stepping Outside the Grade-Level Box\" width=\"502\" height=\"753\" srcset=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-2-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920-2.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65410\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Originally published July 2012<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"alert\"><em>What&#8217;s your philosophy on grades? What do your kids say when asked what grades they are in?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/quiz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What&#8217;s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie&#8217;s quiz now<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stepping Outside the Grade-Level Box ~ Written by Sarah Small of Small World Ask a homeschooled kid the innocuous \u201cWhat grade are you in?\u201d and you\u2019ll often get a furrowed brow and an answer with a question mark at the end. \u201cFourth?\u201d This response can be alarming to grandparents, non-homeschooling friends, and the cashier at&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":65408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[330,355,343,28,329],"tags":[318],"class_list":["post-10304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-getting-started","category-homeschool-101","category-homeschool-sos-inspiration","category-inspiration","category-learning-curriculum","tag-sh-top-100"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Stepping Outside the Grade-Level Box - Simple Homeschool<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stepping outside the grade-level box makes all the difference for homeschool families, but it&#039;s tough if we have a public school mindset.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/stepping-outside-the-grade-level-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stepping Outside the Grade-Level Box - Simple Homeschool\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stepping outside the grade-level box makes all the difference for homeschool families, but it&#039;s tough if we have a public school mindset.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/stepping-outside-the-grade-level-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Simple Homeschool\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/simplehomeschool\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-16T10:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-18T15:35:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/simplehomeschool.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/box-7767894_1920.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1276\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Small\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Small\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/simplehomeschool.net\\\/stepping-outside-the-grade-level-box\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/simplehomeschool.net\\\/stepping-outside-the-grade-level-box\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sarah Small\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/simplehomeschool.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5ac815b587acf16dc688a06c266afc79\"},\"headline\":\"Stepping Outside the Grade-Level Box\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-16T10:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-18T15:35:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/simplehomeschool.net\\\/stepping-outside-the-grade-level-box\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":834,\"commentCount\":147,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/simplehomeschool.net\\\/stepping-outside-the-grade-level-box\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/simplehomeschool.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/box-7767894_1920.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"SH Top 100\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Getting Started\",\"Homeschool 101\",\"Homeschool SOS &amp; 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