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What Grade Level Is Your Child?
Imagine with me that you want to take a class at your local community center in order to progress in your favorite hobby; it might be knitting or blacksmithing or photography. Whatever it is, you want to improve your skills.
So you look over the classes that are being offered and you find three options. One is labeled as a beginners class, one as intermediate, and one as advanced. Reading through the descriptions, you determine that you already know how to do the skills that are being taught in the beginner class and the advanced class looks way too complicated, so you choose the intermediate class.
But when you go to register for that class, you are told that, since you are 31, you belong in the beginner class. How would you feel? It’s frustrating when you already know the skill but you’re not allowed to advance.
Or what if you go to register and are told that, since you are 34, you belong in the advanced class. It’s frustrating when you’re forced to tackle an advanced skill that you’re not yet ready for.
There can be a vast difference between what your 6-year-old can do and what another 6-year-old can do when it comes to certain skills.
You may be thinking, “But that’s not going to happen. They don’t assume my skill level based on my age.” You’re right; it doesn’t make sense to dictate a person’s skill level based on her age.
Yet we do it all the time with our children.
It’s true that there is usually a vast difference between what a 6-year-old can do and what a 17-year-old can do, but there can also be a vast difference between what your 6-year-old can do and what someone else’s 6-year-old can do when it comes to certain skills. And that’s the key word: skills.
Skills and Content
In any curriculum, there are skills and there is content, or topics. Skills must be taught in a specific order, and each must be mastered before moving on to the next one. For example, in math, you need to learn to count before you can learn to add; and once you know how to add, then you can learn how to multiply. There is a specific sequence that must be followed for learning skills, and each person might progress at a different pace through the sequence. In fact, each person might progress at a different pace in different sets of skills. Your 6-year-old might find it easier to think in numbers and to progress in math skills than she does to think in letters and to progress in reading skills.
But skills are different from content, or topics. For example, take the topic of the Middle Ages in history. Does it matter whether you teach about castles or about samurai first? Must a student master Genghis Khan before he can move on to learning about Timbuktu? No. Those are topics, and as long as the content is appropriate for the child, it doesn’t matter how old he is or what grade level we have assigned to him.
Skill-based subjects are different from topic-based subjects.
There are basically only two skill-based subjects: math and language arts. (We can also throw in upper-level sciences, but that’s mainly because they involve math skills.) That’s it: math and language arts. Everything else is topic-based: history, geography, Bible, art, music, poetry, nature study, and all of the other wonderful variety of subjects included in a Charlotte Mason education.
Knowing the difference between skill-based subjects and topic-based subjects is important, because all too often they are meshed together and given an age-grade label. It’s not unusual for a homeschool parent to say something like, “My child is in third grade, but he’s ‘behind.’” I encourage you to shift your thinking. That type of thinking indicates that you’re potentially stuck in an “age-graded, all-or-nothing” mentality. As a homeschooler, you don’t have to stay in that narrow and confining box.
Age Grading Makes No Sense in a Home School
“Age grading” means grouping children by age and expecting them all to learn the same skills and content at the same time. That practice was set up in the 1800s, first in Prussia and then brought over to the United States by a man named Horace Mann. He wanted to implement age grading here because he thought it would be an efficient system for handling large groups of children.
Did you catch that? The goal was not finding the best way to help each child grow and become the best version of herself that she can be. No, the reasoning behind combining children according to age and teaching them all together was efficiency. The problem with that is, as we saw earlier, it makes no sense to assume a person’s skill level based on her age. Not all children of the same age progress at the same rate in math or in language arts. In the age-graded model, the pace in learning math skills is too fast for some and too slow for others, and likewise with language arts skills. Yet that age-grading system has persisted because it’s the easiest, most efficient way to handle large groups of children and classrooms full of 20 or 30 students.
“Age grading” means grouping children by age and expecting them all to learn the same skills and content at the same time. That practice was set up in the 1800s because it was thought to be an efficient system for handling large groups of children.
You don’t have a large classroom full of 20 or 30 students. You are homeschooling perhaps one, perhaps a handful of students. And you have the freedom to teach each of those students as an individual. You are allowed—I would even say obligated—to encourage each student to progress at his or her own pace in those skill-based subjects without the burden of being compared to other kids their age and expected to mirror those kids’ growth patterns. Teach the child, teach your child, and give him the gift of letting him progress as an individual, especially in the skill-based subjects of math and language arts.
Grade Levels Are Just a Guide
Am I saying that we should never refer to grade levels? No, just as with other labels, sometimes grade levels can help us at least find a good starting point. You will find grade-level recommendations in the Simply Charlotte Mason curriculum. Most of the materials are designed for your whole family to enjoy together in all of those wonderful topic-based subjects. Only the skill-based subjects are labeled by grade level. But even then, here’s the key: don’t let grade labels dictate to you. Use the grade levels that fit your student in math and in language arts, don’t try to make your student fit one particular grade level for everything. If he does naturally, that’s fine; but the point is he doesn’t have to.
When my kids were young, we would go to the grocery store, and the check-out lady would politely ask one of them that all-too-common question, “So what grade are you in?” I remember the look on her face when the reply was, “In which subject?” But that’s the way we should be thinking when it comes to math and language arts. It’s very common for a child to be ready for, say, third-grade math skills while at the same time be working on second-grade or even first-grade reading skills. That’s fine! It’s not the grade label that matters; what matters is growth at each child’s pace.
So rather than thinking “What grade?” it might be more helpful to start thinking “What’s next?” Remember, skill-based subjects need to be taught in a particular sequence. So you can use the grade label to help you determine a starting point in math or language arts. Just as you can use the “beginner, intermediate, and advanced” labels to help you choose a class for your hobby. But then read the descriptions to help you hone in on which level will best fit your student right now. “OK, Joey already knows how to do all the skills listed for the second-grade math. What’s next? Yes, the third-grade math seems like it would be a good fit for him.” How old is Joey? Who cares! Teach the child, not the grade label.
Rather than thinking “What grade?” it might be more helpful to start thinking “What’s next?”
Suzy is reading fluently; she doesn’t need more reading lessons, so we can plug her in at the third-grade level of readers and let her practice reading aloud. But her handwriting skills are at a different level; the first-grade handwriting seems like it would be the best fit for where she is in that skill. Perfect! That’s the beauty of homeschooling. Your child can grow at her own pace in the skill-based subjects and not worry about grade labels or staying lock-step with other kids her age.
When to Move to the Next Skill Level
Once you have broken free of the age-grade, all-or-nothing mentality and embraced the freedom to customize each child’s education in math and language arts, you will face some decisions. It’s much easier to just stick to the labels and let them dictate your student’s experience. But if you want to give each child the gift of progressing at his or her own pace, you’ll need some way to determine when to move to the next level of skills in math or language arts. You might know what’s next, but you still have to decide when it’s best to go there, to make that move. There’s a key question to consider when you’re contemplating a move ahead. That question is Will this choice harm any other aspect of this child’s personhood?
For example, will moving to this next level negatively affect your child’s confidence or self-regard? Will it reduce her love of learning? Will it threaten his emotional well-being? For example, you might have a precocious reader; but just because he can read books written for older children doesn’t mean that he’s ready for them emotionally. Some of the topics in those books might not be appropriate for that child’s emotional maturity. It’s something to consider.
Another aspect of personhood is the physical aspect: Will moving to the next level cause physical pain? For example, a child might not yet be ready to advance in handwriting skills because the act of writing with a pencil on paper causes the child physical pain. Now, the good news in that situation is that with the Charlotte Mason method of reading aloud and oral narration, learning does not depend on the student’s ability to read or write. He can keep right on learning in all of the other subjects while going at his own pace in those two skills no matter his age. I love that about Charlotte Mason! It’s perfect for feeding every child a wonderful feast of ideas, while at the same time respecting the differences between individuals and allowing each child to grow at his own pace.
So consider that key question when contemplating whether to move a student on to the next level: Will this move harm any other aspect of this child’s personhood?
But maybe your question is more of How long should I stay at this level? or even Should I go back to an easier level? Let me give you a different question to use in that case. Actually, this is a question that you can use when evaluating whether any kind of adjustment is needed in a skill-based subject. The question is this: Is my child repeatedly showing frustration when asked to use this skill? We all have “off” days when something is suddenly difficult even though it usually gives us no problem. I’m not talking about “off” days; I’m talking about consistent, nearly-every-day frustration when asked to use a particular skill. If the answer is Yes, consider making an adjustment.
What kind of adjustment? Well, you could go in one of three directions. (1) You can back up to a level where your student showed confidence and give that child more time to grow and get ready for the next level. (2) On the other hand, you could speed up if you think your child’s frustration is because she’s bored and is ready for a new challenge. (3) And your third option is to get help. If your child is consistently showing frustration with a particular skill, no matter what kind of adjustments you make, you may want to consider asking for some evaluations to help you determine how that child’s brain works and how he processes the world around him, so you can better customize his education. All three choices are available: back up, speed up, or get help. Just remember that even as you make adjustments in those skill-based subjects of math and language arts, you can continue enjoying the wide variety of topic-based subjects.
When you think about it, working with grade labels in math and language arts is like cooking on a stove top. You might have pasta boiling on one burner and sauce simmering on another burner, and you are giving each dish what it needs to be its best. There are labels on the burner dials, but you don’t have every burner turned to the same level. You are simply using those labels as guides to help you dial in what works best for each dish. Use the same strategy to dial in the skill-based subjects for each student. Consider what level your student needs in math or in reading or handwriting, use the grade labels as a starting point, but then adjust as needed to dial in what works best for each subject.
Teach the Child, Not the Grade Level
The Simply Charlotte Mason curriculum is designed to separate the skill-based subjects from the vast array of topic-based subjects. All of the topic-based subjects are set up for you to use with all of your students across all of the grade levels together. And you can work through those multi-grade lessons in about an hour or an hour and a half each day. That leaves you plenty of time to work with each student individually on the skill-based subjects, just math and language arts. We have provided grade-level suggestions in those subjects, but remember that those labels are only a starting point for you. We encourage you, and expect you, to dial in each of those subjects in a way that will fit your student best. That’s the Charlotte Mason way. That’s what it means to teach the child.
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