# What's your philosophy on grade levels?



## AndSoMuchmore (Feb 4, 2012)

Sorry if I'm clogging up the board by posting about something that was mentioned in another post. I'm trying to be very specific so I can search later but so many of these topics overlap. :hrm:

I know that the basics like reading, writing and math really need to go in order so that simple concepts are built on (letters and numbers to words and adding, etc.) but once a student is able to read and understand most things do you filter what they learn? 

History is really ugly. Part of me wants to just give my (almost 9yo) daughter a very basic version and then study science and technology and other "sanitized" subjects until she's older BUT another part of me knows that she won't have the same connection to reality that comes from knowing the REAL truth (or as real as we can find) and that biased and edited versions of history hinder our public education system. 

She understands some basics (Dad was part of the invasion of Iraq) but when we tried to explain the significance of 9/11 during the memorial we struggled. I am *admittedly* overprotective but she still believes in Santa and the Tooth Fairy. I need to dust off my human development book but I have found that parents know a lot more about this than sociologists (I'm BOTH and I still don't know.)


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## mommathea (May 27, 2009)

For math, language, penmanship they just do the entire book, frequently getting done before the official school year is over, then we just pick up tons of educational books from the library.

In reality all of the history curriculums that I have ever used/looked at are very basic for the age group. We are very careful as to what our young children are exposed to - we don't let them watch the evening news, they do not watch TV, and we are very selective in cartoons - no violence. - I have not found that history books have been harmful. And I feel that it is actually healthy for them. Yes, some of the 'versions' of history bother me. But that is where you can fill in the gaps gently. 
My 8yr old was reading a poem from the WW2 time and was asking me questions about Iwo Jima. I explained what the Island was, why the US felt they had to win the island from Japan. I told him about the hundreds/thousands of men who died, or were maimed during the battle. Yes is sobered him, but what he learned was the truth without the blood, guts, and gore. 


I hope I don't offend but to still be believing fairytales at 9yrs that is unhealthy. At that age she NEEDS to have a grasp on reality and to differentiate between reality and fiction. If and when tragedy hits close to home, is she going to be able to cope with cold hard facts of life? I've worked with children for 15yrs, and 8yrs of having my own children, and I've found that those who do not have a base for reality have much harder struggles in 'real' life.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

Those who don't know history are bound to repeat it. One of my issues with the public school systems is the revisionist history that is sometimes being taught.


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## HomeOnTheFarm (Mar 9, 2004)

The only way that we differentiate grades is by what level they're in for Math and Reading. That's what they're tested on in school to determine grade level, that's what we go by.

Not to say that we only work on Math and Reading...we have Science and Grammar, etc.

For History, try looking into the Mystery of History and/or The Story of the World. It does present facts, but not in a gore-ish manner. My kids actually enjoy listening to The Story of the World CDs!


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## Cashs Cowgirl (Jan 26, 2006)

I've never 'sugarcoated' anything especially if my kids have asked about it. History and Science has been taught to them bits at a time with more details and depth learned as they've aged.

We have predominantly used Sonlight for their schooling. My two children have used the same Science (until this year), History, readers and read alouds since they were young. I made adjustments for my dd by adding in more reading material for History subjects. They are really only a grade apart. I added in a highschool history text for my dd as she is a freshman and needed a little more depth (but she is still reading most of what my son is as well). She is also doing a different science. 

That's the beauty of homeschooling though, tailoring it to fit each child.


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## Sunbee (Sep 30, 2008)

I have a nine year old son. We filter a little--he could read anything but he's not ready for everything yet.
We like The Story of the World. He can read it himself and I wouldn't say it's sugar coated but some things are glossed over. You can write x number people were killed without describing the scene in graphic detail. Story of the World starts back in ancient times, where we adults aren't particularly emotional. It's a lot easier to work your way through Assyria than 9/11. 
When it comes to Santa--we address it as a game of doing something nice for others--everyone hangs up a stocking, from grandpa to the dog, and everyone is involved in filling everyone else's stockings. If you don't explain the games to her soon, she'll learn it from other kids or her books--does she read Laura Ingalls Wilder?
As far as grade levels go, we don't worry about them. We deal with what the kids are ready to learn, and when someone asks what grade they're in, the kids reply 'We're homeschooled' and we adults take over the explanations from there. What 90% or so of people want to know when they ask a kid what grade he is, is how old the kid is. I don't know why people don't just ask how old kids are.


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## rxkeith (Apr 13, 2009)

we unschool, so we don't go by grade levels. whatever he is ready for, and interested in, we do.

as far as history goes, my son knows quite a bit for his age, nearly 8.
we don't dumb down or sugar coat anything. traditional schools do that. we won't. the more people learn the ugliness of war, the less chance there will be of people repeating the same mistakes.




keith


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

We are classical methodologists, so we follow a pretty clear chronology, and history is one of those things that ought to be taught chronologically. I don't worry about grade levels so much as I concern myself with a chronologically-complete education which gives kids the tools to apply learning methods to anything they ever wish to learn.

Check out _The Well-Trained Mind_ by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. It's an excellent guideline to follow for a complete, trivium-based education.


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

For younger grades I use reading and math as a "grade" indicator. History my kids ALL love (16,13, and 6). They love watching the history channel and love reading their history textbooks. Their great-grandma gave them the love of history by reading their history books with them when she visits. My 6 year old will sometimes ask if something is "real" or "make-believe" and we explain that it is history and it really happened. We don't gloss over topics but I don't purposly go into gore topics with him. We allow him to ask questions and we answer honestly.


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## AndSoMuchmore (Feb 4, 2012)

I forgot to come back and post but I have taken all of your advice to heart. We had a long talk about the Easter bunny this past weekend and it was difficult but after realizing that she'd still get all of the traditions of holidays she was fine. We made the distinction between tradition and reality. Each holiday is a tradition based on religion and history.

That was a HARD conversation for me because I have a rough past and never had the chance to be a child so I think I've sheltered her too much. That's my mistake and she shouldn't have to live with it, so we're correcting it now. We found a way to bridge her love of fantasy books and comics with the REAL mysteries and fascinations of the world by a series of comic books about sciences (I haven't researched, there could be more subjects) that we stumbled upon at the book store. They were spendy ($20 each!) but it got her attention and she's learning chemistry and she's slowly becoming more interested in the world around her. 

As for history she thinks that Dad is the bees knees and he went to war so there's some discomfort when the subject of war comes up (and what part of history ISN'T about war?) She asked him some very real questions about it and he couldn't answer them (he has a big wall between his little girl and the war, those two don't mix so he looked like a deer in headlights.) We've decided to go with a chronological history and go slowly putting in biographies of important people and showing her how the sciences developed along the timeline. Dad is working with a therapist to be able to answer her questions in an honest way without either of them having a melt down (he's such a proud man but he loves that little girl enough to go see a shrink about it - bring on the Mom tears and Kleenex.)

Our little family has been making some big changes and your advice has been really awesome. We all think that we've got life figured out until we start to approach it from another perspective. All of us are learning and it's both exhilarating and scary.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

AndSoMuchmore said:


> I know that the basics like reading, writing and math really need to go in order so that simple concepts are built on (letters and numbers to words and adding, etc.) but once a student is able to read and understand most things do you filter what they learn?


I liked using Math text books simply because they presented things in order in learning steps. Other than that, I didn't ever really use text books start to finish for anything. We did have the entire Pathway set of basal readers because they are sweet and the kids enjoyed them. We didn't use them as "learn to read" books though.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

We don't do grade levels either. DS is all over the board due to his learning disabilities.


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