If your kids haven’t mastered everything you or your curriculum set out for the year, should you have them repeat the grade?
If they scored as well as a much older child would on an end-of-year achievement test, can you have them skip a grade homeschooling? Should you?
Experienced homeschoolers and statewide homeschool groups and social media accounts are getting lots of questions about grade levels from newer homeschoolers. School closures brought in lots of folks who never expected to homeschool, and you may be one of them! This might mean you have more of a “school mindset” than necessary around grades.
Homeschooling is flexible
Here’s the deal: grade level is almost always more flexible with homeschooling than it is with public school. There may be some exceptions because of particular states’ laws or because you are choosing to homeschool through a charter school. Regular old homeschoolers typically don’t need to consider their kids repeating and skipping grades, especially before high school.
Here’s what to do instead: if you need to, call your child in a certain grade for social reasons, such as to move up with a group of acquaintances and friends in Scouts, Sunday School, or dance. Then, help them learn what is next for them academically, regardless of what “grade” you’re saying they’re in.
Homeschooling contains a wide range of "normal"
Homeschoolers do not have to fit into the "standard" student norm found in schools. Homeschoolers understand and embrace that there is a wide range of "normal" when it comes to learning.
Some families might have a child who is considered in third grade who is a beginning reader (first grade), more advanced in math (fourth grade), obsessive about learning history and science (sixth grade), and apparently gifted in art, music, or movement.
That child can still go into “fourth grade” for social reasons the next year, and as parents, you can still help them with reading, math, and other areas at the “level” where they are learning.
The same thing is true for skipping a grade: it’s not necessary to start calling a third grader from last year a fifth grader during this next year just because they are academically advanced.
Meet them where they are academically, so they’ll learn with less boredom. Seek out resources and strategies used for gifted students if you need to make more adjustments for your child who is advanced and showing signs of giftedness. Seek out alternative educational experiences and provide a rich learning environment if you decide to delay academics in some areas.
Some considerations to keep in mind
- Remember that socially, your kiddo may not be as advanced as they are academically. Also, some advanced or gifted kids struggle socially no matter what age they are grouped with and tend to do better in clusters of families with children of many ages and kind adults who treat each person respectfully regardless of age.
- Curricula from different companies may be different from each other (and different from what is offered in school) in terms of skill level and content they expect to be mastered in different grades. The whole “grade level” sensibility is pretty arbitrary!
- If achievement tests seem to show your young child performing at a higher grade level, make sure you understand what that test result indicates. Many parents misunderstand and think this means their child is ready for high school level work. Instead, depending on the test, it might mean that your child did as well as the average 10th grader would on this test, which may not actually have any tenth grade content on it at all. See the difference?
- A final caveat about this is that many kids do plateau later, and you may find that middle school or high school is a stage when you might wish to “take back” that more advanced grade. Easier to deal with if you just keep meeting needs instead of making announcements about skipped grades.
Ask questions of your test provider and of experienced homeschoolers before you jump to a big announcement about skipping a grade.
And yes, there certainly could be exceptions for specific scenarios. You know your family best!
A popular speaker at homeschooling conferences, business groups, and parents’ groups, Jeanne Potts Faulconer homeschooled her three sons in North Carolina, Mississippi, and Virginia for twenty years. Jeanne is director of 
Hi there! My son just turned 5 and is supposed to enter kindergarten this year if ready. He’s a gifted child and taught himself colors, countin and how to read, and more around a year old (he has hyperlexia). I want to homeschool him but everything I find he can’t seem to keep his attention on. He already knows so much and I don’t know if I keep trying to reinforce what he’s know for so long or just keep moving “up” in grade level curriculum until he’s learning new material? Any advice you could give me? Because of his advancements he is more advanced academically than socially and as a first time home schooler I am unsure how to best approach this!
Thank you for reading!
Hi Michelle - Regarding grade level, it really doesn't matter in homeschooling. You should feel free to choose whichever resources meet your son's needs regardless of grade or age level. That said, there is rarely a good reason to actually change the grade level with the school division (if that is something you are required to submit in your state) - many kids level out as they get older, so filing with the school division as a different grade level can backfire later. You may want to look at these two posts by Jeanne (you can find them with the search bar):
-Ask Jeanne: What Curriculum for Homeschooling Active & Outdoorsy Boys?
-How to Choose the Best Homeschool Curriculum
We also have curriculum reviews (link in our main navigation menu) where parents tell what worked and what didn't work. That can be helpful in deciding if a specific resource might work for your son's needs.
I hope this helps!
Thank you for helping families to make this decision with your wise advice.
I have been a public school teacher for over 30 years as well as a homeschool mom and advocate. I have also operated a California private school satellite program or "umbrella" school for homeschoolers since 2002. I can tell you that the "Covid years" have been very hard on students and learning was extremely limited.
Since a nationwide do-over is not possible, if parents are on the fence about repeating a grade via homeschooling, this would certainly be the year to give it a try provided the student does not feel negatively toward the idea.
Repeating the 8th grade has become extremely popular even before Covid as less physically or emotionally mature students seek to take the year to catch-up with their peers. In these cases, the students are completely on board with the process and have had great experiences and success. Some would never have made onto a high school team without the extra growth year.
Thank you again for your great blogs. I refer families to your website often!
Thank you for sharing your experience, Marguerite. You make some very good points!
Hello,
My son has been going to a private school since pre-k, he is going to 7th grade in the fall. Since he is advanced for his classes and the private school does not offer advanced classes, we decided to homeschooling him. Do you recommed any program/curriculum/ institution aprroved by [COMAR 13A.10.01.01F] in montgomery county MD or if you can provide a list we can choose from. Any information to help.
thank you
Hi Pauline - Our Curriculum Reviews section (link in the main navigation bar) has lots of helpful information written by homeschool parents who have used various curricula and programs. You might find that helpful when deciding on a program. Unfortunately we are unable to provide personal consultations or recommend specific programs of study since the variables involved are so specific to the individual circumstances.
Hello and great blog here. I live in Florida and my son is in 8th grade recently and passed the public school system. I have recently withdrawn him from public school and enrolled him to home school. I wanted to hold him back and have him retake 8th grade again since this past school year he was mostly in his public school system online. For high school he is going to private school but that will be after repeating 8th grade homeschooling with me. Is this possible?
Hi Maria - Your best answer will come from the private school he will be attending after repeating 8th grade. They control what will and will not transfer. Typically this is not an issue until high school credits are taken, but if you plan to have him take any classes while homeschooling that will count toward his graduation, it is up to the institution he will graduate from as to whether or not to count them.