My kids are constantly asked by others what grade they are in. When we first started homeschooling, they would turn to me with a helpless face that read, “Help me answer this please!” Then they would just simply tell people the expected grade according to their age.
At the time I realized how uncomfortable the question also made me. My kids are now probably fine with the question, and for me, I understand why people are asking. It’s an identifier, a way of understanding a child’s age in relation to school. But it can be an uncomfortable question because it is also so arbitrary and meaningless in the life of a homeschooler.
There is a freedom in not having to conform to certain standards. It really is completely normal if your 6 year old is reading the same books that the 4th grade neighbor is reading and at the same time, struggling through problems from a 1st grade math book that you bought at the thrift store.
Achievement is often not uniform, across all subject areas. We are all just learners, aren’t we? And it doesn’t really matter where along the continuum we fall.
