"What grade are you in?"

This question is often asked by store clerks, cousins at the family reunion, and elderly neighbors. After all, this is what we are all familiar with.

When you homeschool, "grade" levels are fuzzier, harder to determine and, scandalous I know, but relatively unnecessary. The student is where she is, and since we often work together, a child might be doing history with an older sibling, and phonics with a younger one. The most important point is to meet the child where she is, work to strengthen weaker areas, and continue to improve strong areas.

That said, it didn't take too many times of a clerk asking one of my children, "What grade are you in?", and the child looking mystified, looking at me, looking back at the clerk and answering, "I don't know", that I knew we needed some kind of short answer to that question!

I decided that Math is a subject that is more often divided into grade levels, and that's something that we do work at the child's level rather than share with an older or younger sibling. So, that's how we answer that question in times where all that's needed is that "short answer".

That isn't the only way you can answer that question, but it was an easy way for us!