Fic help.

[Sparky She-Demon]

That would be correct!

[Sparky She-Demon]

That would be correct!

[Whytewytch]

Freshman is 1st year of high school/grade 9(age 15)
Sophomore is 2nd year of high school/grade 10 (age 16)
Junior is 3rd year of high school/grade 11 (age 17)
Senior is last year of high school/grade 12 (age 18)

Ages are approximate. My oldest son, for example is turning 18 in September and will be a senior. He will be one of the oldest kids in the class; many of his classmates will turn 18 throughout the year, however.

My youngest son will turn 13 in September and will be entering the 7th grade. When I was a kid (and in some sections of the country this is still the case), middle school (aka junior high) was only 7th and 8th grade. Where we are now, middle school is 6th-8th grade.

Children often attend kindergarten before 1st grade, starting around age 5, if I remember correctly. Your 8 & 11 year-olds could be 3rd and 6th or 2nd and 5th, depending on their birthdays. Cutoff date is sometime in September (kinda like a racehorse's birthday goes from January 1st).

Clear as mud now?

[Whytewytch]

Freshman is 1st year of high school/grade 9(age 15)
Sophomore is 2nd year of high school/grade 10 (age 16)
Junior is 3rd year of high school/grade 11 (age 17)
Senior is last year of high school/grade 12 (age 18)

Ages are approximate. My oldest son, for example is turning 18 in September and will be a senior. He will be one of the oldest kids in the class; many of his classmates will turn 18 throughout the year, however.

My youngest son will turn 13 in September and will be entering the 7th grade. When I was a kid (and in some sections of the country this is still the case), middle school (aka junior high) was only 7th and 8th grade. Where we are now, middle school is 6th-8th grade.

Children often attend kindergarten before 1st grade, starting around age 5, if I remember correctly. Your 8 & 11 year-olds could be 3rd and 6th or 2nd and 5th, depending on their birthdays. Cutoff date is sometime in September (kinda like a racehorse's birthday goes from January 1st).

Clear as mud now?

[roque872002]

The education system in my country is completely different too so I always use this wikipedia page for comparison. The ages especially make it easier to see which grade comes when.

Thank for the link Fems. This has helped a lot!

Children often attend kindergarten before 1st grade, starting around age 5, if I remember correctly. Your 8 & 11 year-olds could be 3rd and 6th or 2nd and 5th, depending on their birthdays. Cutoff date is sometime in September (kinda like a racehorse's birthday goes from January 1st).

Clear as mud now?

Haha yeah clear as mud. I'll put them in 2nd and 5th - works better for the story that way!

Thank you all so much!

[roque872002]

The education system in my country is completely different too so I always use this wikipedia page for comparison. The ages especially make it easier to see which grade comes when.

Thank for the link Fems. This has helped a lot!

Children often attend kindergarten before 1st grade, starting around age 5, if I remember correctly. Your 8 & 11 year-olds could be 3rd and 6th or 2nd and 5th, depending on their birthdays. Cutoff date is sometime in September (kinda like a racehorse's birthday goes from January 1st).

Clear as mud now?

Haha yeah clear as mud. I'll put them in 2nd and 5th - works better for the story that way!

Thank you all so much!

[SF_and_Coffee]

Actually, in my experience "middle school" is usually the term used for a school that has grades 6 through 8, while "junior high" is the term used for a school that has grades 7 through 9. They're almost, but not quite the same thing, as some school districts divide their grades up one way and some do it another.

And then there are districts where kindergarten through 8th grade are in one school, and high school is grades 9 through 12, with no intermediate school at all. I have no idea whether they differentiate between kids in K - 5 (traditionally "elementary school") and the 6th - 8th graders, or what.

Depending on when the birthdays for the children in the story occur and at what point in the year the story itself takes place, the 8-year-old would either be in 2nd or 3rd grade, and the 11-year-old would be in either 5th or 6th. In much of the US, if a child turns 5 prior to November or December, he or she is likely to begin kindergarten in August or September prior to that birthday, which would mean that child would be 7 years old during the first few months of 3rd grade (finishing that grade as an 8-year-old) and 10 for the first few months of 6th grade (finishing 6th grade as an 11-year-old).

[SaraBahama]

In 3 southern states I've lived in, the cut off is if the birthday falls after October. I have a kiddo born November 4th, and she misses the cut off (so the year she turned 5, she had to wait until the following Fall to go to Kindergarten, while her best friend, who turned 5 in July attended Kindergarten that year. It put her friend a year ahead of her in school.

Sparky also forgot Kindergarten: kiddos begin their Elementary school career in Kindergarten at 5 years old.

There are two different types of school systems, depending on your state and/or county. One system has Elementary school K (Kindergarten)-5th, Middle school 6th-8th, and High School 9th-12th. The other type has Elementary K-6th, Junior High 7th-9th, and Senior High 10th-12th (but how this is broken up will depend on your region) with no "middle" school at all. My daughter has always been in the first type, even though we've lived in 3 different states.

So...if your 8 year old has a birthday before Halloween, she is in 3rd grade, but if she's born after that, she's in 2nd grade, and your 11 year old in 6th (unless born in Nov or Dec...then would be 5th). If on the elementary/middle/high school pattern above, younger kid would be in elementary and older kiddo will be in either elementary or middle, depending on birthday. If your region uses the elementary/Jr./high school, both kiddos would be elementary.

Hope that helps.

[SaraBahama]

As an interesting aside: I grew up in the Bahamas, and we started first grade @ 5 years old (our educational system is based on the British system), so when I went to college in the USA, I was a year younger than my classmates.

[Sparky She-Demon]

When my dad was turning five, the cutoff date was December 1st. He was born in September.

[Whytewytch]

When my dad was turning five, the cutoff date was December 1st. He was born in September.

September what? I'm the 21st, my LB is the 14th, and the teen is the 24th. My best friend for many years up north was the 19th, same year as me--people thought we were sisters. She's older than me. (I know you can do the math--I just like to say that whenever I can. )

I might be wrong on the cutoff date; I just remember that I was one of the older students every year.

[SF_and_Coffee]

There are two different types of school systems, depending on your state and/or county. One system has Elementary school K (Kindergarten)-5th, Middle school 6th-8th, and High School 9th-12th. The other type has Elementary K-6th, Junior High 7th-9th, and Senior High 10th-12th (but how this is broken up will depend on your region) with no "middle" school at all. My daughter has always been in the first type, even though we've lived in 3 different states.

It isn't even a state/county thing. It can even vary between adjacent districts in a single county.

I have an August birthday and started kindergarten just after I turned five, in a school district that used the K- 5th, 6th - 8th, 9th - 12th model, so I went to elementary school and then to middle school.

But at the end of 7th grade, my parents got disgusted with that school district (for some very good reasons I won't go into here as they're irrelevant) and decided to transfer me into the neighboring school system beginning with the following grade. That district used the K - 6th, 7th - 9th, 10th - 12th arrangement, so I went to both a middle school (6th and 7th grades in my original district) and then a junior high (8th and 9th grades in my new district), followed by three years of high school (10th through 12th grades), graduating a little over a month and a half before my 18th birthday.

[Sparky She-Demon]

He was born on September 17th.

[SaraBahama]

It isn't even a state/county thing. It can even vary between adjacent districts in a single county.

I have an August birthday and started kindergarten just after I turned five, in a school district that used the K- 5th, 6th - 8th, 9th - 12th model, so I went to elementary school and then to middle school.

But at the end of 7th grade, my parents got disgusted with that school district (for some very good reasons I won't go into here as they're irrelevant) and decided to transfer me into the neighboring school system beginning with the following grade. That district used the K - 6th, 7th - 9th, 10th - 12th arrangement, so I went to both a middle school (6th and 7th grades in my original district) and then a junior high (8th and 9th grades in my new district), followed by three years of high school (10th through 12th grades), graduating a little over a month and a half before my 18th birthday.

Oh, gosh, SF!!!

...I hope we didn't confuse poor roque even further!!

[Whytewytch]

He was born on September 17th.

Happy Virgo to him!