I’m often asked about skipping grades and graduating early.
In my opinion, learning is a journey, not a race. And hopefully, it’s a life-long journey. In my homeschool, grade level is beside the point. My children learned at home until they were of the normal age to graduate and pursue their post-high school goals.
So my advice is to focus on providing more in-depth learning experiences rather than skipping grade levels.
If you’re using a school-in-a-box curriculum where everything is targeted to a specific grade level, you can move ahead, or provide different, enriched, and more meaningful learning activities for the rest of the year.
If you’re using different providers or resources for each grade level, you have a lot more flexibility to tailor education to your student’s strengths and weaknesses. You can move ahead in some areas, slow down in others.
For high school students, use all four years as a period of exploration by adding apprenticeships, independent projects, and internships in whatever area of study your student is passionate about. Don’t cut this short by rushing to college or post-high school jobs. If given this time and space, your student will be more likely to have solid career and life goals, and a clear path on how to get there.
And finally, college is a totally different social scene. Over my 30+ years of homeschooling, all of the parents and students I’ve known personally (public, private, and homeschool) who’ve graduated and entered college early have regretted it. I’m sure there are others who didn’t regret it, but I don’t know them personally.