If the 2nd grade is getting to do 3rd grade stuff (like today, they did science together), when will my 3rd grader get to do 4th grade stuff?
My dd was in multi-age classrooms for several years (Montessori). The teacher would have a 3-year rotating schedule of topics to teach. For example in science in 2009 they would teach mammals, 2010 invertebrates, 2011 vertebrates and then they wold repeat. Some children would learn mammals as 1st graders, others would learn it as 3rd graders. The older children might have had a few more "works" to do for each, but I think the bulk of the differentiation was self-determined by the reports the children would write -- e.g. her first grade research report was very limited compared to the novel she wrote for 3rd grade.
Obviously this works for a few topics-- but not seqential ones like math.
I'd be less concerned that the 2nd graders "got to do" 3rd grade science, and more concerned 1) is she repeating a lot of information she's already been taught and 2) how deep was my child was able to go on the topic they were taught.
