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No matter how long we've been homeschooling, we are curious about how other homeschoolers do things. And homeschoolers who are newer to the game obviously have lots of questions! I wrote a series some time ago that attempted to answer some of the questions homeschoolers ask each other. Questions about how we handle some of the little details and about our opinions on different aspects of homeschooling. Questions that we all might answer differently because what works great in one family might not work at all in another.
It's time for a new round of How Do You Homeschool articles. Some will be updated versions of the original series and some will be new, because there were a lot of questions I never got to the first time, and there are always new questions I didn't encounter earlier.
How do you keep records and calculate grades?
The tool I used for keeping all my records is Homeschool Tracker Online. I used it for lesson plans and for keeping homeschool records organized. It tracks assignments and calculates grades. It can produce a printed resource list as well, which is often handy for records. Basically, I kept an online record of the assignments and the grades, printing it as necessary. Since I usually printed out the assignment lists from week to week, we could have used those to show everything we had done and when.
You can find out a little more in my post Organizing and Record Keeping.
Record-keeping can help you show how much time was spent on school, what was studied, and how completely a subject was mastered. When my kids were young, it was perfectly acceptable to just show the workbooks with the pages dated as we worked on them. I did my best to get my kids to establish the habit of dating the pages they worked on. In fact, when they were little, I purchased one of those date stamps with the movable numbers, and they thought it was the greatest thing to rubber stamp their pages! As they got older, I still insisted on the dating, but I also kept more of the records on Homeschool Tracker.. The essentials were the date, time spent, books or resources used, and the grade earned. Often I printed the resource list so I could show all the related books that were read.
I found figuring out grades to be fairly simple - mainly because Homeschool Tracker did the math for me! My grading habits changed from when my students were in grade school as well. For young students, I did figure an actual grade for tests or major assignments, but it was also quite acceptable to just give an overall grade for a subject based on my opinion of how well they'd understood and how hard they were working. Except for math. In math their grades have always been based on whether they were getting the correct answers! As my kids got older, their quarterly and semester grades were based far more on the real average of their scores on tests and assignments. How nice to have the Homeschool Tracker figure those averages for me!
In high school, sometimes it's appropriate to use weighted grades. So a midterm exam or a research paper might be worth more of a final grade than a weekly quiz or short essay. Again, Homeschool Tracker can do the math for you. I used weighted grades in classes like English or History, weighting any tests or major papers more heavily than just reading and comprehension type assignments.
During high school years, detailed and accurate records of schoolwork may be especially important for students headed to college or trade school. Their work will need to be reflected in their transcript; and the quality of the transcript depends on the quality of the records of their coursework and grades. When planning for a transcript, try to give course titles that are succinct but give a good indication of what was studied. For instance, Great Books is not nearly as descriptive a course title as Early American Literature. A good course description that clarifies the objectives is also helpful.
Find out more in my post From the High School Lesson Book: Record-Keeping Resources
For more info, see my related posts:
High School Assignment Tracking
From the High School Lesson Book: Course Descriptions
The tool I used for keeping all my records is Homeschool Tracker Online. I used it for lesson plans and for keeping homeschool records organized. It tracks assignments and calculates grades. It can produce a printed resource list as well, which is often handy for records. Basically, I kept an online record of the assignments and the grades, printing it as necessary. Since I usually printed out the assignment lists from week to week, we could have used those to show everything we had done and when.
You can find out a little more in my post Organizing and Record Keeping.
Record-keeping can help you show how much time was spent on school, what was studied, and how completely a subject was mastered. When my kids were young, it was perfectly acceptable to just show the workbooks with the pages dated as we worked on them. I did my best to get my kids to establish the habit of dating the pages they worked on. In fact, when they were little, I purchased one of those date stamps with the movable numbers, and they thought it was the greatest thing to rubber stamp their pages! As they got older, I still insisted on the dating, but I also kept more of the records on Homeschool Tracker.. The essentials were the date, time spent, books or resources used, and the grade earned. Often I printed the resource list so I could show all the related books that were read.
I found figuring out grades to be fairly simple - mainly because Homeschool Tracker did the math for me! My grading habits changed from when my students were in grade school as well. For young students, I did figure an actual grade for tests or major assignments, but it was also quite acceptable to just give an overall grade for a subject based on my opinion of how well they'd understood and how hard they were working. Except for math. In math their grades have always been based on whether they were getting the correct answers! As my kids got older, their quarterly and semester grades were based far more on the real average of their scores on tests and assignments. How nice to have the Homeschool Tracker figure those averages for me!
In high school, sometimes it's appropriate to use weighted grades. So a midterm exam or a research paper might be worth more of a final grade than a weekly quiz or short essay. Again, Homeschool Tracker can do the math for you. I used weighted grades in classes like English or History, weighting any tests or major papers more heavily than just reading and comprehension type assignments.
During high school years, detailed and accurate records of schoolwork may be especially important for students headed to college or trade school. Their work will need to be reflected in their transcript; and the quality of the transcript depends on the quality of the records of their coursework and grades. When planning for a transcript, try to give course titles that are succinct but give a good indication of what was studied. For instance, Great Books is not nearly as descriptive a course title as Early American Literature. A good course description that clarifies the objectives is also helpful.
Find out more in my post From the High School Lesson Book: Record-Keeping Resources
For more info, see my related posts:
High School Assignment Tracking
From the High School Lesson Book: Course Descriptions
How do you keep track of all the schoolwork and assign grades? Leave a comment and let me know what works for you - or leave a homeschool question you're curious about.
The original version of this post appeared on Homeschool Coffee Break on October 18, 2018.
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