Keeping Homeschool Grades

This week’s TOS Blog Cruise question is “Do you keep grades?”

If you’ve been here before, you that know I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to our homeschool, and I’m not afraid to admit either. I am particular about certain things, such as: sticking to our schedule/routine; I like my kids to be keeping up academically with their public school counterparts..somewhat…; I like looking at the results of my kids’ standardized test scores to see what we need to work on; and I’m not a big fan of co-ops. I am a  Type A personality, (hard to believe, I know, right?) so, you might find it surprising that I have never kept grades for my children. That’s right. Never. I do keep attendance though, just started this year, and only to fulfill my own curiosity about how many full days of formal schooling we get in each year. I’m crazy that way, sometimes.

In both states that we have homeschooled in, Arkansas and New Jersey, there weren’t any laws requiring me to keep grades. I am a rule follower, and since there weren’t any rules requiring me to keep grades, I never really worried about it.

Working with 3 children one on one or even as a small group on a daily basis makes it very easy for me to know how they are doing.  I don’t have to “teach to the test”, because there aren’t very many tests in our homeschool. I don’t want my children to study just to get a good grade, but to study to learn for life. Since there’s no pressure to learn the material for a good grade, they are learning for mastery of the subject matter. That’s more important to me than grades. I expect a good effort from my kids, and as long as they are trying hard, they will learn something. I am satisfied with that. Sometimes they don’t get things as quickly or as easily as I’d like them to, and we’ll have to work on those areas, but it’s all part of the learning process. I can see what they’ve done right, praise them for it, and see what they’re doing wrong, and help them to improve…all without giving them a grade. Of course, if they do a fantastic job, I be sure to let them know that too, the younger ones might get a sticker on their paper, they all get a lot of praise, and get to listen to me brag to daddy about their hard work. Nothing like making your parents proud of you in our household, my kids love that.

My kids, on occasion over the years, have asked why they don’t get report cards. I told them that if they really really wanted them that I could make up report cards for them, but I never have. They never really really wanted them, after all. Learning is more than just a grade for them, it’s about acquiring new knowledge on new things each and every day. It’s about finding joy in discovering something or attempting and succeeding at something new. It’s more about learning to read for the first time, or figuring out a math problem on their own, or remembering what species an animal belongs to, or who fought in The Revolutionary War and why. It’s about those “light bulb moments” when it all clicks together. That’s what learning is about in our home, not about a grade on a report card.

What about math or other kind of worksheets or workbooks? I do grade math, and sometimes other worksheets or workbooks, occasionally with a percentage marked at the top. I don’t keep a record of these grades, however. And, if I see that one of them did very poorly, I don’t embarrass them by putting a  low grade at the top of their paper, but rather sit down with them, and go over the problems with them, till they understand how to do them correctly and arrive at the right answer. They already know that if we are going over that many problems, that they didn’t do so well, and there’s no need to put a big D or F at the top of their paper, which would only discourage my children.

Now that my oldest is entering high school, I will have to keep grades for transcripts. It will be new territory for us, but I think we will be fine. I’ve already begun grading her Apologia Physical Science, and keeping records for this subject, as it will count towards high school credit. I’m confident that she’ll do well enough to receive the grades she hopes to achieve in her high school years. Since up until this point, she has been learning for mastery, I don’t think it will be an issue for her to get good grades.

So that’s about it, no grade keeping for us, not till high school at least. What about you? Do you keep grades? Why or why not? I’d love to hear from you, please kindly leave a comment.

If you’re a homeschooler or even considering homeschooling, please be sure to check your state’s homeschool laws to determine if you need to keep records, such as attendance or grades.

To read more views from my crewmates on this week’s TOS Blog Cruise Question, as well as previous weeks' questions, please click on the button at the top of this post!

Be sure to check back next week when my crewmates and I answer the question, “How do you organize your space or homeschool room?”

**All original photos and text belong to The Homeschool Desk**