You have many options available to you when it comes to grading your kids. Some parents prefer to stick to the familiar letter-grades and percentage points because it makes sense to them or maybe their state requires it. Others rely on a portfolio system or simply hand out home-made awards and certificates. And then there are those parents who believe a job well-done and a concept learned is enough reward for their kids and steer clear of grades altogether. What kind of homeschooler are you?
Grades
If you've decided to keep grades - or maybe your state requires that you show them graded progress at the end of the year, you may be wondering how to get started. How do those teachers come up with A�s and B�s anyway? Here�s a quick guide to recording grades:
* Grading a Worksheet: Simply divide the number of problems correct by the total number of problems. For example, if the page has 14 problems and your child got 12 correct, divide 12 by 14 to get .857, or 86%. Download a free chart to translate percentages into letter grades from this page of Content standards are an official guide to what children of certain age groups should be taught. Every state has different standards and every private or charter school in each state uses the standards differently. Every state will set up their standards in a way they feel is best. To get a copy of your state's content standards, call your local or district superintendent's office. Tell them that you're a homeschooling parent and you're looking for easy to read content standards for your state. What you'll most likely get is a binder of somewhere between thirty to fifty pages. Use content standards as the wonderful resource tool they are. See them as the compass pointing you in the right direction, but remember that they're by no means an outline of what you have to teach your child. They can just help you to be certain that something important isn't being left out of your children's education. Kristi Hagen is a homeschooling parent and author of the popular homeschoolviews.com/ Homeschool Book, "A Parent's Guide to Homeschool". She's also one of the editors of HomeschoolViews.com, which publishes an informative monthly Homeschool Newsletter.