When I first pulled Casia out of public school and started homeschooling her, I didn't place a lot of emphasis on grades. She used an online program for math that only gives grades if I request them, which, until recently, I did not. I gave her tests in social studies and science just to help assess her knowledge and some papers were assigned in language arts to help teach writing strategies, but the grades were given as a way to show progress, not because I was writing out a report card at the end of the year.
My preference would be to continue this practice through her whole entire homeschooling experience, but I'm trying to look realistically at this. She's in middle school now and taking high school level classes. If she wants to attend high school in a couple of years, they will likely want to see how well she mastered the material, not just what was covered. They might require them for placement purposes. Hopefully, someday she will want to apply to colleges. There are colleges that require transcripts even from homeschoolers.
Another reason to give Casia grades on her work is because at some point, even if it's not until college, she will re-enter a learning environment that is structured on grades and I want her to be prepared for it. I don't want her to feel pressured to obtain perfect grades, so receiving her share of sub-perfect scores in several years of homeschooling will help alleviate those perfectionist tendencies. On the other hand, I don't want her to dismiss the weight others place on good grades either. I'd hate to see her enter her freshman year of college and and shrug off a bad grade without realizing that graduate schools and possible internships do evaluate based on them.
So now that she is in middle school, I've been handing out more grades and keeping better track of them. I figure it will take another year before I have a good system down, as I am continually tweaking it at this point. And although I do wish we could gauge her progress based on our conversations, her effort and my gut feeling about how well she is mastering topics, I hope this will better prepare her for whatever she chooses to do in the future.
Another reason to give Casia grades on her work is because at some point, even if it's not until college, she will re-enter a learning environment that is structured on grades and I want her to be prepared for it. I don't want her to feel pressured to obtain perfect grades, so receiving her share of sub-perfect scores in several years of homeschooling will help alleviate those perfectionist tendencies. On the other hand, I don't want her to dismiss the weight others place on good grades either. I'd hate to see her enter her freshman year of college and and shrug off a bad grade without realizing that graduate schools and possible internships do evaluate based on them.
So now that she is in middle school, I've been handing out more grades and keeping better track of them. I figure it will take another year before I have a good system down, as I am continually tweaking it at this point. And although I do wish we could gauge her progress based on our conversations, her effort and my gut feeling about how well she is mastering topics, I hope this will better prepare her for whatever she chooses to do in the future.
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