S/O of Those Who Have Taught Homeschooled Children...

[Reefgazer]

Chelli's earlier post on homeschooled children and whether or not they are working at grade level got me to thinking about how we as parents evaluate our children's capabilities and competence.  My worst fear is that I am doing a bad job and am totally oblivious to it.  By what objective measures do you evaluate your children's capabilities?  I am required to give a standardized test each year (I administer the IOWA at home), but I am really aiming for my children to be college-ready, and I don't think the IOWA test can give me much information about that.

[MysteryJen]

For me, two things were very helpful. One is knowing what is really happening at your high school. Not just knowing what they say is happening, but getting to know high schoolers and see what is going on. Another is taking the ACT or SAT. Even with all the flaws of the tests, those scores are very, very helpful. Generally, my kids' scores reflected my gut assessment of my kids.

 

If you are planning to send your kids to high school, all the advice applies to middle school. But you need to know that college readiness is not the goal of 8th grade. Sometimes we make ourselves crazy because we are applying the wrong standards at the wrong time.

 

Working on the character traits needed for success is a huge part of education, IMO. Work ethic, asking for help, organizational skills, showing up ready to work, these traits don't have to be learned in school, because they are a huge part of success in life, regardless of what educational achievement people put on their walls.

[EKS]

The ITBS can give information about college readiness to some extent, but what you *don't* want to see is your child scoring at the 50th percentile for his or her grade.  Mastery of grade level material is indicated by scoring at or above the 90th percentile (I mean as much as a test like this can indicate mastery).  

 

ETA:  The most eye opening experience that I've had in this regard was when my son attended private school for part of 10th grade.  There was very little in the way of assigned reading and writing (1-2 novel length works and 1-2 essays for English in one semester for example and no reading assigned for history or science).

[Reefgazer]

Nodding head up and down here!

For me, two things were very helpful. One is knowing what is really happening at your high school. Not just knowing what they say is happening, but getting to know high schoolers and see what is going on. Another is taking the ACT or SAT. Even with all the flaws of the tests, those scores are very, very helpful. Generally, my kids' scores reflected my gut assessment of my kids.

If you are planning to send your kids to high school, all the advice applies to middle school. But you need to know that college readiness is not the goal of 8th grade. Sometimes we make ourselves crazy because we are applying the wrong standards at the wrong time.

Working on the character traits needed for success is a huge part of education, IMO. Work ethic, asking for help, organizational skills, showing up ready to work, these traits don't have to be learned in school, because they are a huge part of success in life, regardless of what educational achievement people put on their walls.

 

[HomeAgain]

They used to have the TAKS tests online for free before Texas switched to the STAAR.  I would give one about every year and after scoring, highlight the sections that showed he needed more work at.

 

For the rest, listen to MysteryJen. ;)