Do you keep grades and issue report cards?

[Diannab]

:) Just curious because I have noticed that some people do. It seems that some people may not. I feel like there is no sense in issuing a grade for a day. Does that make sense? They do turn in a certain number of assignments per week. I do grade those and keep up with their weekly averages. :)

 

I don't do 'report cards' since I don't need to communicate the grade with the parent... lol kwim?

[Ellie]

I didn't, but now that I'm old :D and experienced, I can see the benefit of keeping some sort of transcript or academic record, even for the littles. I know many people whose dc ended up in school for various reasons, often because of emergency situations which didn't allow time for getting their act together, and the enrollment process is *much* simpler if there is some kind of cumulative file to pass on to a school: photocopies of birth certificates, immunization records, academic records or report cards, standardized test scores.

 

BJUP has an "Elementary Academic Record," as well as a jr/sr high academic record (transcript). I like this better than report cards, because it's the whole elementary record in one place, rather than a bunch of report cards. For elementary-aged dc, I just put "S" (Satisfactory) for everything.

[Cricket]

I do but only because our boys' tae kwon do school requires they hand in a report card with each belt test application. I wouldn't do report cards otherwise.

[Crissy]

I have only just begun keeping grades now that my son is starting his freshman year of high school. For me it will be necessary if I am going to give objective grades on his transcript.

 

The younger son still isn't graded, and neither one will have report cards.

[Melanie]

I do. My current state requires grades and report cards in their four core subjects, so I comply with that law. The rest of our subjects go ungraded and unreported. I plan to step up the record keeping in high school, but that's a while off yet.

[Parrothead]

I grade spelling and math tests. Dd likes to get stickers and smiley faces on her papers.

 

I tried giving a report card since my software wants grades for each activity. Dd could have cared less. So I quit doing that.

[tibbyl]

:) Just curious because I have noticed that some people do. It seems that some people may not. I feel like there is no sense in issuing a grade for a day. Does that make sense? They do turn in a certain number of assignments per week. I do grade those and keep up with their weekly averages. :)

 

I don't do 'report cards' since I don't need to communicate the grade with the parent... lol kwim?

 

Makes picture perfect sense to me! Who knows better than you (or them) where their strengths and weaknesses lie?

 

For the 2 years that we were coerced by circumstance to use cover schools, I issued a grade approximating what I thought they would earn in a traditional school. Interestingly, when they did make the transition to traditional school, they typically scored higher than what I had estimated for them during homeschool.

[Diannab]

Makes picture perfect sense to me! Who knows better than you (or them) where their strengths and weaknesses lie?

 

For the 2 years that we were coerced by circumstance to use cover schools, I issued a grade approximating what I thought they would earn in a traditional school. Interestingly, when they did make the transition to traditional school, they typically scored higher than what I had estimated for them during homeschool.

 

 

See, that is exactly what I would do!

[Kris]

I sorta kinda do -- but only because I'm not really sure *what* to do and I'm still messing with it. I don't grade his work every day, but I do realize we'll need a record/transcript. So for now I'm using Homeschool Tracker to keep a record of everything and, while I don't grade his daily work, I *do* give him tests and grade those.

[cin]

i wasn't planning on it, but DD asked me for a report card this year. (Yeah, she's 7 yr old) But it has helped me with accountability and I see better her weak spots. I'm not sure yet what I'm goign to give her for her report card. I'll probably give it to DH so that there's some formality to it.

[gandpsmommy]

No. Our learning activities, while structured and challenging, are too much a part of the flow of our lives to do something like that. It would feel contrived and unnatural for our family. Also, we work on things together and keep going until we have mastered it. So I guess she would have all A+'s? I'm very unschoolish in my philosophy of education, as much as I am classical in our approach. I just can't stand things like report cards and grades for children. Now, I do see some value in giving grades and report cards for teens, especially if they might someday attend high school or are planning to go on to college.

[Nestof3]

I keep no record of grades until high school, then I keep a transcript and a grade book.

 

That's just too much time on paperwork that could be used on something else.

[Kris]

I don't do 'report cards' since I don't need to communicate the grade with the parent... lol kwim?

 

I forgot to mention that we homeschooled my son for a couple of years before we moved here and he started in PS -- and I did catch a bit of flack because he didn't even know what a report card *was.* :)

[Michelle in MO]

but I did have them tested every year (either the Stanford or the ITBS) to make sure they were on track. I did grade math tests and quizzes, grammar tests and quizzes, spelling tests, and vocabulary tests.

 

For high school, I definitely issued grades. Here's a post I made recently on the High School board to show how I personally broke down their grades; I'm copying and pasting the text here so that you can see what I did. But, for the grammar/logic stage years, I didn't find official grades necessary, nor were they required by our state or any other organization. HTH!

 

For math, I graded approximately 80% on test scores and 20% on daily homework assignments. I did not actually give them a grade for daily math homework, but I did correct it daily. That became absolutely essential, especially since my older two dislike math and found very devious ways to get the correct answer but without showing the proper work! This made me re-learn Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry for myself. We used Lial's Introductory and Intermediate Algebra, and Chalkdust for geometry. If I were to do it over, I would probably switch to Chalkdust all the way through. Even though I don't care for the Chalkdust text as much as I do the Lial's text, the DVD instruction is superior.

 

With science, I graded about 65% for test scores, 25% for labs, and 10% for daily work (this was with Apologia).

 

For grammar (Abeka), I graded all tests and quizzes; tests were given greater weight than quizzes for the overall grade.

 

Vocabulary: We did two books per year---Vocabulary from the Classical Roots in the fall, and Wordly Wise in the spring. Again, I checked their daily work, but their grade (which was folded into the overall grade for English) was based strictly on the chapter tests.

 

Writing: Last year we did three Progymnasmata tutorials with Cindy Marsch, plus I also used her evaluations on most of their Omnibus II essays. They both did well with writing. For the high school years it really helps to have outside verification of your grades. When we enrolled them in a private school this spring, I had a huge stack of graded tutorials and essays to show the school.

 

Logic: When we started logic, there were no tests available, so when I put together their transcripts this spring, I based my grades on their daily assignments. Overall, I think I gave my oldest an A- and my middle daughter a B+. The logic text they used (Traditional Logic I) now has tests, but I'm still not sure if tests are available for TL II.

 

Latin: Again, when we started Latin, I didn't know there were tests available for Henle, so I based this grade on their daily assignments and translations. Since I didn't feel they were the most stellar students in this area (and had I taken a better approach!), I gave them a B-minus. If I could do this over, I would definitely get the MODG study guide, use all the tests and quizzes, and try to combine the program with Lingua Latina.

 

History: Although we did Omnibus II, I gave them a separate history grade, and instead of using the standard Western Civilization text by Spielvogel, we used his World History: A Human Odyssey. This was because my middle daughter was in 7th grade when we did Omnibus I. Her reading level was up to par with the Western Civ. text, but I didn't care for the online quizzes and study helps. I'm an old-fashioned sort of person and wanted a study guide, which I was able to find for Human Odyssey. Again, I based their grade on an average of all their test scores. I did beef up the practice tests given in the study guides.

 

Omnibus II: We used Cindy Marsch to help with the girls' evaluations in this subject.

 

The paperwork and grading did get to be a lot; sometimes I felt like I spent more time doing that than actual instruction. I would say that for the high school years, it really helps to outsource with certain subjects. If math is difficult, find an excellent DVD program or hire a math tutor. Same with science. There are also many online programs such as Seton, Scholars Online, The Potter's School, Florida Virtual School, the one for Pennsylvania (I forget the name), that have online instruction. That might help eliminate some of the paperwork for you and add in the factor of outside accountability. One caveat: with the writing tutorials---even though I didn't have to always create the assignments, I still had to keep after my girls to get the writing done! So, depending upon your student and their disposition, getting outside help doesn't always make the job easier on you! It does, however, lend outside credence to any grades you assign.