The school year is flying by. As you know, if you’ve been reading, we began our 2nd year of homeschool the last week of August. Here we are now in the first week of October! Everything has been going very well. The new curriculum continues to be a good fit and we are pleased with our choices. I’m still working out the best way to keep track of all the assignments and grades but my system is working thus far. It’s a lot of work for me but a lot less this year it seems than last year. The reason for that is because the curriculum has far less quizzes and tests. There are pros and cons to that however. I’m hoping to really iron out a good system before the grading really counts. If you’re wondering what I mean, or when that is, let me explain. No grades or body of work prior to 9th grade typically goes onto your child’s highschool transcript. There can be exceptions of course. Why is a transcript important? Well, it is if they intend to further their education at a college or university. What is a transcript? It’s a document that shows what courses your child took in grades 9 through 12. The transcript also shows the final grades and awarded credits for each course. It will also contain your child’s G.P.A. (grade-point-average). Those are the basics of a transcript. You can certainly make one yourself if you are keeping good records but there are also diploma programs and other companies that can make or assist in making one for your child. Diploma programs will have specifics on graduation requirements that may not be limited to what is required by PA law.
Sample of daily grading log I am using
As is my current plan of action, I intend to do it all myself. As long as you keep good records of courses taken, credits, and grades, it should be pretty simple. The hard part is recording the grades through the year in a system that works for you. I have a digital system and a paper system right now. Recording twice takes extra time but gives me a back up. If you read any of my older posts you know that I am using a program called Homeschool Tracker Basic. It’s 100% free and downloadable onto your computer. It’s simple and easy to use. It does have some limitations and the company does have a newer version in which you pay for. The new version may only be an online system, I’m not sure. I do not want an online only system because I live in a very rural area where my internet is unreliable. Having the paper system in place insures that if my laptop crashes and not recoverable, I haven’t lost everything as far as grades go. If an online only system is what you need or desire but you want something free, I suggest checking into Homeschool SkedTrack. It is 100% free. It’s more complex than Homeschool Tracker Basic but it’s still very good. You can track attendance and field trips also, same as H.T.B. The other option is to use a spreadsheet program like Excel.
I love this time of year – fall. The weather is cooler, but not too cold, usually. The leaves change to their beautiful colors (here in the Pennsylvania anyway) and flutter around the air as they make their way to the ground. The grass slows or stops growing and that means less mowing! There are pumpkins and apples and all the fall activities at various farms and other locations. This time of year also seems to be the most active for the homeschool groups, which is a great way to keep my kids socializing with other children outside of our regular attendance at church. My favorite thing is the smells of the fall season. It’s that cinnamon-clove-nutmeg spicy smell that makes my nose happy. Obviously my least favorite part of this season are the GERMS! Yes, cold and flu season comes with the cooler weather. We do our best to keep our immune systems strong.
Just to update on the curriculum, let me briefly say that I am loving the Apologia Writer’s in Residence. I did have reservations about the course and it’s not perfect, but it is really helping my son, who hates to write, to learn how to write and write better. They are currently learning how to write letters. They will be writing letters to their future children. This is about form, style, and voice. This section they are working on is teaching them how to develop a character and their traits and how to show, not tell those in their writing. It’s an excellent course so far. My daughter loves to write and this is also helping her learn how to write better. Now if I could just get her handwriting to improve! (We’re working on it) I wondered about grammar when I was shopping for curriculum. No, they don’t get the “traditional” grammar work in this course. They do learn some grammar. They reviewed verbs and subjects and predicates as well as capitalization thus far from what I can remember. I do have grammar supplemental workbooks but we have not started those yet. The course is has a pre-made schedule which we do follow. It only schedules lessons 4 days a week. Since we do school 5 days a week I have them doing literature reading (with Veritas Press study guides) every 5th day and this is where we will implement grammar workbooks in the future.
It’s still true that I am loving Masterbooks as well. Their math programs are going so much better than last year and they are both loving the science course. We’re moving right along and loving it. I am truly blessed to have 2 amazing kids who love to learn and who never complain or fight me to get up in the morning and get work done. If only getting them to do chores were so easy!
Don’t know if I mentioned before what art program we are using, but we are using ABeka Art C and it’s great. I bought each of us a workbook and we are doing it together. If you choose this course be sure to have plenty of watercolor supplies on hand.
Now off to cook up some turkey chili on this cool fall evening.
Happy October all!