Today I’m going to share about graduating my first homeschool teen. My oldest is now 18 and he will officially be done with his coursework on May 23rd and his evaluation is set for May 25th where our evaluator will sign off on his final evaluation and sign his PA Department of Education diploma along with myself. This is a recognized state diploma for homeschool students, although you can certainly (as I have one) issue your own that is signed just by you. Both are parent-issued diplomas but the state has said their diploma is more acceptable. You can decide. I will soon be finalizing his transcript as well. Your evaluator does not need to sign that document and unless you print it, have them sign it, scan it and save it, it’s probably just going to be a hassle if you need an “original” document that is not photo-copied. Your signature is sufficient anyway as you are the administrator of your homeschool. You can see my example in my Free Forms with the certification and place to sign it. It does not need to be notarized. You will most likely want to save your document as a PDF before you submit it to prospective colleges. That brings me to my next point.

Applying for college, should your teen choose to go to college, can be daunting. You need to keep good records of your high school student’s grades in order to make their official transcript. How you grade is up to you but you should be consistent. Most people use a grade scale and that itself varies. For example my grade scale looks like this, 90-100 = A, 80-89 = B, 70-79 = C, and so on. In my homeschool they must pass with a C or better so grade scales for D and F don’t factor in. If they would get a grade lower than a 70 they are required to take an alternate quiz/test or redo their assignment. I do have other posts on transcripts that can be worth your while to read. Once you establish a grading system you would convert those into points that also depend on how many credits the course earned. For example, an A = 4.0 points if the course was a 1 credit course. To be a 1 credit course it must have been a yearlong course (2 semesters). If the course was only half credit due to being only a 1 semester (half year) course, an A would earn 2.0 points. Example below:

Course	Final Grade	Credit	Grade Points
English	A	1	4.0
Math	B	1	3.0
History	B	1	3.0
Science	A	1	4.0
Art	A	.50	2.0
Music	A	.50	2.0

Grade points are calculated by Grade x Credit. EXAMPLE: 4.0×1=4.0 GPA, 4.0x.50=2.0 GPA. Calculate the yearly total GPA like this; 4.0+3.0+4.0+3.0+2.0+2.0 = 18. Divide 18 by the number of credits, 18/5 = 3.6, which is the GPA for that year. Calculate the cumulative GPA (that’s the GPA from each school year) like this: (9th) 3.6, (10th) 3.8, (11th) 3.5, (12th) 3.9 – add the numbers together and divide by 4 and it gives you the cumulative GPA of 3.7

Any courses that don’t get a letter grade (or a percentage) do not count toward the GPA. For example, I do not grade P.E. though it’s added to the transcript. They get credit for the course but so long as they did it they just get a PASS grade and this does not factor into the GPA. The course only counts towards the total number of credits they earned that year. That’s just how I do it, you may wish to put a letter grade (or percentage) next to everything on the transcript. I personally had no idea how to grade P.E. so I didn’t, but I still included it on the transcript because they did in fact do it. Our P.E. only consisted of regular exercise and some years was in rotation with health. You can certainly assign a grade to P.E. based on whatever measure you decide. I remember in school we all were pretty much just given an A on our report cards. I think that was mainly just for showing up with our gym uniform ready to participate. We were not actually graded on our performance. An interesting note here is when you might have courses listed in 9th grade that you granted credits from an 8th grade course. I don’t recommend doing this heavily, however. A college really wants to see what kids did in grades 9-12. That said, if you want to include say a foreign language course taken in 8th grade or an advanced course or maybe they took a college level course, it’s completely up to you to add that to the transcript but be sure to make that notation. Now, does that course count towards the GPA? As the administrator you will need to decide that. My personal opinion is that it may be better to leave it out of the GPA. My son has nothing like this on his transcript but I did choose to include my daughter’s foreign language course from 8th grade on her 9th grade record, however, I did not factor it into her GPA. I’m not really sure it matters anyway. Another thing to note, even if your child tells you they are not going to college, make a transcript anyway. Some day they may change their mind and it could help them. That’s not to say they wouldn’t still possibly be able to attend college if they don’t have one or it became lost over years.

Now back to the application process. This is happening in my home right now. My son was on the fence about what he was going to do. He didn’t know where he was going to attend. He didn’t know if he wanted to go to college. He considered career training schools and he considered just working for now and revisiting the idea of college next year. He recently decided he wanted to attend community college this coming fall. He began the process of applying. He is currently waiting on a scheduled meeting with an advisor for his next steps. He went ahead with financial aid applications although the goal is to have no loans, which is one reason why he was going to wait until next year, to save up more money. He will still need to speak to financial services at the community college. Was my son feeling pressured by his friends who are public schooled to hurry up and apply to college now? Yes. I encouraged him to take time to really think about his need and wants. There is no hurry to enter into debt. He does not have a full time job yet and that was a goal. His plan was to work full time, save money, and than apply to college. Because of peer pressure he quickly changed his plans. As a parent the best you can do is give them advice. They may or may not listen to you.

We are currently in limbo as he waits for his meeting and the results of his application for “financial aid” which I told him is a government loan that he should decline anyway if at all possible. The school still wants him to apply for state grants, which he’s unlikely to get. Then comes where they want his transcript submitted and that’s where I come in. Making sure his transcript is complete, correct, neat, and looks official. I mean, it is official, but you want it to look good, as in what public school transcripts look like. Do some searching online for examples. You can then use my FREE document if you wish to or there are many others online you can download or just make your own. After this is submitted, because he did not take any SAT, and it is community college, they will likely require placement testing for him. After that time he will register for classes. It seems like a long confusing process. I will post in the future about how this all goes and how submitting his transcript went so that anyone who reads this blog will know the process, good or bad. Now I won’t be able to share about any other college outside of community college but I know other homeschoolers who were accepted into universities. You have plenty of options if that is the direction your child wants to go. My son opted for community college because it’s a cheaper way to get his general education classes completed and as long as he finishes the program would graduate with an associate’s degree, which can get him a leg up and should he want to later, he can transfer credits to a 4 year year college. It will be an immensely different experience for him since we are a Christian family and learned through a Christian worldview. I had a similar experience going from Christian school to community college and that was many, many years ago. For him, he will not only experience the difference in the subject matter, but, being in a large classroom setting with professors rather than self-learning as he’s done since 7th grade. He struggled with his computer programming course this year which was taught by a Harvard college professor through video lessons, because it was boring. He is more of a hands on, do-it-yourself learner, so this will be an adjustment.

EDIT TO ADD: Because I searched high and lo for this answer, receiving odd information that didn’t help, I wanted to share with you what I did learn that makes the most sense if you’re submitting your teens transcript PRIOR to completion of 12th grade. Do not enter the final grades or GPA if they have not yet completed the school year. You may enter the classes taken (or projected to take) with the number of credits they would earn. When you submit this before the final transcript is completed you would enter TBD (to be determined) or IP (In progress) into the empty grade slots. Once the 12th grade year is complete and you finalize the transcript you would submit a copy of the finalized one. In the case of my son’s community college they are excepting digital copies via email or mailed paper copies. If you mail it you place it into the envelope and seal it and sign the seal. I will be emailing the copy. Don’t forget to sign any transcript copy you send and date it. If you’re sending PRIOR to finishing the year you add the expected graduation date to the transcript.

If you think your children might want to attend college, prepare them. Prepare them spiritually, and prepare them academically. Give them experiences they need to know how to work through. Taking notes is a big challenge for my teenagers. They’ve been taught, and encouraged to do it, but would not take good notes. They will learn quick in college that Mom was right. Teach good study habits as well. Time will tell how well he does in community college. My teens take quizzes and tests, and unit tests, but never anything as long as a college exam could be. It will be a different experience for him for sure. It can be difficult to be a parent of a teen, to sit back and let them make choices that you know probably aren’t in their best interest, to allow them to do things on their own without you that can affect their future, but, you must allow them to do so. They need to learn how to do life on their own and yes, they won’t always make the right choice. Advise them, encourage them, guide them, and let them know you are always there for them.

Best thing you can for your children, of any age, is pray for them, continually. My number concern for my children is their eternity. God does not care if they go to college, get a degree, fail college, don’t get a degree…etc. He cares about their hearts. God wants them to cling to Him, revere Him, do whatever they do to the glory of God, love Him and love others, humble themselves before Him and be in relationship with the Redeemer. That is also what I care about and pray for, their spiritual health, their growth in Christ, and that they would store treasures in heaven, not on Earth. None of us lived a perfect life, but provide that foundation for your children to know they can always count on the Lord. He will never leave them or forsake them and His arms are always open.

“Do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you; I will help you;
I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 41:10