For homeschoolers during the elementary years, it can be difficult to answer the question "What grade are your children in?"  They may be doing 5th grade level in math, 3rd grade level in reading, and 2nd grade level in writing.  What grade are you supposed to choose, anyway?  Well, the problem is the same in high school. It's really difficult to decide what grade they should be!  In this question from Eileen, you can see how complicated it gets.



Hope you don't mind me asking: my son just finished 10th grade and wants to repeat it. To make a long story short he went to Montessori, then public school for 2 years now homeschool. Public school didn't know how to figure his grade was he was held back a year. At 6th grade he was straight A homeschool and we let him "skip" 7th. Now he wants to go back to catch up. Can I put what he did in "9th grade" on his transcript? It will look like 5 years of high school depending on how I write it. Is that ok? ~Eileen on Facebook

This is a big question without an easy answer. Without knowing enough about the situation, my instinct would be to first decide what year you want  him to graduate. That will be senior year.  Then count backward four years to his freshman year. On the transcript, include anything high school level (like algebra or geometry) as "early high school credits." I have record keeping samples on my freebies page.  In those samples, you can find an example of "early high school credits."  If you need more support, consider the Gold Care Club.

Until junior year, you have some flexibility.  In October of junior year, children can take the PSAT as a qualifying test for the national merit scholarship.  It will only be a qualifying test for juniors - not for any other year of high school.  For that reason, that's just about the only time when you really, REALLY have to declare what grade they are.

Eileen was thankful for the suggestions I gave, and wrote back with a sweet letter of appreciation.
The "count backward" idea is great and will work for this situation. I appreciate it. I have just seen your record keeping samples. I'm thankful for your advice Thanks. ~ Eileen



You can get more advice on how to keep homeschool grades, credits and transcripts in my free webinar.