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Parents often have a hard time figuring out how to assign grades to their homeschool students, and get stressed just wondering whether ‘mommy grades’ are even valid or not!  At a recent webinar, one of the attendees asked, “Can you give some options and factors to use when evaluating grades?”  Another mom wondered, “My daughter is autistic and we do a lot of hands-on type things. How do you decide grades for hands-on assignments?”

There are many ways to evaluate your student’s grades, and one of my favorites is something I call the Annoy-O-Meter!  I even wrote an article on this method, and in that article, I wrote that anything that causes you to be annoyed is a factor that you can use to evaluate grades! Think of every skill your child demonstrates (maybe they’re filing, learning vocabulary, reading books, or writing) and list all those skills. It’s basically what you require of them, and each of those ways would have an evaluation.  If they produce something, like a science fair project, then each might have an evaluation grade like an A, and the subject matter they know would have an evaluation as well. If you have a discussion about it, include that in your evaluation. Anything you do can be given a grade, whether it’s hands-on or not. If you’re grading your child’s pottery, you could grade her wheel work and her pottery glazing. Each thing you ask her to do and anything you consider as school is a way you evaluate. The key to evaluating is that you don’t have to base it on test scores alone.

Those of you who know me will recognize that I’m not a big fan of tests, and I prefer to estimate grades without complicated systems, but I recognize that many homeschool moms would like some definitive help to create grades the right way. I have a class in my Gold Care Club called “Making the Grades,” and if you send me an email through the member email address, I will send you that class. If you are not a Gold Care member, you can still purchase this course as an A la Carte Training Resource.



Do you like getting this sort of help for homeschooling high school? Gold Care Club members get extended answers to their most challenging high school issues.