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Homeschool High School Transcripts – Anything But Typical

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Homeschool High School Transcripts @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

It’s that time of year again when graduation and high school transcripts can be on your mind.

Whether you have to carefully craft a homeschool transcript this year or need to prepare one soon, keep these tips in mind that will make preparing a homeschool transcript a cinch. Really!

Typical Homeschool High School Transcript?

When Mr. Senior 2013 entered the middle school years, I too started my search for typical samples of high school transcripts to use.

Soon, you realize that there are quite a few factors that make each homeschool transcript unique.

Homeschool transcripts are anything but typical. Each one reflects not only the values of each family, but the strengths of each child and the child’s future plans.

A homeschool transcript does not have to be complicated but it can be complex if you don’t have a direction in mind when preparing one.

From Complicated to Clear Homeschool High School Transcripts

Look at these 5 questions that will help you to determine what type of information (content) you want to keep up with during the high school years and how you want to present that information (form).

  1. Do you want to use the standard 4 year approach? Instead of listing each year and the subjects covered, you may want to just list the subjects covered. This works well sometimes for a child that is done with high school in a few years or one that may have gotten behind because of sickness or just because they need to plod along at a different pace.
  2.  Do you have extra classes you want to list? To vary classes in high school because it really is the time to investigate strengths and weakness of your child, some kids will take one type of class for one semester and a different one for the second semester. They may have several ½ credit classes during the course of their high school. This takes room to describe the course. What this means is that you may have more classes to list than what some forms have allowed you space or lines to write on. If your child is taking several ½ credit classes, look for a form that gives you flexibility for adding more classes.
  3. If your child will attend college, have you checked with the college to see what type of transcript is needed? Some college requirements may state they want a transcript from an accredited school. Though more and more colleges recognize the power of the momma transcript, some colleges are stickler for their policy. First, be sure you are not wasting record keeping for four years to only find out that the college your child wants to attend has a hard and fast rule about transcripts from an accredited school.
  4. Do you want or need to include your grading system on your transcript? Most transcripts do but the system varies from family to family.
  5. How will you keep a progressive transcript? When Mr. Senior 2013 started to drive, our insurance company needed his progressive transcript to that date. They ended up accepting a progress report which I was able to whip out in a minute because I had been keeping our information in a Word document. If you are an excel spreadsheet type of gal, you might like that method. I don’t care for spread sheets but preferred more of a diary entry journal method when tracking high school. So I just added entries in a Word document each week. Either way, you need to determine how you will track information informally and progressively so that at any time you can prepare a formal document. Do not wait until the end of 4 years or so and try to recall what your teen has accomplished at the end of high school.

Also, look at my YouTube video How to Easily Create the Homeschool High School Transcript to give you a great start.

Look at these samples and links for places to get started.

Homeschool Transcripts – There is a free version here that may suit your needs just fine.
How to Homeschool Today – Sweet! This is a free online transcript generator, which you save as a pdf.
Let’s Homeschool High School – Nice! Has some free editable templates.
Homeschool Curriculum Savings – If you love spreadsheets, then here is a free one in a spreadsheet.
HSLDA – Has free transcripts, detailed or simple in Word and Pdf.
Cindy Downes – More free forms here.
HSLDA – Free 30 day trial on software if you want to try it out.

How to Prepare THE Homeschool High School Transcript

Research is the foundation of a well-prepared transcript.

Be sure and check out my post about how to prepare your homeschool transcript Homeschool High School – How to Prepare THE Transcript (Editable).  Also, I have an editable form that may be of help to you.

Preparing the homeschool high school transcript is anything but typical and normal because your journey was unique.

There are some things that I explain in my post Homeschool High School – How to Prepare THE Transcript that you want to keep streamlined to give your transcript some uniformity.   However, there is much flexibility with each transcript too.

It is an art to both follow guidelines so that your transcript meets some of the norm, but so that it accurately reflects the unique goals of your family.

Do you have to prepare a homeschool high school transcript soon? Are you dreading it or dreaming about it? (or am I dreaming that you are dreaming about it,okay,okay)

Hugs and love ya,

Here are some more links to start your research. Don’t get overwhelmed, get informed.

10 Days of Planning a High School Homeschool Graduation
Creative Solution for High School When Life Happens
Accreditation Removing the Shroud of Mystery
Homeschool – How to Log Hours for High School

Also, listed below are resources that I have read and used

When You Have a Science Minded Homeschooled Kid And You Aren’t

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When You Have a Science-Minded Homeschooled Kid and You Aren't @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusWhen you have a science – minded homeschooled kid and you aren’t, it almost makes you feel ill-equipped to teach science.

Not wanting to squelch my oldest son’s love for discovery, I was up for the challenge though not every day did I always feel prepared.

It was when Mr. Senior 2013 entered middle school and high school that I felt I was not going to be prepared.

Let me back up first and share some sanity saving tips at each level that really helped me as each son came along because I was so tickled that they had a spark of curiosity that I wanted to feed.

Homeschooling Science-Minded Little Ones

Realizing early on that science is about hands-on exploring saved me.

No, don’t get me wrong, I would rather be the homeschool mom who throws a worksheet at my sons and get it done.

I learned that technique didn’t teach anything and well it actually made it harder for me to teach science. You wouldn’t think so, but it did because it stifled the love of naturally learning.

When the kids were excited about science and I followed their lead, it was easier to cover science for the day.  I didn’t have to “teach”, I just had to show up prepared with some useful resources and follow their natural leanings toward science.

Sanity saving tips:

  • Easy hands-on activities are a must so you can feed their love of learning.  Get all the help you can and I did by using this book, 365 Simple Science Experiments With Everyday Materials.  I realized the key to keeping the hands-on stress free for me was to use everyday things I had around the house. They even now have this book, 365 MORE Simple Science Experiments with Everyday Materials.
  • Books about science matter at this age even more because it sets the tone for learning in higher grades. I started gathering resources for older grades like How the Earth Works (How It Works)series. Little did I know then that these types of resources can span several grades and have been some of our all time favorites.
  • Zoos, nature walks, field trips and park learning.

Kids this age naturally want to be out doors and I took advantage of that time to add in learning at the zoo, on nature walks, at field trips and when we went to the park.

The bottom line, I learned that if I followed the lead of my first son, I didn’t have to work so hard to get science in.

Homeschooling Science-Minded Middle School Kids

Then I was just sure I would fall short of feeding all of my sons’ love for science as they entered the middle grades.  Somehow, you rise to the occasion though.

Homeschooling Learning at a 4H Club with others who are science-minded

{Mr. Senior 2013 learning from a lover of science, Dr. David Shormann, creator of DIVE into math and science. We were so grateful to have lived close by him and more grateful that he came over and taught our kids some science.}

Sanity saving tips:

  • 4-H club.  When I was in public school, I guess I didn’t know about 4-H because I thought you had to have a goat, sheep, pig or cow to join.  Little did I know that 4-H covers a wide range of subjects from quilting, to horse back riding to science.  It just took a few moms to start the group and since it was a private group, it was limited to just homeschooling kids.

So during the middle school years, we joined a 4-H homeschool group that was set up for the love of science.

Rubbing shoulders each week with other moms who had a natural love of science rekindled my love for science again.

The approach they took to keeping it hands-on during the middle school years stuck with me. They invited science speakers like Dr.  Shormann to come and share things he collected with our kids.

I am glad I joined this group to keep me rounded out because again, I was ready to throw a textbook at them.

It would have been okay to use a textbook and I did but I learned to not give up valuable hands-on projects and that I could still keep science easy.

  • Science kits. In the early part of their middle school years, I invested in some ready made science kits from The Young Scientist Club to come to the house.
  • Textbook help for mom.  Too, I realized now that it was okay to add a textbook because not only did I want them to do more formal work but I needed the help of laid out curriculum. Mr. Senior 2013 loved the series from Apologia, but Mr. Awesome preferred the Bob Jones science books.
  • Rainbow Science too.  As if that wasn’t enough help for me, I made sure I had a backup system too which was Rainbow Science.  I found a used one at a curriculum fair and supplemented with it also. The description on the website says: The Rainbow is a serious, two-year, total science curriculum for 12-14 year-old students.

Homeschooling Science-Minded High School Kids

You think I wouldn’t doubt myself by now, but again entering uncharted waters in high school, I felt vulnerable again.

By this time I had learned that high school is just a continuation of what I have been doing all along.

All I needed to do was to create the environment, steer my sons to some great homeschooling products and keep doing what I was doing it.

Sanity saving tips:

  • Outsourcing at the high school level can be fun. Though we had co-ops in our area, we had been homeschooling for a while now and felt comfortable at this point by going it alone. However, outsourcing science at the high school level is a doable and enjoyable part of schooling teens.
  • Take advantage of online classes like CurrClick . By this age, there are many issues of science that are much more enjoyable when discussing them with other science loving kids.
  • Computer based multimedia providers like Switched-on Schoolhouse. By this grade, Mr. Senior 2013 liked textbooks and computer based learning. Switched-On Schoolhouse starts off with physics & chemistry in 9th grade and we just worked out with through it using other resources. My oldest son liked the combination of videos, quizzes, interactive content and reading.
  • Don’t give up living books either.

Don’t be afraid to jump head first into a subject that you don’t feel particularly equipped to teach.  Who is afraid of a challenge anyway?

I learned to follow the natural enthusiasm my sons had for science, don’t force them to make conclusions about science activities too soon because part of science is discussing thought provoking issues and keep it hands-on where possible while feeding their knowledge about science through books.

Are you homeschooling a science-minded kid?

Hugs and love ya,

2015 Tina Signature co

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28 Reasons to Not Give Up Homeschooling

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

28 Reasons to NOT Give Up Homeschooling @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

1. I don’t want to be part of a system that as a whole is failing.
2. I know what my sons are learning. Want to see? Check out my blog where I share part of it publicly.
3. Even on a budget, each of my sons can have their own book without having to share.
4. If we fall behind, we can easily catch up.
5. I know my sons’ friends. Their families know us and are like-minded.
6. Why should same age peers be their only friends? Cultivating lasting friendships takes time like being around each other every day.
7. I can foster my sons’ creativity, passions and ideas which may or may not be accepted as the norm.
8. Learning outside the classroom like taking field trips should not be something that is just done in primary grades. High school kids especially benefit from real life learning.
9. Inculcating Bible values take a priority which are of most lasting value than covering any academic subject.
10. Did I mention that I don’t have to make a choice between rigorous academic standards and Bible standards? I can teach both.
11. A waste of time is well – a waste of time. Enforcing a valuable use of my sons’ time builds their self-confidence.
12. Because I know my sons the best, I can apply the right amount of discipline or gentleness each day.
13. Extended family members like precious grandparents can be part of my sons’ everyday learning experiences.
14. Not if but when a crisis hits our family, we can take time to heal.
15. Because my grading system can accurately reflect strengths and weaknesses.
16. I choose to refuse the government’s cookie cutter education.
17. Because my husband and I alone want to decide how my children should be educated.
18. Because I don’t believe in incarceration within four walls for children when it comes to teaching them about the world around them.
19. Because when children are away me for eight hours, I am not the one influencing them.
20. Because schools are more obsessed with testing than building a database of knowledge.
21. Some families of public school are more interested in public school providing day care instead of education. An attitude I don’t want my sons adopting about education.
22. I am not interested in my kids attending public school so that it can be improved and reformed at the expense of my child’s one shot at being a child.
23. Children grow up, get jobs and have families and I want to be able to say I gave them an excellent education without interference from those not like-minded.
24. During the most vulnerable time of my child’s life, they don’t have to be crushed by the words of a bully.
25. Children are not robbed of a childhood because of the workload of homework that steals their time in the evening for exploring, imagining and playing.
26. Because public school can’t even come close to the healthy and varied amounts of lunches we have every day.
27. Because exercise is a valuable part of my son’s development and I can feed their natural need to move by adding more activities to our day.
28. Because my boys would not spend as much time with older kids, adults and their grandparents as they have been able to during our many years of homeschooling.

Have any of your own to add to the list?

Hugs and love ya,
2015 Tina Signature co

Also, check out:

What Do You Fear Most About Homeschooling?
3 Reasons You Wouldn’t Want to Homeschool
3 Homeschooling Myths Debunked

Should we Give Grades to Our Middle and High School Homeschooled Kids

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

It made perfect sense to me because I was modeling a public school by grading papers.  I thought grades were needed then. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school and how to homeschool high school page for more fun tips

My thinking has changed and been tweaked quite a bit since my start up in homeschooling.

I had to rethink the whole purpose of grades and grading. Why was I just following what public school did?

Who were the grades for anyway?

Homeschool Grading versus Homeschool Grades.

Mr. Senior 2013 was wanting some way to measure his understanding of the papers and that is very normal.

Too, he wanted my approval and to know that he was doing things correct.  Again, that makes sense and it is a natural way to make progress.

Taking a closer look at my feelings and experience so far, I understood then that there is a fine, but significant difference between grading and giving a grade.  The two concepts have to be separated.

For example, in elementary grades, I would mark the papers with how many answers were correct.

If there were 20 math questions, and Mr. Senior 2013 got 3 wrong, I would mark 17/20. He would know he got 3 wrong and would look to correct those answers.

This method very much satisfied his need for wanting to be sure things were right and gave us an informal way of grading.

Too, it fit the purpose of what I think grading is all about in the early grades, which is making progress and having quality work.

When the boys started the middle school years, grades became more important.

They were interested in how they measured up against others who were doing the same thing.

As homeschool parents we know we are not comparing our kids to each other, but kids want to know how they would measure up in a formal setting to others their same age.

Realizing too that if I wanted to start seeing more independence at this age, my sons needed some way to chart what they knew versus what needed to be improved.

Should We Give Grades to our Middle and High School Homeschooled Kids @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I came up with yet another system during the middle school time.

I just graded math, quizzes, tests and essays.

This system was not only doable, but it gave my boys something to measure by so they could improve their skills. At this point, they wanted a letter grade.

Too, I realized there was no need to give grades daily because I expected them to check their work each day against the teacher’s manual.

The quizzes, tests, reviews and essays were all done without the answers keys or teacher’s manual. Too, I do oral evaluations with them and this is part of my grading system.

This is much like narration. If they can’t tell me back what they know without looking in the book did they really learn it?

As the high school years crept in, I had to think again about the importance of letter grades because high school is a time to prepare my kids for more formal learning.

After wrestling with many different systems, when the boys entered high school, grade keeping was easier but still needed to be finely tuned.

When Mr. Senior 2013 entered high school, I started off grading all assignments. It made me flash back to my early days of grading in elementary school.

Soon, I realized that there was no way I could keep this pace up as I had other children to teach and I realize it was my fear of homeschooling high school that made me go a bit overboard.

Again, I had to rethink why I was grading each day.  I knew high school was the important stage to keep grades for his transcript, but again, I had to come up with another system.

I started grading weekly instead of daily for three reasons:

  • It saved time because there was no need to grade daily work that he was learning;
  • It gave me a better look at what he was doing for the week by glancing at it for a week because then I was able to judge mastery more critically; and
  • It was a much better and simpler way to record keep in high school when I only had 4 grades (4 weeks) to average and give him a grade for the month instead of 30 grades (30 days).

Pretty easy uh?

When homeschooling high school, you don’t want record keeping or grading to get away from you and I have learned it is much better to keep up with as you plod along.

I know some homeschoolers who scrambled for grades for their high schooler at the end of four years, but I can’t imagine that would be easier or even accurate.

The key is developing a system for the needs of your kids, your needs and what your children will need in the future.

How to Reassess A Homeschool Grading System EACH Year.

Look at these questions that will help you determine an easy system for charting progress at whatever level you are at in your homeschool journey.

  1.  At this time do I just need grading or grades?
  2. After my child has had time to decompress from being at public school, is he the the type of child that needs some feedback? If he needs feedback, what form is best for him? According to his age, will a smiley face suffice? Will an E for Excellent, S for Satisfied and N for Needs improvement be sufficient? Does he need a letter grade for accurate measuring?
  3. What is my reason for grades?
  4. Do I want to reward for good grades or just expect my kids to do their best?
  5. How do my children view grades? Do they stress out on a quiz or test knowing that I will grade it?
  6. Do my kids understand that there is no way we can accurately gauge everything we know but that grades are measuring sticks only?

What do you give grades for in homeschool and in which grade do you start keeping grades?

Hugs and love ya,

 

From Homeschooling One to Multiple Ages and Back to One

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Our lives have change when we started homeschooling but changes seem to come faster than I have time to wrap my emotions around them.

From Homeschooling One

Did I ever tell you about the time I called Kelley in tears when beginning to homeschool my first child, Mr. Senior 2013?

It was one of those awful, can’t hardly talk cries where I was almost embarrassed I called.

Feeling overwhelmed and afraid of messing him up for life even though it was Kindergarten, I had moments of feeling paralyzed.

After a rocky start, I gained confidence as Mr. Senior 2013 thrived with one-to-one tutoring.From Homeschooling One to Multiple Ages and Back to One @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
I have another vulnerable confession to make.

When it was time to fold Mr. Awesome into my homeschool routine, I called Kelley again in tears.

I promise I am not a cry baby but I felt that way when I went from homeschooling one child to multiple ages.

to Homeschooling Multiple Ages

Homeschooling multiple ages for many years feels more comfortable, relaxed and way easier than I ever imagined it to be.

Learning to embrace the different ages, I learned to allow it to be a strength in my teaching instead of a shortcoming.

I figured out along the way the oldest child could work independently while I helped one or two of the younger boys on school.

I figured out that I could homeschool happily with one child on my hip, one at my foot playing and teaching the other one how to read.

I figured out that my oldest son could take time to entertain the baby and care for him while I schooled the middle son. He wasn’t doing my babysitting for me, but he was forming a sibling bond that lasts to this day now that the baby is almost ready for high school.

I figured out that while it may seem ideal to have down time when I had one child and he took a nap that I didn’t need that time when homeschooling multiple children.

I was much stronger than I realized. I could take advantage of nap time to keep schooling my older boys and working hard.

I figured out that I could be that homeschool mom who could have it all together. It was okay to actually thrive with teaching multiple ages and not always struggle because having multiple children is a natural part of parenting and homeschooling.

I figured out that I didn’t have to stick to things comfortable for me as a teacher when homeschooling multiple children like using the same curriculum for all of my children or keeping them all on the same schedule.

and Back to Homeschooling One Again

What I have not figured out is how I will feel now that Mr. Awesome will be graduating this year and my days will go back to homeschooling just one.

Will homeschooling an only be different now that I have homeschooled for many years?

What advantages or disadvantages will I be facing this next year?

Will it be more taxing on my time because I will be the one interacting with him more now than his siblings?

Does this mean that I will get done more in the day?

I will no longer have tears for the fear of homeschooling when I start next year, but I will have happy tears for the memorable and precious moments and downright privilege of homeschooling multiple children.

If you have an only child or have gone from teaching one to multiple children and are now teaching the last child, what words of wisdom can you give me?

Hugs and love ya,
2015 Tina Signature c

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