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Working in the sun 7 days a week and 12 hour days as insurance auto adjusters, my sons have been walking down rows and rows of thousands of cars as they’ve been processing insurance claims at their job.

The vehicles are owned by persons affected by Hurricane Harvey. Recently, the insurance company considerably reduced the amount of staff needed to work the claims; they kept only 5 people to finish up.

My two sons were part of the 5 kept. By the way, although they have worked doing various things, this has been their first real life (don’t you just hate when people use that word with us) job.

THIS is How I Know My Homeschooled Sons Got It

How do they measure up in their first real life job? One of their bosses told the team, “It’s hard to find kids in this generation with a work ethic like these two boys. They are prompt, do what they’re told, work well with the team, and work without complaining.”

Just prior to the boss speaking, the other employees had called attention to the fact that my boys have been homeschooled.

Homeschool progress, achievement, and success is measured differently by everybody.

And you know it’s not been my style to talk a lot about my sons’ achievements. I want my son’s to explore their options during and after homeschool without feeling the need to perform for the public.

However, I do know, like me, you want to know that your day to day efforts of homeschooling are working.

And letting you know how I know that my homeschooled sons got it, I hope that if you’re having nagging feelings of self-doubt that you’ll put them to rest today.

When a student takes initiative in his school every day that practice spills over to real life. Rigorous academics builds character. Giving your kids freedom to demonstrate mastery equips them with a can do spirit that will stick into adulthood.

What I’m saying is that there is a connection between rigorous academics while homeschooling and success later.

I have rounded up 13 ways to show homeschool progress. And although I didn’t use all of them with my older boys, I used a lot of them. Too, not every idea will work with every topic, but they give you a starting point.

ONE/ Student made maps.

Whether you choose for a student to draw a map from memory or label one teaching concepts get mastered.

Wondermaps have been our choice of maps. Whatever time period my boys are working on, we can use them as a blank outline or add as much information to them as we want to.

TWO/Field trip notes.

I’ve always insisted that my sons come back with at least three key things we learned on our field trips. Not only was it fun, but I was enforcing that learning takes place outside of a book.

THREE/ Student made powerpoints or webquests.

FOUR/ Create a timeline.

FIVE/ Engage in a mock discussion. If need be, create a limited time co-op.

SIX/ Write narratives.

Writing narrative is a great way for an older student to demonstrate that he understands a subject.

SEVEN/ Student made presentations.

Presentations have been a huge part of not only recognizing achievement but gave my sons impetus to create excellent work. You don’t have to have something as formal as a co-op, but even a small family audience will work.

EIGHT/ Teach the subject back to you or to one of his siblings.

NINE/Keeping a journal.

TEN/Create a song.

ELEVEN/Create a play.

TWELVE/Oral discussions.

Oral discussions with my sons is one way I was able to gauge their progress in literature.

If they couldn’t go beyond telling me the basics of a story using proper literary terms, I knew they really didn’t put forth effort to engage with the literature.

THIRTEEN/ Narration.

Narration is a Charlotte Mason technique that I incorporated into our unit studies. If a child can’t tell back what he read, he doesn’t really understand it. Look at my tips at my post Narration – Telling Back or Testing? Books that Make Teaching Narration Easy Peazy.

Although my sons job right now is tough, it works for them while they are still taking courses. And I’m just as proud of their work ethic as I am of any academic grade they make.

I’ve learned that my focus on cultivating their attitude was just as important as nurturing their aptitude. You can have both.

Tests are important, but they’ll never be able to prepare a homeschool child for facing real life. Try one or two of these ways above for your child to demonstrate progress.

Also, you’ll love these articles!

• Gauging Homeschool Progress – Masters of their Material?
• Teach Your Homeschooled Teen the Art of Studying (without nagging)
• Editable Progress/Report Card for Teen

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