Assigning Grades In Your Homeschool (week 10 lesson plans and recap)

This is Week Ten in a year long series, all about lesson planning in an interest-led homeschool. Each week, I share a recap of last week’s plan vs. reality and then our new easy homeschool lesson plans for the upcoming week. This week, I am also including an overview of how I assign grades in our homeschool.

assigning grades in your homeschool

As you’ve seen our lesson plans and recaps over the past few months, several questions have been asked about grades.

  • Do I assign letter grades?
  • How does grading work on transcripts?
  • Is it OK to give A’s for watching YouTube videos?

Assigning Grades In Your Homeschool

This may shock you, but here goes. I don’t grade anything. Ever.

Even for the high school transcript, for almost all of the courses we complete, I assign credit/no credit. The exception is when my child completes a class outside our home and a letter grade is assigned. Then I note the letter grade on the transcript.

My oldest son was accepted into his first choice university with a transcript that had almost no letter grades or GPA. It required a bit of explanation, but the college was more than happy to accept his transcript.

In fact, the admissions office made it clear that this is not as unusual as it seems. In fact, they shared that many prestigious and reputable private high schools no longer assign grades either.

In short, letter grades are not nearly as important as we worry they are.

What If I Am More Comfortable Assigning Letter Grades

If you are more comfortable having a letter grade associated with your homeschool, or if your high schooler is interested in attending a school that requires a GPA, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Remember that for most K-12 classes, grades are not based solely on quizzes and tests. Class participation, art activities, and team projects are a large part of the overall grade for each subject. (Incidentally, this has also been the case for my son at the college level.)

The same should be true in your homeschool.

The discussions you have with your child and their level of engagement in various projects should have weight in how you determine overall letter grades.

It can be easy to assume that the percentages on tests are the most accurate way to assign a grade, but in reality it is only a fraction of what is considered in most traditional classrooms.

assign grades in homeschool

As I said, I do not regularly assign grades, nor have I for any stage of learning. Here’s a recap of our ungraded learning for last week.

Last Week’s Homeschool Lesson Plans vs. Reality

Monday

The Plan

  • Mapwork Continued From Last Week (continue to add NATO Countries to current map)
  • YouTube Video – His choice
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Infusion – 4 hours
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports

What Actually Happened

  • YouTube Video – The Dark Side Of Science
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Infusion – 4 hours
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports

Tuesday

The Plan

  • Driver’s Ed Online
  • Everyday Math Word Problems
  • Ancient Egypt Study (if he’s still interested, if not, then back to American History)
  • YouTube Video – His choice, something educational
  • Online Voice/Music Lesson – one hour
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports

What Actually Happened

grades in homeschool

Wednesday

The Plan

  • Physical Therapy – 2 hours
  • Driver’s Ed Module
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Science: Human Body Study
  • Figurative Language Activity
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports

What actually happened

Thursday

The Plan

  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Social Time with friends – 1 hour
  • Art class – 1 hour
  • Rock Climbing with friends – 3 hours

What Actually Happened

  • Audiobook and Discussion – Lesser Known Works Of Edgar Allan Poe
  • Social Time with friends – 1 hour
  • Art class – 1 hour
  • Rock Climbing with friends – 3 hours
grades in homeschool

Friday

The Plan

  • CTCMath
  • Driver’s Ed Module and Quiz
  • MapWork
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports
  • YouTube Video – his choice and educational
  • Science: Human Body Study

What Actually Happened

  • Fine Arts Friday
  • MapWork – NATO Countries
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports
  • YouTube Video – his choice and educational

I saw on Erin, from Nourishing My Scholar’s social media that she was participating in a Fine Arts Friday challenge as part of her membership with You ARE An Artist. I absolutely love their lessons so I decided to copy her and do the same.

Our Homeschool Lesson Plans For This Week

NOTE: The time change is Sunday.

Y’all, please do not get me started on how big of a deal the time change is around here. Suffice to say, I am planning for it in this week’s homeschool lessons.

Monday

  • YouTube Video – His choice
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Infusion – 4 hours

Reference Notes: Every Monday, my son has subcutaneous immunoglobin infusions. Because of this, our Monday routine is very light. We do the minimum and prepare for his medical treatment in the afternoon.

Tuesday

  • Field Trip To Somewhere (maybe the aquarium, may a historic tour – it will depend on where my son wants to go the morning of…)

Reference Notes: Tuesdays are our first full school day of the week. Because my son always feels better post-Monday’s infusion, we typically do a large percentage of our more traditional homeschool work on this day. Because of the time change, this will not be happening this week.

Wednesday

  • Physical Therapy – 2 hours
  • Driver’s Ed Module
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Science: Human Body Study
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports

Thursday

  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Social Time with friends – 1 hour
  • Art class – 1 hour
  • Rock Climbing with friends – 3 hours

Reference Notes: We spend Thursdays in lessons mostly outside our home.  My son attends a program on Thursday afternoons through a local private school.

Friday

  • CTCMath
  • Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports
  • Creative Writing Activity
  • YouTube Video – his choice and educational
  • Science: Human Body Study

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    2 Comments

    1. Susan Gibb says:

      Oh. My. Goodness. You just plan in the time change crazy. Why has this NEVER occurred to me?!?! Today was a total disaster of meltdowns and mushroom clouds. Tomorrow I’m scheduling in the crazy. They’ve been begging me to go to a local pool and that’s the plan tomorrow. Done.

      1. I love your new plan! I gave up trying to fight the time change a few years ago and have never looked back. It’s always a disaster of a week.

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