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Tomorrow marks the end of our second homeschool semester. This would not be significant except for the fact that our school year began in July! We have had a number of hiccups in our school year, including our second state-to-state move in a year. I am actually amazed that we have managed to complete two semesters. I have avoided the winter homeschool blues, if only because of the incredible pressure to complete this semester.
This weekend I will work on report cards, a first for me, and try not to have a biased view of my children. In eight years of homeschooling I have never kept grades for our kids. I just didn’t feel that grades accurately reflected what our kids were learning. I have one child that could score an “A” on any multiple-choice test even if he didn’t understand the material; he is just a good guesser. I have another that would have trouble scoring well on any test that wasn’t math because he has a slew of learning disabilities.
I believe grades aren’t important, it’s their understanding of the material that matters. Now we live in a state with strict homeschool laws and grades are required, so I will grudgingly comply while dreaming of the day that we move again and regain some of our homeschool freedom.
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As a homeschool graduate who spent 11 years homeschooling and my brother spent 13 years and is now an USAF Pilot who had learning disabilities in his early years grades are relative. Give the state what they want and do one with it. It means very little and my Mom was never asked once to provide proof of anything to anybody. The main thing is that they can pass standardized tests and function in society.
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