Do you plan to give grades? What about grade levels?

wifeofadam

We aren't in a state that requires us to submit grades of any sort, so we've decided not to bother with them.  Anyone else?  Do you do tests?  We have yet to introduce the idea of a test.  The spelling curriculum I chose this year has weekly drills and that's the first test we've tried.

Also, is anyone else avoiding labeling their children by grade level?  People keep asking my kids what grade they are in and my kids look at me really confusedly and then just say, "We do school at home."  I don't even know how to label them by grade.  I could go by their ages, I guess.  But none of my kids are really doing work from the grade they should be in (for example, my oldest would be in 1st in public school based on age, but he's doing 2nd grade math, 2nd grade spelling, and fourth grade reading - how do you even classify him??).  I'd rather just let my kids go through their educations knowing that there is an end goal in sight and when they reach it, they will graduate.  It has nothing to do with completing a certain number of grades, but more to do with accomplishing the goals that we set for them. 

I'm not quite sure why either of these things really bother me, but they do.  I have been referring to my DS2 as a Kindergartner lately, but only because it's his first real year of "school" and that seems like a label for someone who is starting the process.  Once he's in the swing of things I'm pretty sure that label will drop.

barnwife

Well, J. is only 4...so no we don't give grades. We don't do anything formal yet. I don't plan to give grades in elementary anyway. And beyond that is too hard to think about at this point. And yes, I agree that one perk of HS is that they don't really have a single grade level. You can individualize (as you are) to what your child can handle.

But, it might be easier to just teach them their PS grade level for the sake of making polite conversation.

Mama-Bear

I don't plan on doing grades, maybe when they hit high school, but DS1 is starting 1st.  I do "believe" in grade levels, how else do you decide when they graduate, what team sports to put them in, what classes at church, etc?  Most people use grade level as an age group.  DS1 knows he's starting 1st.  I don't see a point in grading papers and tests, IMO that's just so the teacher and parents can get an idea of if the child is understanding the material (which is another point all together), but when you're working with them day in and day out, you'll already know that.

tamarar5

We are using "grade" levels more for the family members who don't support homeschooling. It's actually kind of crazy because I'm a second generation home schooler, it was clearly successful for me, but somehow I'm still not qualified to teach. (Oh, I have my master's in teaching.) Anyway, they can do their little assessments based upon what dd "should " know.

But I've taken a much more laid back route this summer than I was expecting. We've barely done anything. As soon as many #3 shows up, we need to get back to it, especially in math.