Homeschooling & Loving It‪!‬ Homeschool.com with Jamie Gaddy

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For some homeschoolers, homeschool assessment can be confusing and even challenging. Join Jamie, homeschool mom of 6, as she shares how you can make it simple and easy.

Once upon a time, in the quiet corners of suburban homes, families embarked on a unique educational journey: homeschooling. As they navigated this path, they encountered various forms of assessment to gauge their children’s progress. Let’s delve into the world of homeschool grading and assessment and explore the different ways homeschoolers evaluate their young scholars.

Types of Homeschool Assessment
 Daily Homeschool Grades
The Morning Routine: Every day, homeschooling parents don their teacher hats, armed with pencils and grade books. Their mission? To assess their child’s progress through daily grades or observations. These grades and observations weren’t just numbers; they were windows into understanding.

Formal or Informal? Formal assessment is the giving and taking of quizzes and tests while informal assessment is the observation that we conduct every day as we homeschool our children!

Flexibility and Freedom: Unlike traditional schools, homeschooling allows flexibility. Parents can choose when to grade, how to grade, and whether to grade at all. Some days, they skip the grading altogether, opting for experiential learning—a trip to the local museum or a nature walk.

Placement Tests
The Quest for the Right Level: Imagine a treasure map with an “X” marking the spot. Placement tests served as those “X” marks for homeschoolers. Parents use them to determine the appropriate grade level or mastery level within the grade for their child. Was little Timmy ready for third-grade math or perhaps a leap into fourth-grade beginning algebra?

 

Portfolio Assessment
The Chronicles of Progress: Portfolio assessment was homeschooling’s grand epic—a saga chronicling a student’s journey. Imagine a thick leather-bound book filled with pages of achievement. Each entry told a tale: a poem penned, a science experiment documented, a painting captured. We’ll use Timmy as an example.

Showcase Portfolios: In the portfolio, showcase sections sparkled. Timmy’s best work—his eloquent essay on ancient civilizations, the watercolor masterpiece of a sunflower—found their place. These were the gems he’d proudly share with visiting grandparents.

Progress Portfolios: Progress portfolios whispered secrets of growth. Timmy’s early attempts at cursive writing, shaky and uncertain, now flowed like a babbling brook. His science notes evolved from scribbles to structured hypotheses.

Working Portfolios: Working portfolios held drafts—the raw clay of creativity. Timmy’s short stories, revised and polished, nestled here. His math scratch paper revealed the journey from confusion to clarity.

Virtual Portfolios: In the digital age, virtual portfolios emerged. Timmy’s blog chronicled his adventures—virtual field trips, coding projects, and book reviews. The internet became his canvas, and the world his audience. Visit this podcast for a cool app that let’s you create Virtual Portfolios with a snap.

State Requirements: Some states demand these portfolios for evaluation. Parents meticulously curate them, ensuring a balanced representation of the child’s learning odyssey.

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Join Jamie as she interviews Kimberly Langen, a highly educated and gifted educator who started Spirit of Math in 1994 to challenge learners to think differently!

Kimberly has developed an alternative way to helping gifted and high performing learners stay motivated and learn mathematics in ways that align with their particular style of thinking. This podcast was very enlightening and if you have a gifted or high-performing learner you’ll want to listen in. Kim shares a great many practical tips on how to homeschool and keep your learners motivated.

One of my key takeaways was that mathematics needs to be taught in 4 steps:

1 Drill to build automaticity

2 Core Content including topics and spiral learning for younger children

3 Problem Solving in real world application that allows students to use reasoning and logic

4 Collaborative Group Work that elevated thinking, let them talk about it out loud it will stretch them to new reasoning

 

And something else I learned, in case you were wondering what the difference was between a gifted learner and a high performing learner:

1 Gifted Learner is a student classified as gifted by demonstrating a high level of intellectual ability.

2 High Performing learner is a learner that is simply very motivated to learn!

Don’t forget that it is also important for these learners to learn from failure. Learning from failure often brings about a new level of logical reasoning that wasn’t accessible before.

If you have a gifted or high performing learner and are feeling challenged on how to homeschool them reach out to Spirit of Math. They have regional classes as well as online options for homeschool students.

Listen to More

Helping Your Students Pursue Their Excellence
The post Episode 81: Homeschooling the Gifted or High Performing Learner first appeared on Homeschool .com.

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This episode is one of my favorites! In honor of School Choice Week, I was able to join several other homeschooling mamas who shared their ups and downs and encouragement for homeschoolers new and experienced! We had a great time talking about homeschooling and this episode is full of nuggets of wisdom from four very experienced homeschool parents!

If you are interested in learning more about homeschooling please visit our Getting Started Guide to Homeschooling.

 

 
The post Episode 80: Panel Discussion on Homeschooling first appeared on Homeschool .com.

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If you’re not sure if you can or even should homeschool, then this podcast is for you. Join Jamie and Stephanie Palazzolo as they chat about the rights you have as a parent and how to get started. Remember, you can start homeschooling at any time!

Some of the best advice for homeschoolers is that you know your child better than anyone, including a teacher. Don’t sell yourself short, you have been your child’s first teacher since the day they were born, and now that you want to homeschool… you can still be that amazing first teacher.

Take time to visit Stephanie at her site The Homeschool Expert to find help and get your questions answered!

Find more information about Getting Started Homeschooling here. Understand the steps to getting started and watch advice videos from our host, Jamie Gaddy. You’ll soon see that homeschooling is a wise educational option for your children.

Discover what your state requires for homeschoolers.
The post Episode 79: You Can Homeschool, Tips for All! first appeared on Homeschool .com.

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What is pursuing “Their Excellence?” If you’re not sure, then you’ll want to listen in to this podcast with Jamie and Jessica where they dig deep into how you can encourage your kids and actually PLAN to help them pursue “their” unique excellence!

Our guest today is a leading expert in the growing world of “learning without walls”–Jessica Parnell, CEO of Edovate Learning Corp. Jessica is a published author, professional speaker, and former homeschool mom alum whose passion for children and education drove her to create and provide personalized education for students at all levels. Jessica specializes in e-learning solutions, home education, advanced education, and help for learning disabilities and is always looking to innovate in the homeschool space.

If you are interested in learning more about Bridgeway Academy, please take the time to learn more by reading our Bridgeway Academy Homeschool Curriculum Review.

Also if you are an unschooler and are looking for homeschooling resources, be sure to check out our Elephango Homeschool Curriculum Review and visit the Elephango website for more information.

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The post Episode 78: Helping Your Students Pursue Their Excellence first appeared on Homeschool .com.

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With the growing popularity of homeschooling and the wide selection of materials and resources that are now available, we know that it can be difficult for homeschoolers to find what they need and the basics of what they need to do to organize and keep records in their homeschool. In fact, over the years I’ve often had many questions about what records I needed to keep.

Today Corrina and I are going to discuss homeschool record keeping – – I know this is often a worrisome topic for many homeschool parents. Sometimes we are just not sure what is needed to keep good homeschooling records. It’s our goal today to help clarify just what the homeschooled family needs to be doing to maintain good records. Sometimes it can be difficult to understand.

For some families, the state in which they live will dictate what records are needed. Some states require details while other states require nothing at all.

Modify has developed an app that makes homeschool record-keeping simple. It’s perfect for those families that are more hands-on learning and less formal learning. Students can record and track learning moments independently as well as typical parental tracking. In fact, unschooling families love the Modify app.

Discover all the amazing things that Modify can help you with your homeschool. Click here to learn more about their app!

Listen to apple podcasts? Could you give us a review?


The post Episode 77: Tips for Homeschool Record Keeping with Corrina from Modify first appeared on Homeschool .com.