I said I would write more this week about credits, transcripts and records. Let me write more about credits today. I shared before that basically, when your child does a class all school year, that’s one credit. A one semester class would be a half credit.
But your child doesn’t have to take a class to get a credit. You could issue credit for their time in a community drama club. You can take a wide variety of things and find the value of it and turn it into credit. You could list home economics on the transcript and give your child credit for cleaning, cooking and babysitting.
There is no one rule for what counts as a credit. Here is a list I found of Pennsylvania’s guidelines. To count as a completed high school course (one credit) a student can do ANY of the following: complete two-thirds of a textbook, have 120 daily logged entries, have 120 hours of logged study, complete a 10 page research paper, complete a college course, or pass an AP exam. These are good guidelines, except I don’t think you need to “log” your children’s every move unless you’re required to.
An Easy Peasy course meets the “120 daily logged entries” requirement. Let’s look at the time guideline. One credit is 120+ hours in a year. A half credit would be 60-90 hours in a year. Think about how much time your child spends making video games on the computer, writing a blog or a novel, taking photographs, etc. If there is something your child loves to do, chances are this time requirement is easily met. You can turn any of these types of things into a course listed on a transcript as long as they put enough time into it. I’ll plan on writing about transcripts tomorrow and how to put a grade on “courses” like these.
Umm I need to know now! What grade should a 12 year old be in that b-day is in sept? Sorry for taking too much of your time I just plum dig don’t know:) ASAP! Thanks!
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Kids in our school would be in 6th grade at 12 years old..
I thought I already wrote to you about this. I suggested looking at the 5th, 6th and 7th levels to see where your child would fit in best. As suggested on the site, look at the books he would be reading to see where he’s comfortable. A 12-year-old would normally be in 6th or 7th, but it’s more important to choose where your child can be successful. The curriculum is set up so that you would choose your level based on English. Then you will choose which math. The rest of the courses will be automatically at the right level. 🙂
I have homeschooled many years and find I only need to know what grade to put them in when I take them to Sunday school 🙂 The rest of the time I just let them work on whatever level they happen to be on whether my 8 year old is doing early reading and algebra at the same time. And yes this does happen. Eventually, the reading catches up or the math whichever the case may be.
Thank you so much for your site. I am moving to West Africa and decided to homeschool my 8th, 6th and K. First time mom and they are going to be in 9th, 7th & 1st next school year. I was looking online and tons of sites were costly which is out of my budget range. I am very thankful for your dedication to make this affordable for all. I wish I had homeschooled earlier in my kids education but being a single mom it has been exhausted. Thanks again