Raines, thanks for the tip with large families. I will look at the site you mentioned. I have 10 children ages 3-23.
One thing that helped me with the grading is this: they come to a designated grading area and cannot have a pencil in hand, only a red pen. They grade their work themselves (math, some grammar work sheets, other things like this that I call their “independent work”). They let me know what they needed to correct and it has been going fairly well. I have a newly adopted boy who was cheating while grading. Sometimes I will randomly grade his for him or keep a close eye on his work to help him persever and grow in his character.
When we do formal grammar and/or spelling copy work, I discipline myself to grade it right then and there while they are studying. Many times grade it together and discuss the errors/corections together. This is on a good day. The other days, if something slips, I can catch it later. Analytical Grammar is a bit difficult to grade but I suffer through it.
I learned a lesson the hard way when my older son took Math U See Geometry which was self driven. I assumed he was doing fine. He got to the final and I graded it for him. He did poorly. I looked back through the his workbook and he wasn’t being thorough in his grading. He failed the class and is taking it again. :/ He needed much more accountability. I was preoccupied. Mistakes are good teachers.
We do Apologia science one semester and history another or do science 2 days a week and history 2 days a week together. There is not a lot of grading needed in these subjects.
