Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

This topic has 13 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 1 month ago by missceegee.

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

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April 18, 2013 at 10:32 am
anniepeter
Participant
I understand that Charlotte Mason did not recommend using grades. Did she use some other method of assessment/giving feedback to her students? I once gave my kids a “report card” with ratings and/or descriptions of how they were doing. That’s been a long time ago…and I wasn’t thinking CM too much at that time. I really feel it was helpful and would like to do it again. I also understand the idea of them being motivated to learn for its own sake. Anyone have thoughts on this?
April 18, 2013 at 11:36 am
Tristan
Participant
She did exams. I know it’s been talked about on the SCM blog before. Here we go: http://simplycharlottemason.com/2008/07/30/end-of-term-exams-in-the-charlotte-mason-method/ If you look at the bottom of that post you’ll also find 3 earlier ones in the series all related to assessment.
April 18, 2013 at 12:16 pm
RobinP
Participant
If you visit the AO site there are samples of actual exams given in the PNEU schools. Very helpful.
April 18, 2013 at 2:05 pm
anniepeter
Participant
Hmmm…I am starting to do that….but I hadn’t thought about that in light of this. I guess I’m thinking more of a method of assessing and communicating to the kids (and their dad 🙂 how they’re doing in several areas. So, the exams could certainly be part of that, but I’m not sure it’s the whole deal I’m looking for. Maybe it’s the next step I’m partly wondering about…what do you do after the exams? I’m also thinking about things like attitudes, getting things done in a timely manner, character/habits…something on paper that they can take with them and look over and see…”This is how things are stacking up. I need to do better here if I want to get the results I want” (“normally” that would be an A grade). I could envision using the charts in Laying Down the Rails as part of it. Rating them in these areas somehow and then adding a section for the more academic things.
April 18, 2013 at 2:21 pm
RobinP
Participant
Those kinds of things were often included in the exams and were to be reported on by others at home. How children helped others and around the house, etc. were included. Charlotte believed true education was all-inclusive and nothing was left out. You could always record these things, whatever is important to you, on a form at the end of each term. Then it might be helpful to have a family discussion time and praise God for successes and goal-setting for what needs improvement. I have seen the the Laying Down the Rails for Children yet, but there may be ways to evaluate some of those things in there.
April 18, 2013 at 3:55 pm
Sue
Participant
My oldest daughter once put this in perspective by saying that homeschooled kids always get “A’s” in all of their subjects because if you didn’t know enough about it or got a problem wrong, Mom goes over it or makes you redo it until you get it right. That’s correct thinking in a way, because we do make sure that a concept has been understood well enough before we move on–in most cases.
However, there are times that my kids want to know what a letter grade would be in a particular subject. This seems to be most often true for subjects like math or science (when we use a textbook like Apologia instead of living books), and that is easy to show them because I can grade their tests for Math-U-See or quizzes for Apologia biology, and there is a grade for them to see. We just have to work out whether the grade is averaged or changed if they do poorly, review, then retake the test.
April 18, 2013 at 6:31 pm
missceegee
Participant
I use these.
Weekly evaluation – http://fivejs.com/homeschool-conference-evaluation-forms/
Progress report – https://www.boxcloud.com/bc/1/4993eda8c4853069c124705c2c35b356/JolueqOGpciD6dgYhecNBoVpYxkvmYe1ZLheZor6BF4DUBIelMQTkFwYIys3nIibNIIEHUp447tBZLaXDzIbNQ,,/b8fef7e4b17c3375d5dbe9dcb6f82130/
Character report – https://www.boxcloud.com/bc/1/4c084ec4a704b8246bb6b1b2c1a60455/JolueqOGpciD6dgYhecNBoVpYxkvmYe1ZLheZor6BF4DUBIelMQTkFwYIys3nIibNIIEHUp447tBZLaXDzIbNQ,,/0042544e35aa9171aa781c3afb13b6e4/
April 18, 2013 at 9:33 pm
missceegee
Participant
Sorry for the ridiculously long links. My box.com links are normally short. Weird.
April 18, 2013 at 9:36 pm
sheraz
Participant
And they aren’t working…can you try to repost them, please? =)
April 18, 2013 at 9:55 pm
MountainMamma
Participant
One thing popped in my head when reading your post… Have you ever thought about blogging about your students’ progress? You don’t even have to allow it to be public – you can just give passwords to family members if you like. I’ve only been homeschooling a short while and my kids are very young, but I’ve found that blogging helps me see how much they have progressed. Having a written digital journal summarizing your monthly milestones gives a boost of confidence. You can also note things that your children need to continue to work on.
Just a thought!
April 18, 2013 at 10:13 pm
missceegee
Participant
Trying again…
Progress Report – https://www.box.com/shared/y1bf3yk807
Character Report – https://www.box.com/shared/4ekby66l8l
April 18, 2013 at 11:14 pm
sheraz
Participant
Thank you so much, Christie!!
April 19, 2013 at 2:23 am
anniepeter
Participant
Christie, those forms are great! I’ll be using them all. And I think I’ll use the check sheets from Laying Down the Rails for goal setting and more specific evaluation periodically. Once again this forum has saved me a considerable amount of time. Thanks so much to all of you for sharing here!
April 19, 2013 at 1:11 pm
missceegee
Participant
Anniepeter, I’m glad you like the forms. They are most useful to me!