Those Pesky Legal Homeschooling Requirements

I live in the great state of Georgia, and don't get me wrong I do love it here and the homeschooling laws are really not that bad. Saying that there are two hurdles we have to jump through that I always put off to the last minute. The first hurdle, for me anyway, is writing the yearly assessment. This assessment doesn't go anywhere. It just stays with me and I guess when she eventually graduates it will either go in the trash or a big old box. Of course this year there is a little something different about writing the assessment that does seem more important. Grace has just finished up 9th grade (except Algebra - 10 more lessons then I am throwing a celebratory party) which means I really need to start keeping good organized records of everything she has done throughout the year. This year's assessment I am actually treating like a trial run of writing part of her high school transcript. Here is what I did and it took me about an hour. It was short and sweet because everything was documented throughout the year and very easy for me to find. All I had to do was put it all together. Grace ended up with the credits below:

Fine Arts I - Drama 1/2 credit

Fine Arts II - Art 1/2 credit

English 101 1 credit

General Science 1 credit

Algebra I 1 credit

World History 1 credit

Physical Education 1 credit

 

Because Grace is currently not interested in attending college but starting her own business we are aiming at a number of credits between 20 - 24. Of course if in another year she changes her mind then we may up it by a few more depending on whatever college she has her eye own. Going along the lines of starting her own business her credits are going to look a little different than your average high school student. You know what, that is okay.

 

I also included on the transcript/assessment a description of each class and what Grace accomplished. Plus her grade for the class. No muss no fuss. It was very easy. So next year will find us working toward another theatre and art credit, probably art history this time, personal finance, biology, American history, analytical literature, and hopefully finishing up a year of Japanese and a 1/2 credit for Current Events.

 

Our second hurdle will be standardized testing which will take place on Monday. We should be able to finish this in one day because I chose the CAT 5 survey and it only takes about three hours to complete. I cannot stand standardized testing and would not do it if I wasn't legally required to do so. One great thing about testing is we required to do this only every three years. So the next time up will be 12th grade.

 

Ah, when she was young and we weren't even thinking about high school requirements. I miss those days.